How to care for broody and her eggs...

[JackieinYorktown]

My Buff Orpington is in her second week in her nesting box. In the past I read a lot of good threads on what to feed her and how to keep her in a dog crate, etc.
Can someone help me with this? From what I am reading it seems like I should seperate her to prevent other hens from nesting on/with her and also to be sure that she returns to the correct box after feeding.
I have two different dog crates (one is for my llaso the ither from me newf).
Should I line the dog crate in cardboard and then straw to keep the eggs from rolling?

 

[panner123]

If she is that far along, let her be. She knows where to go. She just needs to be able to get to food and water, which she must be doing. Try to keep the other hens from laying eggs in the box. If you see a new egg in the box, remove it. You shouldn't have to worry about the chicks when they hatch, mama hen will keep the others from them. You may need to build a nest box lower to the fround for the chicks to get in and out of. There you can use your dog crate. Once you put the hen and chicks in there, you should try to keep them in there over night. This gives the hen time to get the idea of where she should keep the chicks. From there on out, let Mother Nature run it's course.

 

[Shared Acres]

When my hens go broody I mark all their eggs so I can tell which eggs are fresh and which ones she's sitting on.

You might want to move her though. I typically try to move them about a week before the hatch. Because typically, my hens will get really upset with all the other chickens for being near her babies and some of the other hens can be mean. I have SIlkies which don't fly, so mine typically go in the bathtub for the first couple of days before and after hatch.

Since it's still cold, I also have a rabbit hutch outside with heat lamps on part of it. That way I can also put momma and chicks out there and there is enough heat when they are running around.

If I can, I try to move them IN their nesting box. Mine are all removeable. It seems to make it a little less stressful.

 

[JackieinYorktown]

What about the food and water for the new chicks? Does that go into the dog crate?

 

[andalusn]

I took the natural approach, one hen went into hiding so no assistance from me. That hen set, hatched and when ready to join the group presented me with her peeps at the hen house door for breakfast. The other hen stayed in the hen house and sat like a sack of flour on her "nest" the other hens laid eggs next to her in the hay and she would then "steal" them and add them to her hoard. I removed all eggs each day and replaced with some purebred eggs I wanted to see if they would hatch. Dated those just to know how old they were and other than removing the brown eggs left the white ones. She would come out every so often and drink/eat and go back. She hatched her eggs and once that was done I relocated her to a nursery pen made from a dog xpen. Now the pens are open and the two mother hens moved in together and during the day they mingle with the other hens/rooster. More often than not they keep to themselves by the hen house but don't want to be in it and still bed down and feed in the nursery dog kennel. It's 6'x6' square.

Other than monitoring their daily needs I have not done much and it all seems to be working out.