Help with Broody Logistics

[Ms Biddy]

Update: my broody has been very attentive to her golf ball. She gets up to take care of herself regularly but returns to it faithfully. I've been collecting special eggs for her for a week now and decided today was the day.

I set up the crate in the coop and gave everyone some time to look it over. Then after she had a luxurious dust bath and went back to her box, I took her out, slipped her in the crate and covered it with a blanket. At first she was a little panicked, but after she noticed the full clutch of real eggs just sitting there, I could hear her tone change. It was like she was saying, "Bok? Are these for moi? Oh, yes these are mine. So many. Wow. All for moi." Within like 3 minutes, she was silent and when I peeked inside she had claimed them.

Before

After

Also, if you compare the first picture I posted of her to the more recent ones you can see that her comb has fallen. I wish it hadn't, but it happened spontaneously in the last day or so.

 

[Ms Biddy]

My girl has bonded to her nest. In fact, she didn't leave it at all yesterday although I opened the door for her several times. I ended up bringing her some green grass, pellets and scrambled egg in a dish. She enjoyed the room service.

Today, I pushed her off and she did everything she was supposed to. One thing after the next: stretch, broody poop, dust bath, eat, drink, more poop. While she was up, the other chickens took the opportunity to snoop around her nest, stand in it, sit on it, etc. Ugh.

Eventually, she wanted to get back in but couldn't figure out how so I helped her out and now she's back on her eggs.

 

[Ms Biddy]

Day 21 here and I have chicks chirping under my broody and chicks chirping in my incubator!

My hen is doing great. I took her some scrambled egg this morning but didn't peek underneath. Lots of chirping could be heard.

Three days ago, on day 18, I candled for the second time and removed some of the eggs to hatch separately. They're from different breeding pens, otherwise it would've been easier to leave them with the hen. I'll return the chicks to her nest as soon as they're all out and I can mark them for future ID. It's stressful not wanting to mess up the hatch. There are chicks stuck in the incubator but with other eggs pipping, we all have to wait.