Moving a hen sitting on eggs safely?

[rojochicks]

Hello all,
We have a broody girl, she's been on 16 eggs for a week now. Every once in a while we find the others eggs under her that she scoops out after they lay to add to her clutch. She is in a nesting box in the main coop with everyone else (3 nesting boxes and currently 3 other laying hens). She's not in the favorite box anymore, we moved her from there when I brought the new eggs for her to sit on, but she's still in there and sometimes taking their eggs after they lay them.

I just walked up on a hen laying an egg on our stone patio, and we have had several other eggs in the last week laid not in nesting boxes. This is the second time we had a broody sit on eggs (first ended terribly with a fox attacking our chicks and mama with big losses) in the coop. The first one we had in the same box, but we built a fence type thing to keep her contained and out of the other nesting boxes, I don't remember having any issues with other hens being rebellious with their egg laying. We are going to set up an "apartment" of sorts for after the chicks hatch, but were planning to wait until after hatch for fear of egg losses in the process of moving mama and eggs.

Does anyone have any advice for moving mama and her nest/clutch prior to hatching? or should we put a fence or something up inside the coop to keep her contained so she doesn't steal other eggs or harass the other ladies when they go to lay? This just didn't seem to be an issue with the other hen when we did this back in March/April. Thanks for any advice!

 

[rIrs roost]

Is she still on 16 eggs?

 

[YdogsflY]

Separate her and some eggs.

Broody hens do not work out well in the egg boxes.

 

[rojochicks]

Is she still on 16 eggs?

Yes she is still on all 16, sometimes 17 or 18 if she takes freshly laid ones. I marked the ones that are fertile that we placed under her.

 

[rojochicks]

Separate her and some eggs.

Broody hens do not work out well in the egg boxes.

Our other hen did fine in one, but we put up a barrier fence that they could all still see each other but not actually get to each other through it. We loved her and the chicks when they were about 4 or 5 days old and that worked well. I was just wondering if it was better to move her now since the others aren't seeming happy or if it was better to move after they hatch.

 

[rIrs roost]

If she's on 16 eggs the hatch and survival rate will go down. I'm not trying to be a butt or tell you what to do but if I was in that situation I'd remove over half of those eggs. What happens is when a hen sets on too many, she can't keep all of them at the right temp. So she moves them around and some never hatch or die because they weren't heated right.

 

[rojochicks]

If she's on 16 eggs the hatch and survival rate will go down. I'm not trying to be a butt or tell you what to do but if I was in that situation I'd remove over half of those eggs. What happens is when a hen sets on too many, she can't keep all of them at the right temp. So she moves them around and some never hatch or die because they weren't heated right.

Our plan was to candle on Friday and remove any that aren't growing, then have her sit on the rest until the end. We had a hen sitting on 12 and 1 broke and one got pushed out. Then of those 10, 8 had embryos which she hatched all 8.

 

[Farmgal101]

Are you or Anyone else interested in having some easter egger chickens I have some for sell.I live in waverly hall georgia.They came from my broody hen

 

[rIrs roost]

Our plan was to candle on Friday and remove any that aren't growing, then have her sit on the rest until the end. We had a hen sitting on 12 and 1 broke and one got pushed out. Then of those 10, 8 had embryos which she hatched all 8.

wow she done great hatching eight. Is she a good sized hen?

 

[rojochicks]

wow she done great hatching eight. Is she a good sized hen?

The one that hatched 8 was smaller than the one that's sitting now. This one is a good size.