not sure if this should go here - moving a broody hen and nursey?

[coldinnh]

Ok so my Andulasian has gone broody and I have seen/heard moving the eggs abour under her.She is nested in the insulation of the roost top. I dont want chickie pancakes so how do I politely move her? Should I move the ggs while she is down feeding? Move together? Do I need a "nursery"? Or can she go inside the roost with the other chickens?
If I need a nursey what should it look like? This means I will need to chick food again?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
This is what I do and it works every time. I only move at night so not to disturb her too much. When my hens go broody, I place her in the brooder that I had built for my broody hens. I make a nice nest with hay and have food and water already inside of the brooder. In your case, you should already have a special place prepared for her. After making the nest of hay, I take the eggs from under her and place in the nest. After all eggs have been collected and placed on the new nest, I then carefully pick up the broody hen and carefully place her on her eggs. The hen is then isolated, safe and secure from the rest of the girls. Once the chicks hatch, I keep them in the brooder with mom for a few weeks (along with chick starter feed for both mom and babies and water). After a few weeks, I move them to a larger area where the babies can scratch and walk around and play. Once the babies have feathered up and have grown a bit, I let them out to free range (when I am there) for a few hours. Then it is back in their stall area. The babies stay with the mom as long as she lets them.

Everyone will have their own set up based on what they want and need. There are a lot of threads on here in reference to brooders. Some people set-up brooders inside of their house and others have set-ups outside or in the garage. Some people use large boxes, large storage totes, dog carriers. It just depends. I can post a pic of one of my brooders but I have several brooders because I have a lot hens that go broody at one time. I hope this helps.

 

[coldinnh]

yes it does so it sounds like the nursery is the brooder like I had when I first got my chickies. great- hubby is going to love the idea of a hen in the house. So I guess I keep the set isolated from the main hen house?

Haven't hens hatched eggs in hen houses for centuries? Is it safe to move her down in corner and build a little partition for to keep kinda isolated? But I have read that some hens use a nest box... how do the chicks get down to food and water?

ps love the turkey what breed?

 

[Forever Green]

I live in Ohio, snow and cold. I've only had 1 hen (Jersey Giant) go broody last summer. We followed the same path, moving her and the eggs at night to a quiet separate place (our outside mud porch). It is truly a mud porch, so it was a perfect spot. It was nice and hot in summer, so we didn't have to bring them indoors, thankfully. I already have an 80 lb tortoise living in my house and 2 jack russells. Keeping her and the eggs in the coop too chaotic with the other hens laying and wanting nest box time. Plus the hens would lay their eggs by the broody hen and she would grab them and put them under her. By day 2 or 3, we had to mark the eggs and decided we needed to move her for easier food access and calm days in her own nesting box. She was very appreciative, I think, as she was not a very affectionate bird normally and during her brood, she was very engaged with us, eating from our hands. We gave her nice cold yogurt, salmon, trying to give her some protein to keep her strength. Seemed we nursed her so she could sit the eggs. She was a fabulous mom at hatching and took care of the little ones (only 3 hatched out of 7) for several weeks post hatching.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Yes, hens have hatched eggs in the hen houses for centuries and I'm sure many people do so. It's just some (like me) rather allow them to have their own space and quiet time in their own little luxury suite.

I wouldn't allow other hens and roosters to have access to the broody hen. In my opinion, It's just unsafe and nerve wrecking for the broody hen. You surely can partition it off. Make sure that the food and water are all in one place for both mom and babies, so they don't have to go looking for food and water.