Broody nesting box crisis

[azygous]

I would collect all the stray marked eggs, it being early in the incubation, and try to secure the broody nest better. If you simply cannot secure the nest so the other hens can't disturb the eggs, perhaps you need to hang it up for this go-round and give yourself time to get better prepared to handle a broody sitting egg for 21 days.

Once incubation gets well underway, this sort of shenanigans will kill developing embryos, making the entire effort moot.

 

[redranger]

Thank you

! @Petra Pancake and @azygous.I really appreciate it.Thanks for giving me hope.

I shall update u guys very soon once the hatching period is over.

 

[Sunny-Side Up]

I think (though I can't be sure) that the reason why your hen moved the eggs
is most likely pure motherly instinct.
Hens somehow know if eggs are good or not.
If they weren't going to hatch (maybe things got messed up with the others laying in the same box)
she would know to kick them out.
Although, like I said, maybe this isn't the case.

By now, I would say probably just keep on going how it is and hope you get some chicks!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Update and questions (renewed post, sorry): My broody continues to sit happily in the new box that I moved her to yesterday.Two of the other hens laid properly in the old box today. But my lowest ranking hen who is a bit of a weirdo anyway, planted her egg in the broody box under the broody. And two of the broody's marked eggs somehow had wandered back into the old laying box and were lying there unattended together with the two new eggs. It seems that my great plan to keep the broody with the flock doesn't work all that well - I've got an ongoing egg chaos.

Should I just carry on and hope something hatches anyway?
Or should I separate her now with the eggs she has, even if some of them have been out of the nest on several occasions?
Or should I throw the eggs out and separate her with new eggs? Would she be likely to carry on with them until they hatch or stop early?

You need to confine your brood hen in a separate pen with the new nest. If you don't she will come off the nest to eat and drink and she will likely get back on the wrong nest and your eggs will become chilled.

 

[Petra Pancake]

Thanks to all. I realize that my set up is not good. However, I might have to let nature take its course for now and next time add an extra coop/broody house before it happens.

Moving the broody to an entirely new, separate place now would be very difficult. I got that hen fully grown, she had been kept half feral and she doesn't tolerate humans touching her. Last time I tried she flew away in a panic and hid half the afternoon in our neighbor's garden. Even now, as soon as I get near the nesting box, she darts out like lightening. Moving her at night is also not practical because all the other hens roost directly above and around the nesting boxes - I'd have to move the whole flock around and I'm worried that that would make them wake up and escape into the dark in a panic. The coop opens at the top, so they could just flap out past me.

If I just partitioned off the nesting box corner, I'd shut the other hens out from their sleeping/roosting place. They could theoretically sleep in the front part of the coop instead but they've never done that before and it probably would upset the whole flock. (Should I try that anyway?)

When is that hen likely to go broody again next time? She was broody last fall in October and raised two chicks at her previous owner's. She's broody now (May). Could she be broody again next fall?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Update and questions (renewed post, sorry): My broody continues to sit happily in the new box that I moved her to yesterday.Two of the other hens laid properly in the old box today. But my lowest ranking hen who is a bit of a weirdo anyway, planted her egg in the broody box under the broody. And two of the broody's marked eggs somehow had wandered back into the old laying box and were lying there unattended together with the two new eggs. It seems that my great plan to keep the broody with the flock doesn't work all that well - I've got an ongoing egg chaos.

Should I just carry on and hope something hatches anyway?
Or should I separate her now with the eggs she has, even if some of them have been out of the nest on several occasions?
Or should I throw the eggs out and separate her with new eggs? Would she be likely to carry on with them until they hatch or stop early?

Insufiicent data and to many variables.

But she is only a chicken.... yea I know some of you will disagree with that.

Be advised that what ever course of action you take that tomorrow the moon will still be in the night sky and the Sun will still rise and set as always.

At the least look at it as a learning moment. You never learn anything by doing nothing.