So I posted about my hen that was missing and only coming home for 1 hour at a time. Well we did follow her this morning. She is flying over our 6 foot chain link fence. She is on the other side under a piece of tin that is propped up by weeds. She has about 10 eggs under her. She pecked my hand and made herself flat like a pancake and growled at me. She is out in the open, we have coyotes, hawks, dogs and racoons. I really am worried she'll die trying to do this. How do I move her? We have a very large dog crate, if i put her and the eggs in there, where should I put the crate? In the coop w/ the ladies, in the pasture (its fenced) with the flock or on my back patio. Will she reject the eggs if I move them?
Here is what I would do. I would catch her with any type of net you have. Then, move her in to the crate with the eggs. Next, put the crate somewhere in your house. Lastly, let her be. Also have you seen her active with your roo before she disapeered? I believe a hen can stay fertile up to a few days before she has to be "done" again.
I would get the crate all ready to go and put it in place. I like the idea of the coop. If its a big crate, you can even put some feed and water inside. After dark, hopefully with two people, you would be able to catch her on the nest, remove her quickly to reduce the chance of egg breakage. One person carry the hen, the other carry the eggs. Put the eggs in the crate in a nest then put her in the crate. She will probably not go immediately to the nest because she want to go where her nest was. I had one off the nest for 24 hrs and they all hatched. It was warmer weather, though. Any time you move a broody, you need to be ready to incubate or sacrifice the eggs if she won't go to the nest. You will need to feed and water in the crate for several days, or she may go to the old nest.
I broke two broody hens until I read something here that said to wait until dark. Try and put "her nest" as best you can into something and move the nest covered with a towel or something. It worked like a champ. Unfortunately you will have to do quite a bit more "disturbing" than I did since all I had to do was cover what she was in.
