Free ranging Polish hen...how to protect her & eggs/chicks

[Dee Dub]

Greetings. I free range my chickens during the day. Many hens & one Ameracauna roo. They all normally return to their coops/runs in the evening. Except for one...one of my Polish hens has gone broody outside of the coop/run. I have both dogs & cats. Neither bother the adult chickens, but I am concerned that they would obliterate any newly hatched chicks. She is safe right now under a protective plant outside my fence, but her chicks will not be safe from my cats upon hatching. Is it safe to move both the hen & eggs to an indoor sanctuary? Will the move stress them or cause the hen to abandon her eggs? Complete newbie to this situation...please advise...with kindness.

 

[Theorrin]

i usually move mine at night and it hasnt affected them

 

[Dee Dub]

Thank you...that is reassuring. I will move her inside with her eggs today as soon as I get a break from the rain. I appreciate your quick response

 

[BastyPutt]

How did this go for you? Whenever I move a broody hen, she will try everything she can to get back to her spot, even if the eggs are no longer there.

 

[Dee Dub]

Thanks for asking. I got her & her eggs moved into a pen in my workshop later the same day I posted. For the first 2 days, every time I checked in on her, she was on high alert & not sitting on her eggs. The 3rd day, she moved the eggs around & by the 4th day has been sitting on them regularly since. She is normally a very docile girl, but when she is not sitting on the eggs & I try to pet her, she squawks & fluffs herself up as if trying to defend her clutch. My workshop is normally very warm so I hope the first couple of days when she wasn't sitting on the eggs were not detrimental. Will hens still sit on non-viable eggs?

 

[BastyPutt]

Thanks for asking. I got her & her eggs moved into a pen in my workshop later the same day I posted. For the first 2 days, every time I checked in on her, she was on high alert & not sitting on her eggs. The 3rd day, she moved the eggs around & by the 4th day has been sitting on them regularly since. She is normally a very docile girl, but when she is not sitting on the eggs & I try to pet her, she squawks & fluffs herself up as if trying to defend her clutch. My workshop is normally very warm so I hope the first couple of days when she wasn't sitting on the eggs were not detrimental. Will hens still sit on non-viable eggs?

Yes, unfortunately they will. They will sometimes kick eggs out of the nest for random reasons, sometimes because they know they won't hatch.

We used to have no roosters here, and we would have hens go broody, sitting on infertile eggs. I don't know the whole science behind it, but I'm sure it has something to do with hormones.

@JedJackson may know
Some more about this.

 

[Dee Dub]

Yes, unfortunately they will. They will sometimes kick eggs out of the nest for random reasons, sometimes because they know they won't hatch.

We used to have no roosters here, and we would have hens go broody, sitting on infertile eggs. I don't know the whole science behind it, but I'm sure it has something to do with hormones.

@JedJackson may know
Some more about this.

Thanks again for the quick answer. As this girl was sitting on 13 eggs and I only noticed her absence for 4-5 days before finding her, who knows how many are viable. I plan to candle the eggs, remove the non-fertilized & let her sit on any that are. If there are none, out she goes to join the rest of the flock.

 

[BastyPutt]

I plan to candle the eggs, remove the non-fertilized & let her sit on any that are.

This is a good plan. You don't have anything to lose