So about three weeks ago, I had a partridge rock hen go broody. I took her first egg, but the next day she was on another, and I thought, what the hell, let her give it a shot. I've been checking it every day and today it was soft and chick-shaped instead of hard and egg-shaped. I panicked. The nest boxes are about 20" off the ground, I didn't know how the rest of the flock (5 roosters and 8 hens) would treat them. So, I did a bit of digging on here and wound up moving the whole nest box into a large dog crate. She sat tight the whole time. I put some food up high for her and a chick waterer in there, plus some fresh greens right under her "nose." Tomorrow I buy some chick starter. I guess I'll leave em in the crate for a week or so and see how it goes. The chickens go outside during the day and get locked up at night (lots of raccoons) and during the day their yard is enclosed in electric poultry netting (which a chick can get right through) so I'm not sure what to do with them for the medium term.
Any advice would be welcomed, but mostly I'm just really excited. I didn't think she'd actually pull it off and was woefully unprepared...
Any advice would be welcomed, but mostly I'm just really excited. I didn't think she'd actually pull it off and was woefully unprepared...
