Moving a broody?

[Marshaharrell]

Hi all! We have a broody Banty named Lil Bit. Im Not sure of the breed, but she looks like a light barred rock. Anyway, she went broody almost two weeks ago. She is just in a nesting box, but we would like to move her and her 5eggs for two reasons.

1) She is a mean broody and is keeping other hens from laying in the adjoining nesting boxes and

2) The last broody we had was her mom. She wasn’t able to teach the chicks how to climb the ramp to the coop and something killed her and one of the chicks. Luckily, the other two ran under our little chick house.

For these reasons, we would like to move Lil Bit and her eggs to our chick house. We got it from someone who converted it from a playhouse to a little coop with its own covered run. We have covered the bottom with chicken wire so chicks can not squeeze through. We’ve raised a few groups of chicks in there and don’t let them out until they cannot fit through our regular fence. It’s a huge area, so we can’t cover the entire fencing with chicken wire easily.

How hard is it to move a broody hen? Will she still sit on the eggs or are we screwing that up? Hubby will use welding gloves, because she will peck the crap out of you if you try to touch her, lol.

If we shouldn’t move her, what else can we do to keep the babies from leaving the coop until we can move them? We have 16 pullets who call that coop home, so we can’t shut her in there.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Often times if you move a broody and her eggs at night once she has settled in for sleep , they will do just fine.. it kinda depends on the hen and how persistent she is to set. Ive moved several at night with no issues.
But it always a risk. If you have an incubator, it might be a good idea to get it up and running with temps and humidity stabilized before you move her.

 

[Spartan22]

This last few weeks I got 4 hens that went broody almost simultaneously, That cause some ruckus and problem with the favorite nesting boxes that end up with broken eggs and have lost half develop chick. I enclosed the bottom of poop boards and made a door access so I can contain the broody with feed and water just in case they needed them. Also eliminating new eggs added to the broody, I moved the broody at night in total darkness to avoid her fighting me off or upsetting her that might cause to abandon her eggs.
I placed her in a made up cardboard nest on the floor elevated few inches. She hatched a couple chicks, then while I was at work she moved all her remaining eggs on the floor including her 2 chicks, what puzzled me was how did she do this and not break the eggs and at the same time moved her babies. I guess the nest was not par to her liking.

 

[Marshaharrell]

We don’t have an incubator, so that’s not an option. I can’t really shut her in that coop because a lot of my pullets use it at night. We may just try to move them right after they hatch.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Ive had several hatch right in the nest boxes and then moved mom and littles to a better spot for them. That should work out well too.