Broody up a tree!

[Sam u el]

We have a flock of bantams who roost and lay in a tree house in extensive natural woodland. It's great because foxes can't get them etc. We close a mesh floor at night to avoid pine Martin's grabbing them too. One of them is sitting on a clutch of eggs in one of the two nesting boxes. We have tried to move her twise to a ground pen but she just gets off the eggs. So we put her back in the tree. But the other would-be mums push her off her nest, cram in with her etc. If we leave her up there, I think we should block her in to give her some peace but that means she will have to stay up there till hatching. Will this be okay if she has water and grain? Another broody who has now hatched, easily moved to the ground run, why is she being so weird. Ideas anyone?

 

[pkarkos]

You could try to block her in with food and grain, but she does still need to poo. Broody hens usually don't want to poo in the nest so she might try to get out. If you could block it off in a way that she has a little area in front of it, that might work. Another thing you could do is take all of the hens that are being pushy out of her pen (it sounds like you might have ground pens?) It would probably be a lot of work, but it might give her some peace.
It is a bit odd that she won't sit on the eggs on the ground, but sit back on them in the tree. She might just be used to trees and feel safer there.
Another thing you could try is blocking her in a nest box on the ground to see if she will sit on them if she has no other options and then let her out permanently if she stays on them or a few times a day to poo.

Good luck!

 

[Sam u el]

You could try to block her in with food and grain, but she does still need to poo. Broody hens usually don't want to poo in the nest so she might try to get out. If you could block it off in a way that she has a little area in front of it, that might work. Another thing you could do is take all of the hens that are being pushy out of her pen (it sounds like you might have ground pens?) It would probably be a lot of work, but it might give her some peace.
It is a bit odd that she won't sit on the eggs on the ground, but sit back on them in the tree. She might just be used to trees and feel safer there.
Another thing you could try is blocking her in a nest box on the ground to see if she will sit on them if she has no other options and then let her out permanently if she stays on them or a few times a day to poo.

Good luck!

Thanks. Yes, we did put the others in the pen, but it seemed crazy... we ve blocked her in and put another box up the tree now
One laid an egg from the perch 12 ft up... maybe tomorrow they 'll sort themselves out.