Moving Broody Hen and her Clutch

[Kzdnae]

Hello! I have a barnyard mix sitting for the first time and I am not sure exactly how long she’s been on these eggs. We think it’s getting close to hatching time, but we can’t be positive. My kids help me with the gathering and they were taking her eggs for at least a week after she went broody before we decided to let her have her clutch. Problem is, she is in a coop with 14 hens and 3 Roos. I had intended to remove the Roos and block her off before the hatching. But that may not happen. My question is, can I move her this late in the game? Her nest is moveable and I could pick the whole thing up and take it to a different location easily. Will she abandon her hard work???

 

[sourland]

At this point in the game if she is not being disturbed by the flock I would not move her until the chicks start hatching. That would lessen the possibility of her 'breaking'.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We moved a broody hen and several eggs after finding one of the eggs hatched. Surprise! We were going to move her that night after dark, thinking she had a couple more days to go. She didn't break and hatched several more. I no longer recall how many eggs she had or how many hatched; I think 4 hatched. But we ended up with 4 broody hens that year, all BOs, and 8 hatchlings, it was very confusing, lol! She was our first and I went into panic mode but she did fine. We had tried to break her several times to no avail, so she sat a lot longer than 21 days, plus the time she stayed with them after hatching.

 

[chickens really]

Definitely you can successfully move her. She is Broody and I would do it now..

 

[Kzdnae]

Well, I tried to move her at dusk and she got upset, so I put her and the eggs back. One hatched today and the flock killed it. I’m so sad and sick over it. I know lessons are learned through mistakes. But this really stinks I gave the other eggs to a second broody hen that is already secluded. I candled all the eggs she now has and it looks like some aren’t developing. So y’all cull eggs?