Illinois...

[ducks4you]

IF you move her AND you use dummy eggs, put HER fertile eggs in an incubator. If they get cold, and they WILL, (26 F last night, Central Illinois), you will lose them.
I think you may be surprised that she can hold her on against the other hens. My pushy hens will force another hen to lay somewhere else. I have 7 layers and 5 nest boxes.

 

[rfreedlund]

IF you move her AND you use dummy eggs, put HER fertile eggs in an incubator. If they get cold, and they WILL, (26 F last night, Central Illinois), you will lose them.
I think you may be surprised that she can hold her on against the other hens. My pushy hens will force another hen to lay somewhere else. I have 7 layers and 5 nest boxes.

It depends on the hen. Some hens will insist on the same box and bully any other chicken out of it. It's her nest, right!!?? However, not all of them are so pushy. The first time I let one try to brood in a regular box, I found her later in a different box on different eggs. She wasn't territorial enough or couldn't remember which box she was originally sitting in, so that wouldn't do. Plus if eggs weren't marked, others would sneak a new egg in and then you wouldn't remember which were the originals. I have personally only had success by separating them either outside or in a partitioned section of the coop.

Also, I don't give them any fertile eggs to sit on until I am sure that they are going to do the job, so no need to incubate. I get rid of my roosters by winter so the only fertile eggs I get are ones I get from elsewhere anyway (until later in the season perhaps).

 

[Faraday40]

Another trick to help move a broody hen at night is to put a towel/blanket over her new enclosure. That way when the morning comes, it's still dark & she stays put. I remove the cover the next night, so she wakes up the second morning naturally. By then, she has already been in her new location for over 24 hrs.

I have also left the broody in the nest box, but I must block it off. (I put a water bottle & small dish of food within beak's reach.) Then each morning when I clean, I let her out for a bio break. I make sure she's back on the nest before I go inside.

As you can see, the netting curtain won't actually trap her inside, but it does prevent other hens from kicking her out.

 

[ducks4you]

Interesting. I try to have my new layers in a flock with my new roosters late in the year. I cannot easily find 2-3 roosters that have been raised together to introduce to the layers. When I introduced the 5 Dark Cornish roosters, now 7mo, they were 4 mo and I had to keep picking them up and closing all birds in the coop at night because the hens beat them up and kicked them out.
Payback is a bitXh, so NOW the roosters are beating up on the hens.
(We will be eating one and sending another to freezer camp this week.)
3 roosters per 7 layers will be plenty. I just wanted to increase the egg fertility for when I incubate next month.
I will be raising chicks this summer, butchering ALL 2-3mo roosters--they are like cornish hens size-- and raising my layers for next year. I will go to Rural King for my roosters, raise them separatly and introduce them to the hens come November. I do not believe in inbreeding, so my Dark Cornish/EE and Dark Cornish/SLW hens will most probably have EE roosters, or, maybe 2 EE's and 1 White Leghorn.
I'm into daily eggs and filling my freezer. Yummm!!!!

One good thing--they ALL like some of the tender young weeds (that grow tougher as they get bigger) to much on, so I weed daily. My roosters especially like them, and save me some commercial feed.

 

[MeepBeep]

It depends on the hen. Some hens will insist on the same box and bully any other chicken out of it. It's her nest, right!!?? However, not all of them are so pushy. The first time I let one try to brood in a regular box, I found her later in a different box on different eggs. She wasn't territorial enough or couldn't remember which box she was originally sitting in, so that wouldn't do.

So true, I have two broody hens right now, and both play musical chairs with the nesting boxes, no way I would trust either with a clutch of egg unless they were isolated...

Plus if eggs weren't marked, others would sneak a new egg in and then you wouldn't remember which were the originals.

When I had a guinea go broody last year (outside a nesting box) her egg count increased every day, seems the chickens liked the idea someone was sitting on eggs even if it was outside the nesting boxes and kept contributing to the cause... She was rock solid broody and defensive of her nest for about 20 days then simply abandoned the nest completely, you just never know how well they are going to do...

 

[rfreedlund]

She was rock solid broody and defensive of her nest for about 20 days then simply abandoned the nest completely

So close to finished Now that had to hurt, though I see that guinea eggs take longer than chicken eggs. Still would make me upset.

 

[MeepBeep]

 She was rock solid broody and defensive of her nest for about 20 days then simply abandoned the nest completely

So close to finished Now that had to hurt, though I see that guinea eggs take longer than chicken eggs. Still would make me upset.

Honestly not a big deal, as I have more than enough guineas and don't need any more right now, I just figured I would let her try...

But, yes it was close to being done, my guinea eggs seem to always hatch on day 25/26, not 28 like most sites say...

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Honestly not a big deal, as I have more than enough guineas and don't need any more right now, I just figured I would let her try...

But, yes it was close to being done, my guinea eggs seem to always hatch on day 25/26, not 28 like most sites say...

I know someone that was looking for some guinea eggs or chicks. Would you have any available any time soon. I did tell her you had some not to long ago. I don't know if it would be too far for her, she is an hour south of me, I believe Kankakee.

 

[MeepBeep]

I know someone that was looking for some guinea eggs or chicks. Would you have any available any time soon. I did tell her you had some not to long ago. I don't know if it would be too far for her, she is an hour south of me, I believe Kankakee.

I should have guinea eggs from this point until fall, probably get 4-6 a day as an estimate... I just need a few days notice to set some aside for hatching as I generally hard boil and recycle them back to the birds every week... Or I could incubate and hatch out keets as well...

Kankakee might be a little far for them to drive, but if they another reason to head up north it might work, I'm in the Gurnee area so it's quite a drive... I could also ship but the trouble to ship combined with the extra cost and lower hatch rate likely is not worth it unless they can't find any locally....

 

[drumstick diva]

They could make a day of it - shop at Gurnee Mills, pick up your eggs and drive home.