How do I stop hens from laying in the broody's nest?

[anthonyjames]

What I have done is mark the original eggs with a maker and let her stay with the eggs for the first 2 weeks. Then week 3 I move to a small brooder I have that is 1/2 enclosed and 1/2 with run.

 

[Cass]

I love reading all the problems and possible solutions before I have them. I think I am going to use egg/milk crates as nest boxes on a shelf. (read that idea on BYC too) That way if I have a hen go broody I can just pick up the crate and move it to a separate space (already planned for in my coop construction) and move a different crate to the "favorite" spot.

(I'll let you know how the chickens outsmart me

)

 

[apostoliclady]

Ok, really ignorant question go to along with this theme...

Once she is broody and beginning to sit on her eggs, does she still have to mate with the rooster every day for her to lay the rest of her fertile eggs? And, is her first egg day one or the last egg day 1?

I use covered liter boxes for some of the nesting boxes. I love the idea to mark the eggs and move it after 2 weeks!

 

[apostoliclady]

You don't want to have to deal with chicks at different stages of development.

Yeah, we did that last year. It was a pain. For almost 3 weeks after the first chicks hatched with the mama, I had a chick hatch every day or two in the incubator...really annoying!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Once the hen goes full-on broody, she normally stops laying; so either she's already gathered a clutch of eggs to sit on or she's perfectly happy to sit on air. But a hen's eggs can be fertile from one mating up to three weeks or more, so that covers the fertile part. My broodies won't let the roos anywhere near them once they've decided to set. Nor during the time they are mothering the chicks.

I gave my most recent broody 9 eggs late yesterday evening. Gathered over a day and a half from my other flock. Today is her first full day of setting, so I count today as day one.

 

[apostoliclady]

Ok, so I now get that one 'experience' with Mr. Roo can fertilize several eggs. So, if she gets broody and lays an egg 7 days in a row and sits on them all-she will be sitting on 7 eggs. What would be considered day 1? The day egg 1 was laid or the day egg 7 was laid? I know this sounds confusing, but I'm trying to get it all straight in my mind so I can calculate incubation periods.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I think I understand your question. The incubation starts the day she decides to sit full-time. A broody isn't laying, so if she's just thinking about going broody, but continues to lay until she has the amount of eggs she thinks is just right; the day she stops laying and just sets full time is day one. So in your example, she lays seven eggs and then goes broody, that's day one. Not the day the first egg was laid.

Hope that makes sense. It is 4 o'clock in the morning and way past my bedroom.

 

[apostoliclady]

That does make sense! Thanks!!

I hope you got some sleep