So I've got a broody hen...and it's cold, really cold (been in the negative F's, it's warming again now but still below 32F most days)...wondering if I should give her some eggs or not.
I'll give ya'll the details I have so far and ask my most burning questions at the end of the novella.
I'd really appreciate anyone sharing their experience with broodies in a similar climate.
She's been setting for a few days/nights, I've thrown her out numerous times.
She eats, drinks, takes a huge dump and back into the nest..... block that nest, she moves to the next.
One of a bank of 4 nests in the coop for 14 hens, that are 2 1/2 feet off the floor and too high off the ground for chicks to easily live out of in the cold. I think it's good that she will get out and eat and drink, some of them don't.
So then I try to get her to use a portable floor nest, she wasn't impressed and bolted, blocked her in for a couple hours, let her out, back to the main nests.
Blocked her in the portable nest over night, let her out the next morning, she eats, drinks, takes a huge dump and back into one of the main nests.
So today I put up the coop partition wall, chicken wire and 2x2's at each end that goes up quick with 4 screws. I used this partition for isolation of bad rooster last winter and to grow out of new chicks last spring/summer.
Put the portable nest in there, get her a chick waterer, fill the feeder in there, make sure she uses both of those and leave her in there. She paced the wall a bit, so did some of the other birds(they've just lost some coop space) and she growled at a couple that came close to the wall where she was eating. I came back out an hour later and she's setting in the portable nest.
I set another fake egg near her(she's sitting on one fake egg and a golf ball already) go back out a bit later and she's tucked the egg under her...I think she's serious. She's not viciously agitated, but clucks and growls and half heartedly pecks at me.
I plan on incubating some of my eggs in Feb for replacement birds, but I've never had a momma hen hatch and raise chicks and it would be cool to experience that.....plus self integration within the main flock would free up the partition coop for the incubated chicks by March/April.
So the questions that need resolving before making a decision:
#1. In these temps, will her getting off the nest to eat, drink, poop chill the eggs beyond viability?
No, unless you've kept her off for hours at a time. They need to get off and move and poop and eat and drink and then get back. I know, I know it';s freaking cold right now (I am in CT and have a broody hen here,too.) They know what is best. I let mine stay in the nest they have chosen if I can't disperse it soon into the cycle (before 6 days) and as soon as I hear peeping, I move her to a safe pen with heat and water and food. To move her and her eggs before a hatch severely risks her leaving the next and a total loss.
