Moving broody to a completely new nest? Is it possible?

[Ravie]

Hi everyone,

I have a hen who has been broody for a week. This morning, she came out to greet me and I discovered that her nest had been destroyed by predators. I'm sad, but SO happy she's ok. I had 10 silkie eggs under her!

I still have a few fertile silkie eggs and had nobody to sit on them. I locked her in a dog crate with the new eggs and I covered that with towels so it's nice and dark. I don't own an incubator (I bought a silkie hen for that, but she refuses!).

Do you think she'll sit? She's still acting broody. She's clucking and her feathers are ruffled.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Glad your hen is okay. Hope you find where the predator got in.

If she's clucking, then she'll go back to the nest. Give her some fake eggs or golf balls to sit on while she's thinking of sitting. Then when she is on the nest well and not budging, take the fake eggs out and give her the real ones.

 

[Ravie]

Sounds good. She is a free ranging hen, so she was sitting in the nest without any protection. She chose it herself and I thought it was hidden well enough that nobody would bother her. I don't want her to go back to the old nest. Whatever ate her eggs might get her next!

She is currently locked in a plastic dog crate with a nest box, and golf balls. I hope it works!

 

[ClaytonHowell]

I would say a coon or a skunk is what did it. If you live in a more populated area it is a coon. There is not much else that will bother her eggs unless it is a dog, but dogs must learn to eat eggs most are not smart enough to try them.

What you should do is blow out a few eggs and fill them with Tabasco or some other high octane hot sauce, tape the eggs holes, and put them back in the old nest. This is how we broke our farm dogs from being egg suckers when I was a kid. We put them around our nesting boxes in the barn so the dogs would think they had an easy meal.

One of our dogs never learned, that same year he attacked a sow and got an unfortunate case of the lead poisoning. But all of our other dogs learned quickly. If it isn't a dog then give those critters a taste of Louisiana for giggles anyway.

 

[Ravie]

Interesting advice. I suspect it wasn't a dog, but I can believe it was a skunk, coon or opossum. I will try your suggestion.