Quote: Thank you.
You've received a bunch of good advice...I'll just add that I used cardboard around the dog crate I used. All the way up in back and low around the front, including on the door. I used zip ties to attach it. I would keep the crate closed until the 23rd day, at least, to give her peace while the eggs finish. She will be able to feel if there are live chicks inside the eggs. She will stay on the nest until they hatch unless something causes her to leave. If your hen is high in the flock pecking order, she will have not problem keeping the chicks safe. If she is lower in the order, you will have to keep a close eye and make adjustments based on how the flock treats the chicks.
Open the door on the crate when you see the hen up and about with the chicks and you are able to be around to see how things go.
There aren't many things that are as fun as watching a broody with her chicks......now back to Mama Heating Pad!!
Yes, I don't mean to hijack the thread, but Blooie encouraged me to keep the thread posted. Her crate is up against a wall-- I do have cardboard across the back and along the exposed side, but not the door. I'll look into adding more today. This hen (her name is Blackie because she and her sister Spot are both black, born to natural/pencilled EE hens but sired by a blue Ameracauna roo, names with hens here tend toward physical characteristics so I can help differentiate them), anyway this hen is not high in the pecking order, she's only about 8 mos old, the older cohort of hens is 4yo. When I'm sitting with her, she will stop eating if higher-up hens come into the coop. But, when we did MHP in the spring, there were absolutely NO problems with roughing up, at all. I do not expect the other hens to be mean to these chicks. We have a congenial little farm, I'm happy to say.
But, you've helped me to understand that quiet and solitude will be helpful to her for the next while (duh!), so I will get more cardboard on there today, from the outside. Will not do anything inside that would disturb her. THANK YOU.