How much room does a broody hen need?

[KYTinpusher]

I have a BCM hen that is quite broody. I really want to give her some eggs to hatch, but want to somehow separate her from the rest of the girls. And I don't want to completely remove her from the coop to help alleviate the rejoining issues. There is not enough room in the coop to put a separate cage, but there are more nest boxes than they need. The nest boxes are the type that are right next to each other and accessible from the outside. It is really one long box with dividers in it, so if I remove 2 of the dividers and make an area that is the size of 3 laying boxes, is that enough room for her to stay in for 3+ weeks? I could wall it off with hardware cloth so the hens would still be able to see and interact with each other.

This is a picture of the coop when we bought it, before we cleaned and painted it, but you can see what I am talking about. Those are the nest boxes in front - she would have half of it.

 

[Mountain Peeps]

That should be plenty.

 

[iwiw60]

I have a BCM hen that is quite broody. I really want to give her some eggs to hatch, but want to somehow separate her from the rest of the girls. And I don't want to completely remove her from the coop to help alleviate the rejoining issues. There is not enough room in the coop to put a separate cage, but there are more nest boxes than they need. The nest boxes are the type that are right next to each other and accessible from the outside. It is really one long box with dividers in it, so if I remove 2 of the dividers and make an area that is the size of 3 laying boxes, is that enough room for her to stay in for 3+ weeks? I could wall it off with hardware cloth so the hens would still be able to see and interact with each other.

This is a picture of the coop when we bought it, before we cleaned and painted it, but you can see what I am talking about. Those are the nest boxes in front - she would have half of it.

That sounds like it will be plenty of room for her...best of luck! I'm going to build a broody/sick pen underneath my roost that I'm building right now...something almost identical to this:

 

[SharkmanDan]

I have definitely 3, maybe a fourth, broody hens. I have a chicken jail built into my very large coop. The chicken jail is 4'Wx2'Dx2.5'H. There is no separation, just a big cell, meant for introducing young pullets to the flock.
Should that be enough room for all four, or would I be best with just three in there?
Do I need to let them be furloughed, occasionally to poop, eat or drink, or is all that done in the jail cell? I can put a platform in there, for a feeder and a waterer, but don't know if they need to leave the nest area.

 

[SharkmanDan]

Here is a photo of mine for reference.

We called it "The Bat Cave" as I put a small "cave like" entrance/exit, so the babies could join general population, when they wanted, but retreat to the safety of the cave, if they were being picked on. One of the broodies, a Frizzle, is just barely small enough, to squeeze through there, so, I blocked the cave entrance, and put two of them in. The Frizzle, and the BSL, that has been determined to be broody, for 4 or 5 weeks now. She just keeps getting newer and newer gifts, and when culling eggs from under her, doesn't always choose well. This way, she hopefully, will keep the same 6 eggs.
But, I will say, neither of the two, seem to like being in jail, to brood, very much. Hopefully, they will settle in.

 

[NanaK]

Do you have a run? We used chicken wire to fence of a small section of the run and put a dog house in there. Our hen hatched in the nest box in the main coop, but I had marked the eggs I gave her to hatch and checked them to make sure none were added along the way. Once they hatched we moved them to the sectioned off area to grow a bit but still be in sight of the rest of the flock. I don't know if this is the best way of doing things as this was last spring and our first experience with a broody.

Just didn't know if you'd thought about your may need some where to grow a bit before being mixed with the big girls.

Now Clarese, the only female to hatch from that brood is acting like she may be broody...lol...she is just one year old now. Life goes on...

Others here may have better ways of doing things. We are still learning. Good luck with you hatch!

 

[SharkmanDan]

I have this. But, the Cuckoo Marans hen, is very comfortable in her nest box, and her sister wives leave her to her brooding, so, I figure she's best left alone. The BSL and Frizzle, got moved into this chicken jail/bat cave, and the BSL IMMEDIATELY gave up on brooding. She wanted no part of being in jail, and created a huge ruckus. So, she was let free, within an hour. The Frizzle, on the other hand, was unhappy, at first, then settled in, for about 36 hours, before she became very agitated. I let her out, thinking she just needed to stretch and forage. Nope. She abandoned that clutch of eggs for the day. So, I called it a wash, tossed the eggs, and let her loose.
I then as usual, collected a bunch of the day's "Eating Eggs" (not breed specific) and laid them in one nest box, for easy access, from outside, later. Evening came, and there is my Frizzle, nested up on all of them. So, this morning, when I fed everyone, and the Frizzle got off the nest to eat, drink and poop, I marked the eggs. I then went about my chores. After finishing the project I was working on, I noticed the chickens really raising a ruckus, so I thought I'd check to see if there was a problem, or they were just cackling in unison. I went in the house, the Frizzle was not on the nest, but a Golden Comet/RSL was. I am not sure what's going on. But, I'm fairly certain my only reliable broody, is my CM.

 

[SharkmanDan]

Somehow, it posted NanaK's photo. Here is mine. (I hope)

 

[NanaK]

I like the way you have that set up. I've thought about doing something similar inside our coop too.
Good luck with your broody!

 

[SharkmanDan]

And, yes, as it turns out, the Frizzle, wants to be broody, but, she just doesn't have it in her, I guess. She leaves the nest for extended periods of time, and sometimes other hens will set on her clutch of eggs, but, mostly they are just left unattended.
The good news is, I have a turkey hen, who has gone broody on me. I'm not sure what to do for her. She had rolled a couple of chicken eggs over near her head, and was eating them, yesterday, noonish. Later in the day, I left her a goodly pile of cracked corn and whole oats. Should I put a water source near her? I don't want to try to move her, for fear that she'll abandon the process. My turkey eggs have become quite a valued commodity around here. I have a friend, who has done tons of favors for me, that wants whatever I can spare. I tried sending some to someone with a commercial incubator, but got swindled out of 20 turkeys (it takes a real low life to steal from someone who is completely broke). And, my redwood incubator had temp and humidity control issues, ruining my entire first batch of 229 eggs. So, I don't want to take too many chances. I'll leave the turkey, to whatever she is setting on, and the CM, is doing well with her little clutch. At this point, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.