No Eggs While She's Broody???????????

[EELover]

Ok so apparently barred rocks only "play" broody which is fine. I have 5 of them who like to lay on the nest for about 2 days and jump off. Well now I have 2 Buff Orpingtons and one of them decided to go broody which is fine, she can have the eggs I don't care. However, I have 4 nesting boxes and I tried to pick up an egg in the box next to her and she squawked at me like a bald eagle. I also noticed one of the other hens try to peek in on her and she did the same thing. Does this mean I don't get any eggs while she's sitting on her's (Dear God, don't let there be 8 or something). Are the other ladies going to have to lay on the floor or something? I have a rooster who loves his girls very much and would try to kick my butt if I touched her too much. What do I do? Help please!

 

[HEChicken]

A lot of people segregate a broody into a separate smaller area for her to sit and raise her chicks. For me that solution worked great - the other hens weren't able to add non-fertile eggs to her fertile nest, or disturb her while she sat. She was still able to see, hear and talk to them while she sat, (not that she was that interested in doing the latter - she was very focused on her task). After the chicks hatched, she didn't have to worry about keeping them safe from the rest of the flock. When they were about 10 days old she got restless so I opened up the broody coop and let her introduce the chicks to the rest of the flock. Because they had been able to see and hear them all along, there were no problems by that point and for the chicks, integration into the flock was seamless.

 

[EELover]

So we definitely move her then? Like a dog kennel in the corner or something? This means I have to get that rooster outside then. ok cool.