Help! Need suggestions... my brooding hen is jumping nest boxes!

[zephyr66]

Yesterday, I let my persistant broody hen have a clutch of eggs to hatch. I have 9 hens total and one rooster. Today, I went to the coop and there were 2 additional eggs in her clutch and she was sitting on two different eggs laid by other hens this morning. I want her to hatch and raise the chicks in the main coop with the others so I don't have to build another coop and worry about reintroduction of hen and young birds. How can I solve this problem of her nest hopping? What do most of you do?

Thank you again! Love this forum

 

[Ridgerunner]

I haven't had that problem. My broodies always know which nest is theirs. However, what a lot of people do is to make an area in the coop where they can confine the hen. Give her a nest, food and water, and a bit of space to go poop, then leave her locked in there for her confinement. This way she stays in touch with her buddies, is in a predator proof area, when she hatches you just open the door and let her bring her babies out, and she has a safe place to take her brood to at night.

The risk to this is that she will not accept the new nest and will break from being broody. It seems to help if the new nest is kind of dark, but there are no guarantees. There are a lot of variations off this, but maybe you can adopt this idea to your specific situation.

Good luck.

 

[zephyr66]

thanks for the help!