Moving a Broody Hen from one coop to another.

[RepoBob]

A friend has a broody hen, she sat on a clutch (hope thats the right word) and they hatched a month ago. Anyway he suggested bringing her here and let me try to see if she will sit on another batch. My question is: Do you think she will stay broody, is it worth a try?. I might add, he thinks, based on previous behavior, that when he reintroduces her she will get picked on terribly. I guess she's pretty timid. I can put her in with some young pullets and cockrels (one group 15 weeks the other about 6) They are in a pen together and seem to be doing OK. So I guess she's comming either way. He and I switch birds all the time so I'm not to worried about biosecurity to much.
What do you think? Worth a try?

Bob

 

[MissPrissy]

The stress of moving her to another place would most likely knock the broody right out of her.

Do NOT put a new bird in with your flock like that! You are asking for disaster.

Please go read this thread first!

 

[RepoBob]

Thanks once again MissPrissy. Seems like I've been saying that alot latley.

I read the thread you directed me to. Wow, I really never gave that a thought. It sure does makes sence. I guess I'm a little less interested in swap meet now. I had planned in trying to buy several nice birds this spring to add to my flock. Presently I have 2 RIR Rosecomb (just found out they are both roosters), 2 Buff Orpphingtons (pair), 1 huge blue Orphington Rooster, 3 blue Orphington Hens, 1 Sex Link Hen (My first chicken... she eats out of my hand and does not even peck me) and 9 other ? pullets that I got from the guy with the broody, he also gave me the sex link. We have been friends for 25 years and he got me into this. The others came from a show I went to in Iowa late last fall. The RIR's are in their own pen, the orph's share a pen with the red sex link And the unknown pullets are in their own pen. The RIR's and Orph's are show quality. I thought if I added a couple RIR hens and bred them with each cock I would have the start of a nice flock. I also wanted to pick up a couple buff orph hens. Maybe I'd just be better off to get eggs from a quality breeder like the orps from oh somewhere in the mtns.

. Raise them up, then start my breeding program. You know thats only a six month delay now that I think about it. Not a bad price to pay for saftey. I'd be pretty bummed if I knew I screwed up and killed a chicken. I have a barn that I could put a quarintine pen in pretty easy its about 100 feet away from my coop. Is that far enough? My Coop is about 25 x 18, standard chicken coop with a concrete floor. If in the future I build a few pens in the barn and kept some of the offspring of my current birds would I have to worry about biosecurity between the barn and coop. I don't think so, but I'm not sure. How much seperation is required between the quarinteen birds and the general flock? Or, is it more of keeping the "germs" being carried by you from the quarinten pen to the general flock?

That's probably enough questions for now. Lerarning about chickens one tiny step at a time.

Thank You So Much,

Bob