How to care for a Broody Easter Egger?

[Momma*chicken]

So we have an EE that started going Broody yesterday. She's been sitting on her nest for over 24hrs now, with only a break for about 10 to 15 min to eat and drink. My question is does she need anything extra during her time of broodiness to help her? Does she need to be separate from the other girls? They all free range, so for the most part she is alone in the coop. I have never had a broody hen before now, so I'm a newbie at this . Here is Muffy our Easter egger

 

[wamtazlady]

If you are not going to use her as a broody to hatch eggs, the best thing to do is try to break her of her broodiness. You could try to take her off that nest as often as possible. You could put a short rectangular plastic container with lid in the nesting box filled with ice and change the ice twice a day. That would cool her off. You could also put her in a small cage raised off the ground several inches with a wire mesh floor for several days to cool her off. I always try to stop my broody hens. It is hard on them physically and they don't lay when they are brooding.

If you have her sitting on fertile eggs that you want to hatch then there is little you have to do. If you have the room it would be great to fence her off from the rest of the chickens. Supply her with her own water and feed. That way the other hens can not lay her her nest. Otherwise you will need to mark her eggs with a pencil and remove any others that get laid.

 

[Momma*chicken]

Thanks for the info! Yes we want to keep her Broody. All our eggs r fertilized. She has 8 under her. We as re excited to see her hatch some eggs

 

[wamtazlady]

I have always been lucky. Twice my one hen disappeared and we figured something had gotten her. She would come back 5 weeks later with 10 chicks every time. I never had to do a thing. Never even had to worry if I was doing something wrong. She took care of it all.

 

[Momma*chicken]

Help! Now my other girls keep trying to eat her eggs!! My husband built a little fence around her so she could have her own private corner and the girls found a way to break in! She had about 12 eggs gathered for hatching, now she only has 6! Can we put some fresh eggs under her that were layed today? Or is it too late? I don't want the other chicks to hatch and then there is a delay with the new ones. She just started sitting on the eggs on Monday. However, the eggs that were broken and eaten today by our jersey giant had blood in them, so they have started to develop.
It's weird, the other girls r only trying to eat the Broody girls eggs, but not their own. R they jealous?? Ughh this is a mess

 

[wamtazlady]

Four days is too long. Once the first chickens hatch she won't want to sit for another 4 whole days. She will want to be showing the chicks how to eat and drink. I would expect that she will go broody again this year. You just need to find a better way to keep her and her eggs safe. I have never heard of chickens eating the eggs that are being brooded. Not sure why that happened.

 

[Momma*chicken]

Well she's not the one eating them, the other girls r. I think they r jealous or something? They only break the eggs she's sitting on, not the ones they lay. So I counted wrong, there r only 5 left

 

[Matzwd]

Are you sure she's not stepping on them, and then the others help themselves to the feast? It's strange that the others would go after her eggs only.

 

[Momma*chicken]

For sure it's them. My husband built a barrier for her on Tuesday because they kept pushing her off the nest and pecking the eggs. She is the lowest in the pecking order. They keep bullying her to get off, then peck at the eggs. During the time when they couldn't get in, none of her eggs were breaking. This morning the other girls broke through some of the netting and 2 more eggs were broken and eaten and she was shooed off her nest again. My husband just reinforced it with some lumber, so I hopefully they won't be able to invade her space again

 

[Matzwd]

You might have to separate her from the flock after the eggs hatch if she is unable to protect the chicks.