Cleaning out Broodies nest?

[Irishsilk]

Hi...!
We have been given a Silkie Cock and his 2 hens ( plus 3 red hens and 4 ducks!)
So far all our knowledge has come from reading this forum all and every evening. So this is the first of loads of questions due to come!!

One of the Silkies has been sitting on her nest for the last 18 days. We have never seen her leave the nest...but she has plenty of food and water.
We have left her to do what comes naturally to her...Reckoning that she knows more about raising chicks than we do!
But..we now can see that she has been pooping in her nest. Should we force her off at this late stage so that we can clean the nest out?
All advice gratefully received!!

 

[WhatRooster]

My silkies have done that too (i.e. poop in their nest)!!

Have you candled the eggs to see if they're likely to hatch? If so, then congratulations, you've pretty much reached lock-down!
In the past, if it was near lock-down and the nest is not overwhelmingly soiled, then I've just scooped out any poop I saw around her and... placed fresh bedding on top. Granted, because of her broodiness, she might not be too happy with that!!

If, however, the nest is beyond that kind of help

, then I'll try to find a way to quickly clean it out while trying to minimally disturb the eggs.
Good luck! If all goes well, you should have some chicks in a few more days!

 

[Irishsilk]

Thanks for quick reply!

We have never seen her come off her nest .... So it would take force to get her off. That's why we hadn't realised she's pooping in there.

So, not sure what to do. She is in a barrel, inside a large dog crate, so we would have to physically push her out of the barrel. Could we upset her so much that we disturb her focus?
She is sitting in the entrance of the barrel, so no room to put fresh straw around her.
But if we leave the stinky stuff could it be a danger to the chicks?

I'm guessing that as she is so obsessive with her nest that if we get her off it, to clean up, she would go straight back on....but what's peoples experience with that?

 

[ChickenLegs13]

I wouldn't chance it with just 3 days left till hatch. You might damage the embryos or make the hen abandon the nest.
The poop won't hurt the chicks. If you ever notice, chicks walk in, roll in, scratch & peck at and eat poop!

 

[Irishsilk]

Thanks for both your advice!
I managed to throw some shavings behind her onto the poopie area....she only pecked me once....!!

We reckoned that she must be on lots of eggs, as when she decided she wasn't coming off the nest the other Silkie's eggs started to disappear. Both Silkies were laying daily, then when she got broody we stopped having any more eggs from either of them. We presumed Mama Hen was taking the other ones and sitting on them too!

After 10 days we moved her and the barrel and joined it onto a large dog crate so she could be separate from the others. The next morning there was an egg from Silkie number 2.... So this confirmed our theory that Mama had been stealing her eggs!
As we had never seen her leave the nest Hubby decided to risk putting his hand under her to feel how many eggs she had before we moved her to a separate area..guess how many???

 

[Irishsilk]

One Egg!!!!!

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Bummer! Reckon what happened to the rest?

 

[Irishsilk]

Wahoo..... Our 'egg' has hatched!!
The shell is sitting next to Mama, and I can hear cheeping coming from under her!!
I had no idea just how exciting this would be!!!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Congratulations to the new mommy!

 

[Irishsilk]

Thankyou....I'll pass the message onto her!!
I'm just mama hens slave.......the one that has been having sleepless nights !!
I'm so proud of her