Hello, this is kind of a continuation of a previous thread, but I thought I’d start a new one for this question. We have a flock that started with five hens, the “mean girls”, so called because it’s been challenging to integrate new birds with them. We just had a mid-range dominant hen brood eggs, then chicks and had to move her to a separate area for her safety. She is now in brooding pen in run and we are working on integration. Our most dominant hen (top mean girl) has been broody in 12 x 12 nest box for four days. We’d like to put eggs under her. What does everyone think of leaving a dominant hen in the coop nest box? We get her off the nest once per day, she does her thing and returns, for last four days, but I’ve seen some panting during the day. Other hens (and ducks!) don’t mess with her or her nest when she is on or gets off. We could also move her to a smallish dog cage in coop (3 x 2 wire, last hen successfully incubated there), or leave her where she is and move to broody cage once 9 Ball has integrated her chicks... Any thoughts?
