Day 19, natural broody. Any advice?

[Marmalade25]

Hi all,
We are on day 19 of hatch with a broody hen. with fertile eggs from a local farm. She has been very faithful in spite of moving her into a dog crate inside the coop yesterday. She has gotten lice since she started sitting which we are treating now. I have food and water in with her and have been getting her out of her spot every day to evacuate because she was not getting up on her own before.
My question is, should I continue to manually move her to let her evacuate or leave her alone at this point? Any other helpful tips on care at this point? I have read about having an alternative brooder station in case she abandons them, etc. I also have chick starter on hand. Thanks in advance!

 

[Spartan22]

At this time leave her alone, lock down means lock down. She will sit and hatch the eggs at natural specified temp and humidity of her body, very crucial. My one broody got chase out of her nest while on lock down stage, and she didn’t go back in time while I was at work, some of the eggs that pipped dried out and and got cooler than her body temp died while trying to zip. Whereas the one broody that was on separate area hatched all her eggs since she wasn’t disturbed or bothered.

 

[Morrigan]

I had this same question as my very first post on this forum! To repeat the advice that worked for me -- yes, you can go ahead and take her off if you want. When you go to help her, just take a peek at the eggs to make sure the eggs are not already pipping.

I was glad I did let her out on her final business run, as she was glued to the nest for the next 3 days hatching out two beautiful little chicks.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/day-20-leave-broody-alone-or-take-her-off-the-nest.872514/

 

[chickens really]

Leave her alone now. Don't bother her. She needs to provide the proper humidity to hatch. Don't interfere until she brings Chicks off the nest..Hope the crate is big enough to provide food and water for the Chicks once hatched.

 

[Morrigan]

Just to clarify a couple of things, that may help with the conflicting advice:

Is there enough room in the crate you have her in for her to comfortably get up on her own, well and truly leave the nest, and to go to the bathroom?

Have you been helping her each day up until now and has she been returning to the nest?

In the case of my first broody, I had to help her out of the crate (or she would soil her nest) and she was used to me doing so. There was no issue with her returning. Had I left her alone she would have most likely soiled the nest or been extremely uncomfortable.

Since my first broody, I've had other broodies that I've left in the nest of their choice and they have free access to get up and take care of what they need to. In those cases I've left the broody alone.

 

[Marmalade25]

Thank you, everyone. She does have enough room in the crate to leave the nest to do her business and also for the chicks once they hatch.
I have been taking her off since early on for a few reasons. She does return to her nest after dust bathing and relieving herself and a bit of scratching.
My other hens were sneaking in to lay their eggs and interfering with her getting back in so I barracaded her in the nest box, or them out of it But very early on she did not get up for about 3 days so since then I have been taking her off.
I just move her into the crate yesterday because we were also treating for the lice. I decided to set up the crate at the same time because I was nervous about the other hens and babies in crevices, etc. She has been sitting fine since then. I do think I will leave her since she seems to have what she needs. I wish I could have treated for lice one more time before the chicks hatch, they only reared their head about four days ago so I only just started treating for them.
Sorry for the disjointed thoughts, typing on a little phone. Thanks again!!

 

[Marmalade25]

It is day 21 and we had one chick hatch for sure yesterday. I do not know if any others have as she is still glued to the nest. My concern is that I am not hearing much peeping. We did yesterday, but since the evening I don't hear much and when I checked this morning, nothing. If there are multiple chicks, would it be noisy? They are newly hatched and I know they are tired, but I would have expected a little more activity. It's very hard not knowing what is going on, but I am trusting my broody - for better or worse.

 

[Spartan22]

I stuck my hand under my broody #2 this morning and found 1 semi dried chick, after thinking all her 7 eggs had died when she couldn't come back to her nest and settled on another unfertilized clutch of eggs nearby nest for a day when the temp was 60s, My heart sunk when I touch all the eggs and it was cold and the one that pipped died got cold and didn't finish zipping few days ago. So I was so pleasantly surprised when one hatched this morning 2 days after.

 

[Marmalade25]

Two chicks out, broody is still on nest 24 hours later. Hoping for more, but grateful for two!

 

[Krazyquilts]

Two chicks out, broody is still on nest 24 hours later. Hoping for more, but grateful for two!

Have you candles the rest of the eggs to make sure that they are developing? I usually candle at 1 week, 2 weeks, and a couple days before lockdown.