- May 8, 2007
- 110
- 2
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One of our BLRW's has gone broody. I think she's been in the box 2, possibly 3 days.
I have 7 hens, 1 roo. They're in a 4 x 8 coop with 4 nestboxes (2 over 2), two of which use the exterior wall as their wall, and since I never got around to putting that roof on, the hay in those can get damp when it rains heavily. So they don't lay there and I've removed the damp hay and not replaced it. Hence, they all lay in the bottom inside box, with the occasional egg in the top inside box.
Where she's now brooding. For the past two days, I've opened the coop to find a hen sitting on top of her. I know I need to stop them from adding eggs to her clutch or I'll have a problem once the earlier ones begin to hatch.
Should I block off the nest box during the day and night with fencing that she can stick her head through for water and food?
If I don't remove her from the coop, will she have an easier time of integrating the baby chicks into the new flock, or should I separate her to hatch and then stay with them, and if so, for how long?
I have an older rabbit hutch I could relocate her to, but I have some concerns about that. First, I haven't cleaned it yet, and without a powerwasher, I'm not confident in my ability to sanitize it enough to make a safe, healthy environment for baby chicks.
It also has a hardware cloth floor, which I've read is terrible for baby chicks' legs/feet.
So, can I keep her in the coop and just block the other hens' access to the nestbox? Once she hatches the eggs, should I remove them all? '
Thanks for any advice.
Sioux
I have 7 hens, 1 roo. They're in a 4 x 8 coop with 4 nestboxes (2 over 2), two of which use the exterior wall as their wall, and since I never got around to putting that roof on, the hay in those can get damp when it rains heavily. So they don't lay there and I've removed the damp hay and not replaced it. Hence, they all lay in the bottom inside box, with the occasional egg in the top inside box.
Where she's now brooding. For the past two days, I've opened the coop to find a hen sitting on top of her. I know I need to stop them from adding eggs to her clutch or I'll have a problem once the earlier ones begin to hatch.
Should I block off the nest box during the day and night with fencing that she can stick her head through for water and food?
If I don't remove her from the coop, will she have an easier time of integrating the baby chicks into the new flock, or should I separate her to hatch and then stay with them, and if so, for how long?
I have an older rabbit hutch I could relocate her to, but I have some concerns about that. First, I haven't cleaned it yet, and without a powerwasher, I'm not confident in my ability to sanitize it enough to make a safe, healthy environment for baby chicks.
It also has a hardware cloth floor, which I've read is terrible for baby chicks' legs/feet.
So, can I keep her in the coop and just block the other hens' access to the nestbox? Once she hatches the eggs, should I remove them all? '
Thanks for any advice.
Sioux