Moving my broody

Weetamoo93

Songster
May 11, 2020
169
282
156
South Mississippi
I just moved my broody hen that has only been setting for five days tonight because she was in the favored nest box and the other hens were harassing her.

The bedding is the same (pine shavings), but the nest box obviously is not and she is flustered by the move. I had to improvise with a large dog kennel and Rubbermaid storage container. The low for the night is 43°F. I cannot get her to settle back on the eggs, even if I move one beneath her once she settles in the kennel.

Will the eggs be okay for the night if she won't sit on them? I'm worried I made a mistake moving her, but with six hens sharing two nest boxes, I thought it better to move her. This is my first broody hen (they all just turned a year) and I'm a novice to all this. Any advice is appreciated.
 
Update: she is showing interest in pulling the eggs under her. I propped a flashlight in there just enough so she can see, but not well enough to want to leave. I really hope she does a little more before I officially turn in because I doubt I'll sleep well otherwise. I'm second-guessing my decision to move her at night, but had little choice overall in whether or not to move her due to our current setup. (Obviously something to keep in mind for a future revision)
 
(Obviously something to keep in mind for a future revision)
Hope she sat back down and stayed....but yeah, best to move them before giving eggs to hatch.

When I have a broody and want her to hatch I wait until she's been in the nest most the day and all night for 2-3 days...along with those other signs I posted.

Then I put her in the broody enclosure with fake eggs in the floor nest, she won't like being moved, but if she is truly good and broody she will settle onto the new nest within a half a day.
Then I give her fresh fertile eggs and mark the calendar.

I like them separated by wire from the flock, it's just easier all around.
No having to mark eggs and remove any additions daily, no taking up a laying nest, no going back to the wrong nest after the daily constitutional.

I remove barrier about one week after hatch. The chicks are usually safe it's the broody who has to 'fight' her way back into the pecking order...which can be quick or take a few days.
Lots of space helps for re-integration.
 
I just moved my broody hen that has only been setting for five days tonight because she was in the favored nest box and the other hens were harassing her.

The bedding is the same (pine shavings), but the nest box obviously is not and she is flustered by the move. I had to improvise with a large dog kennel and Rubbermaid storage container. The low for the night is 43°F. I cannot get her to settle back on the eggs, even if I move one beneath her once she settles in the kennel.

Will the eggs be okay for the night if she won't sit on them? I'm worried I made a mistake moving her, but with six hens sharing two nest boxes, I thought it better to move her. This is my first broody hen (they all just turned a year) and I'm a novice to all this. Any advice is appreciated.
I just did the same thing yesterday... mine has been sitting on eggs since Sunday.. when I moved her she wasn’t happy about it.. she did go back on the nest but doesn’t look as entranced as before... and this morning it looked like two of the eggs weren’t even under her and one was broken and gone.. I guess she ate the shell 🤷🏼‍♀️
It seems she keeps getting up and trying to escape her space which is a very familiar place as it is part of my coop... I wanted to move her for reasons that @aart stated and thought the sooner the better.. but now I wonder why she is so anxious... she isn’t in anything different or unfamiliar.. but I keep finding her food and water spilled as she is walking over it I guess. Before this she wouldn’t even get off the nest unless I moved her...
 
If she sat on them last night, she's been up long enough for them to be cold again, so I think my plan failed. Ugh.

She made her broody dinosaur noise, though, so she still wants to sit. So I guess I'll leave her in there to settle, even if it means replacing the eggs with new ones from her fellow hens.

@aart , I'll see if maybe I can set something up by my coop in the future, but it's pretty minimal for the seven birds we have. I did not have this foresight when planning the build even though I was definitely planning on breeding.
 
I don't think she's going back to her eggs, so it was a bust. My husband is going to add a nest box or two to our setup so any broodies can stay in their chosen nest.

On the an upside, another is possibly going broody in the favored nest now and the failed move is still making broody sounds.I'll need to look into breaking broodiness if a third starts since I only have six hens and we don't need that many chicks at a time.
 
I moved her back to the coop and she immediately went to the nest. I went ahead and put the eggs back under her for now. I'll probably switch them out with fresher eggs, though. I read through a couple threads here once I got the keywords right and I think she's one who is more imprinted on her nest site then her eggs, unfortunately.

I'll be hitting the chapters of my two chicken books to refresh my memory of their recommendations on handling a broody. (Storey's Guide and The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Ussery)
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom