Broody still in the nest 3 days after chicks!

[Wisher1000]

Is that normal? She comes out to eat, drink and poop. Otherwise she sits on her babies in the nestbox and it has been HOT out today. Just before sundown, she was eating and saw three eggs that I had put down for a second and went over to them and started pulling them under her right there on the floor with her babies running all around. Wierd bird... should I make her get out of the nest and move around? She and the babies are in a 3x6 coop with the nest she brooded (golfballs) in before she adopted her 5 chicks. I have a 4x8 tractor-like run that I could put them in on the ground...

 

[hallerlake]

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How long did she sit on those golf balls before you introduced the chicks? She's programed to sit 21 days, and 21 days she will sit, chicks or no chicks.

 

[Nava]

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How long did she sit on those golf balls before you introduced the chicks? She's programed to sit 21 days, and 21 days she will sit, chicks or no chicks.

not necessarily I just had an Orpington sit on golf balls for 8 days and then gave her some eggs and now she is running with 7 little ones, all black she killed 2 blue ones I guess she don't like that color.
I also gave her a Black and blue NN and she kept the black one and pecked the blue one

if you thing she's done hatching take her out in the morning and give her some food and vitamins in the water so the chicks can dring, sometimes they just need a little jump start.

 

[Judy]

Definitely get her out of the nest and raising the chicks, if you have to block the nest off and put the golf balls away for a while. They will sometimes sit less than 21 days, even on developing eggs, and sometimes a lot longer. I haven't had one abandon her nest, yet, but I did have one stay there for way longer. Hopefully she will get the idea when she sees the chicks start running around. Normally they stay on the nest for about a day after hatching starts, then abandon any unhatched eggs to raise the chicks.

Hatcheries have bred chickens away from being broody for some time, as this increases egg production. They do some strange things.

 

[elmo]

Watch to be sure the chicks are getting food and water. Usually the hen will show them, but if this hen is preoccupied with setting, she may not have done this.

 

[Lisa202]

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I think this may have happened with my broody. There was an egg that didn't hatch, and because I read that they can hatch up to 25 days, I left it there. So she kept sitting on it, all the while the other little one that hatched was under her. That little chick died on the 5th day. I don't know if it was because it was just a sickly chick, but I do know that I didn't she the mommy up teaching it anything, like how to eat. Every time I looked in, she was just sitting and the baby was underneath. Maybe that's normal, maybe it's not, I just wish that I had taken that other egg away sooner, and at least dipped the chicks beak in water.

 

[Wisher1000]

My broody sat on the golf balls and one egg (not fertile) for 20 days. I took all of them out when I put the chicks under her. The chicks are eating and drinking when she gets out, but I'm not sure how often a day that is. They are bonded pretty well, but they don't make a mad dash to get under her like I've seen other chicks do. When she comes out to eat then returns to the nest, it takes the chicks a couple of minutes to get back in there with her (but they go, even when it was too hot to stay under her and they sat close or on her back.) I think that the hen and chicks need a little more time before they are allowed to freerange with the rest of the flock. This hen was at the bottom of the pecking order when she went broody. Is there a chance that she will decide to kill the chicks if she gets upset at this stage of the game? She has had them 5 days now.