My broody hen always gathers eggs into a large rectangular window garden planter. I use the planter as a hide, overturned, with a big door cut out front center. She makes a nest inside on either side of the hide, in the corner where she’s protected on 3 sides and above.
They should be on the ground with deep litter. I’ve had other broodies and even males who were guarding and sitting, but the night after I moved her inside, the main male who showed daddy behavior hit his head and died, but I feel they could have raised them together. I’ve had a possum hanging around occasionally that I can’t catch. This current broody is an older hen, but she’s always tried and I just took the eggs because I felt she wouldn’t follow thru.
I have some double silvers living inside due to blindness, one day I was cleaning a brooder or something and I needed to toss a couple chicks into somewhere for a few minutes, I forget why. I put 2-3, 1 week old chicks into the cage with the double silvers and they all immediately ran to them and started talking to them and brooding them. I left them their babies and they raised them to the age to go outside. I’ve given them more babies quite often since, starting at about 5 days old. I tried new chicks, and since they’re blind, they accidentally ground pounded the chicks a couple times, (no injuries, but scary for me to see) so I felt a few days older and more able to get out of the way was safer. They immediately decided that the sand box was the chicks bedroom, filled it with bedding and put them to bed in there each night. It’s funny to see them round up the chicks, shuffle them into bed, and sit on them until they sleep, then sneak out. The chicks were a bit older and would stay like that for a few hours before getting cold and calling for moms and dad. The blind male Snowflake loves the babies the most, and the hens spend a lot of time taking them from him haha. They chirp and coo sweetly to the babies.
Mihawk, the broody mom sweetly stays in the nest most of the time with her chicks so far. I’ve been taking her huge gross poops out carefully and quietly all along, yesterday, before bed I went to do last call, and when I lifted the top, and took her last egg shell since #6 hatched, she reached under herself and grabbed a dried piece of poop and put it down by my hand haha. Then she got up, pecked the food so all the chicks left the nest to eat and I cleaned a poop near the back of the nest and she happily went and settled back down and called the kids, so she certainly appreciates cleanliness.
I moved my broody inside the second day I saw her on the eggs, so no one saw her become a mom. I suspect many of them would ignore the chicks, and the remaining older male Aragorn would probably protect and help her, as he’s a good male that exhibits many natural mating habits like nest building, and tidbitting. Some hens would probably welcome the chicks, some would ignore them, and some would harm, intentionally or non.
