Egg numbers under a young broody help please!

[PouleChick]

Hi me again - gee whizz talk about a learning curve in my garden! I now have a mama warrior silkie with her 3 week old chicks and a broody slightly dim silkie due to hatch 7 eggs on Wednesday and now I have my 'layer' light sussex gone broody! Not quite the plan but i'm going to roll with it!

Mabel is only about 7ish months old but she is a lovely calm bird and she has now been sitting nearly a week - on nothing (bless her!) and I've even been moving her at night (she is nesting in a small structure in the (uncovered) day run so been putting her up in the coop) and she is still determined and runs straight to her nest the minute I let her out. I have decided she is serious as she is now really not moving and not laying (she did lay the first 2 days) so want to go and pick up eggs for her in the next day or so. I have a couple of questions as my other 2 girls are older and have done it before I there was only one of us clueless (me ).

• She is a light sussex so pretty big (far bigger than my little silkie mummies!) - how many eggs would you put under her?
  
• I have read that 12 of the same size as her is OK but is that too many for a first timer?
  
• Should I just do a small clutch or just go for it? I kind of think just go for it - eggs aren't expensive here really and I have access to an emergency incubator if things go pear shaped!
  
• If you were to recommend putting a smaller number what would that number be and what would be your reasons?

In terms of where I let her brood and hatch I was hoping that moving her back into the coop would encourage her to stay there but nope she really wants to be in the other thing in the yard - I can make it reasonably secure and at least she will still be with the other 2. It is made of plastic (it is the back of an old TV - at least 3ft wide!) with a grill on the front that can be closed and locked at night (I also put a pallet lent up over the front when they were all sleeping in there just to make it a bit more secure). If it gets really hot I can put up a shade cloth or I'm even thinking about moving it into the shade but not sure if that will upset her Or even building a wooden frame at the botton to make it easier for me to access! I suppose if I do it now before I get the eggs then that should be OK! Ahhhh the dilemmas but the time has come to make some decisions!

Any ideas or feedback appreciated!

 

[azygous]

The number of eggs would be determined by how many she can cover. Being a large breed, she should be able to hand 10 to 12.

I've found that if a broody has been sitting on a nest with nothing under her, if I place eggs in the nest where I wish her to be, confine her there by locking her in, she will see the eggs and will be happy to move onto them.

This won't work with all broodies, but it's certainly worth trying.

 

[Sneebsey]

My Araucana first timer is sat on ten, your Sussex could probably cover more than that if you wanted.

When I moved her into the broody coop, I just plonked the eggs in a little nest and put her in there; she'd moved them all to where she wanted them and was sat tight by the next morning.

 

[PouleChick]

Thanks both. I have discussed modifications to the TV with DH so we are going to build a base and raise it on boards (so it will be sitting on a big flat wooden box basically), I'll then put that on some small legs and it will be quite secure! It is turning into a chick raising complex out there - this is the 3rd 'mini-coop' now I'm not bothered - they'll always be useful for future broodies / sick hens etc.
I've also just texted my most local Cream Legbar breeder and I've asked for 5 CLs, 3 BCM, 2 Blue CM and 2 Vorwerks. I'm hoping I can collect today. If I havent' heard back in a bit I'm going to call!

 

[PouleChick]

He has massive demand for his Cream Legbar eggs so I can't collect until Wednesday afternoon. Mabel only stopped laying on Thursday I think so only really broody from end of the week so I'm sure it will be fine to put under her on Thursday (I'll let them rest after picking them up).