Help? A Broody Hen & New Chicken Keepers

[andreanar]

Leave this hen and her eggs alone!! Lol. If you want her to hatch them quit bothering her or she will abandon the nest. She will be fine. You are worrying too much. She knows just what her and the chicks need

Good advice here! Haha I know its exciting, and hard to stand back and not worry, but mama hen knows best! Let her do what she wants. Shes got this!!

 

[aart]

Eh... I don't agree with not messing with her.
If she's really broody, she'll stick no matter what.

I like them getting used to me checking things out,
saved a chick whose neck was tangled tight in mama's breast feathers because of it once.
I also put them in a separate part of coop behind wire so the other birds don't lay there and it frees up a regular nest and don't give them fertile eggs until I know she accepts the new nest.

Are you sure you want her to hatch more birds?
You're in the middle of building more space and probably don't need more birds at this point, plus another learning curve to navigate with managing a broody hen and chicks.


Things to think about:
You'll need to decide if you want her to hatch out some chicks, and how you will 'manage' it.
Do you have, or can you get, some fertile eggs?
Do you have the space needed? She may need to be separated by wire from the rest of the flock.
Do you have a plan on what to do with the inevitable males? Rehome, butcher, keep in separate 'bachelor pad'?
If you decide to let her hatch out some fertile eggs, this is a great thread for reference and to ask questions.

It a long one but just start reading the first few pages, then browse thru some more at random.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/496101/broody-hen-thread

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop with fed and water

I let her out a couple times a day(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.

Feed and water added after pic was taken.

 

[Enchanted1s]

Thank You @aart . Let me see if I can answer your questions and ask another...

Are you sure you want her to hatch more birds? NO! I do not want the chicks. I do want the experience of letting her hatch some babies. When I use to raise dogs, I always believed that my females should be allowed to experience motherhood, at least once, before they were spayed. and how you will 'manage' it? The plan is to sell or give ALL of them away.

Do you have, or can you get, some fertile eggs? I believe she is sitting on 5 fertile eggs. Rudy is a very busy boy - he nails each of his girls, multiple times daily.
Do you have the space needed? We do have the space - just a matter of partitioning things off as needed. We have just under an acre for our tiny flock (7) to roam as they please. The 'chicken' area that is currently partitioned off (with access doors for them to roam) is about 30 feet by 50 feet. The new coop was built with the possibility of babies in the back of my mind - the old coop, not so much.

Thank you for the link. I will be heading there to start reading next.

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly. This has been a topic of discussion since she went broody. As soon as I realized she was going broody - I told my better half we have a decision to make - babies or break her of going broody. After a rather brief discussion, we agreed that we had no idea how to break her of it, so we would let her hatch once and see how it goes. We both agree the babies must be re-homed ASAP.

Thank you for your example of breaking your hen. After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate. My question for this is HOW do you get her in the crate? Tonight will be her 3rd night in the nest. Neither of us have ever been able to touch Tootie at all. She will come take treats from my hand, but touching is out of the question. When I gave her the additional eggs, she pecked at me (she had never done that before, BUT I was very close to touching her and she has never allowed that!) We have a wire cage very similar to yours that we have used for isolation when the pullet flew over. ...separate 'bachelor pad'? I had hoped that the old coop might become a bachelor pad, but first have to convince the hens to use the new coop!

We are both VERY on the fence about allowing nature to take its course here. IF it was one of the pullets, I would probably attempt the breaking option but I have very little confidence that we could catch Tootie without a net. The sight of the net freaks all of them (especially Rudy) out!

We certainly appreciate BYC and all of the wisdom we continue to find here.

 

[aart]

My question for this is HOW do you get her in the crate? Tonight will be her 3rd night in the nest. Neither of us have ever been able to touch Tootie at all.

Take her out of the nest and put her in the crate, can be easier to do at night....
....but a broody hen is pretty easy to 'catch'.

I decide when I 'touch' a bird, not the bird.
You have to be able to handle your birds when needed.
So both you and the birds need to learn to do so.
I wrap both hands around bird to hold wings down and pick her up.
Then football hold against my side to leave other hand free to whatever.
It's hard at first, but gets real easy after you practice some.
They freak out at first, which is alarming, you just have to be calm, firm, and confident. Wear long sleeves and maybe gloves of you're afraid of getting bit or scratched. Keep their feet from getting caught on anything including your clothing.
They'll get used to it and don't fight so hard after a few times.

 

[Folly's place]

x2 what aart says here. You pick her up out of the nest at night and move her to a new location, and dispose of those eggs. She's small, and you are much bigger! You do need to be able to handle your birds when necessary, regardless of their displeasure.
Mary

 

[Enchanted1s]

Thank you all for your input. We have discussed this further as Tootie spends her third night in the nest box. We have decided to let her do what she wants to do, BUT we are also going to continue doing what we need to do. I have to make the old coop better. I am planning to connect the two coops together and making several improvements on the old one. This will have to be done around the laying (and brooding) hens! If she wants to stay on her 5 eggs while I work around her then we should have more babies in a few weeks. If all of this runs her off the nest then we will throw them out and let her try again some day.

If we have babies in a few weeks then perhaps I should help them thru the fence - in appreciation for the parents that came from there

 

[andreanar]

If we have babies in a few weeks then perhaps I should help them thru the fence - in appreciation for the parents that came from there

 

[Enchanted1s]

So, we have two other hens that just started laying this month. They were having a loud fit all morning (unusual for our girls) and I'm pretty sure it is because they wanted to lay in the occupied nest box. They finally decide they are going to lay their eggs in their even with Tootie nesting there! Is this normal? What surprised me even more is Tootie let them! Tootie then swept the additional two eggs under her. Today, she stayed in the nest box ALL day. She finally got up for just a few minutes as everyone was going in for the night.

QUESTIONS - Do I need to keep her separated from the others? They ALL seem very curious. It doesn't seem to be bothering her - but what do I know?!? Should I keep the blanket over the front of her box during the day? or open it for her to look out and the others to look in? Yesterday I left it open and Tootie came outside twice. Today, the wind kept blowing the blanket/curtain shut and she didn't leave the box at all. I had it open when she did come out at dusk.

Thanks Again

 

[aart]

IMO it's easier to separate a broody to avoid just this issue, eggs added later creating a staggered hatch scenario, and possibly broken eggs from other birds going in with her to lay.
Easy for me to do as I planned a temporary wire wall to section off part of coop with a human access door and a separate run. She can still see the flock and the flock can still see her which will reduce reintegration issues.

If you can't separate her, you need to mark the eggs you first gave her, draw a line all the way around them with a sharpie, and remove any other eggs every day. Not sure the blanket is a good idea, she needs fresh air.
It's good she got up...ate/drank/pooped/stretched????
They need to do that every day or two.
If she got up while the other birds were laying, maybe not so good.

 

[Enchanted1s]

These birds are really quite interesting creatures. Sometimes I think they know we are clueless LOL. Yesterday, I observed while the two young pullets - that just started laying - went into Tooties nest and kept the eggs warm while she took her daily break. Tootie didn't seem concerned, so I just watched. When Tootie was done, she returned to the nest and Rosie got up. She stayed in there with Tootie for a bit and I thought I should shew her out. They thought differently! These girls NEVER let me touch them - until then! She did not immediately jump out despite me touching her! She didn't stay long, but made it clear that I was not going to rush them. All of the adults & the babies, seem very respectful and intrigued by Tootie and her nest. I wasn't able to confirm until tonight, but Rosie did NOT add to the nest this time - she just kept them warm.

Rosie did add a 6th egg, but it was on the 2nd day. I decided to leave that one since she had already been sitting on it for a while. I re-marked the initial 5 eggs so they are easier to spot and marked the 6th with two big 6's.

Tonight, we went out and moved the two laying pullets from the old coop to the back half of the new coop. That leaves only Rudy the rooster in the old coop (Tootie in the nest). Do you think Rudy will follow the hens to the new coop? or will he keep his bachelor pad?