Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

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Poop The Nest. For educational purpose Lets talk about pooping in the nest/on the eggs-etc. I read so many times on here about "My Hen Pooped The Nest" Why Does it happen to some and Not others----questions/answers like that is what I am looking for.

I will start---In the last 3 years I have set app 150 broody hens, probably a dozen or more different breeds. 1000 to 1200 chicks later and I have yet to have a broody to poop in the nest. I am wondering if the reason it never happens to me is I never have feed/water close to the nest. I never offer "treats" to the broody. I leave my broodies completely alone other than adding food and water when needed.

Who wants to offer some info or questions??
 
I keep the food and water 2-3 feet away from the nest. Same set up for every broody hen. Two have done it, none of my others have. My buff orpingtons get off the nest and run out to dust bathe, stretch, peck around and get some sunshine and are generally pretty calm through the whole process. My broodies that have pooped the nest are the more aggressively defensive moms. For me the set up hasn't changed. All the same nest, same place in the garage, same feeders and waterers. I don't feed them on the nest ever. I even have one hen that only gets off the nest every 3 days sometimes. She never poops the nest. I'm starting to think it's just maybe bad broodies in my case. Both have proven to be excellent moms once their babies hatched. One was a first time broody, and the other I got as an adult so I don't know if she'd ever been broody before or her behavior while broody. I no longer have my first nest pooper. The second, since I know for sure it was her first time, I'll probably let her sit if she goes broody again in the future. I may put her in an 8ft pen and put her food and water at the opppsite end from the nest and see if we still have the same issue, if she poops the nest next time she may meet the crock pot. She hatched 6 babies but we had a lot of eggs under her quit and I think it may have been because of the poop. She pooped the nest the second time right before hatch. We had 3 eggs that quit right before hatch. Never pipped.
 
I have a broody in an 8ft pen now with her nest on one end and the food and water on the other. She's also a first time broody. She stayed broody for a week and a half or two weeks before I collected enough EE eggs to put under her for a hatch. She didn't poop the nest while she was being broody on the daily laid eggs from my brown egg layers. She happily moved onto her new nest of blue eggs in the pen. Thus far, she has not pooped the nest. She never got put into my normal broody nest in the garage though, I happened to have this empty pen so I put her there. Nothing worse than shoveling broody poop off the garage floor every day. So the next time my nest pooper wants to be broody, I'm going to put her in this same pen and see if having the food and water even farther away keeps her from pooping the nest. I didn't realize the food and water may be too close, because my other hens didn't have an issue with it and didn't poop the nest anyway, they also got off the nest and left the garage and took a break for 15-20 minutes. My nest poopers rarely took breaks longer than a few minutes. Just enough to drink some water and eat and they were back on the eggs.
 
Some interesting reads on here about Broodies.

Some notes of personal experience that may contradict what others have found:
Hatched by an EE 36 chicks, she was free range on 4 acres and we though she had been taken by a predator. 1 month later she showed up at night for lockdown with 36 bubbies in tow.
Hatch by silkie: the most my silkie can hatch in one go is 18, but unfortunately none of my hens will look after more than 6 chicks, so if I let them sit on that many I need to brood them separately.
I have done all my recent broody hatched without separating from the flock with no real issue, I just need to collect the the extra eggs from under the broody daily as many will steal any nearby eggs when they get up.
I have 1 broody that always spends at least 2.5 hours a day off the nest during incubation, but does go into lockdown 48 hours before first pip. She always has a 24 day hatch.
I have another that will spend less than 5 minutes off the nest in every 2 days and runs a 19 day hatch.
I use kitty litter or shellgrit as nesting material as hay goes moult and causes sickness due to the extreme wet conditions.
 
400
. Silkiecuddles and her 2 babies hatched today day 24 as usual.
 
sjturner79 said:
Some interesting reads on here about Broodies.

Some notes of personal experience that may contradict what others have found:
Hatched by an EE 36 chicks, she was free range on 4 acres and we though she had been taken by a predator. 1 month later she showed up at night for lockdown with 36 bubbies in tow.
Hatch by silkie: the most my silkie can hatch in one go is 18, but unfortunately none of my hens will look after more than 6 chicks, so if I let them sit on that many I need to brood them separately.
I have done all my recent broody hatched without separating from the flock with no real issue, I just need to collect the the extra eggs from under the broody daily as many will steal any nearby eggs when they get up.
I have 1 broody that always spends at least 2.5 hours a day off the nest during incubation, but does go into lockdown 48 hours before first pip. She always has a 24 day hatch.
I have another that will spend less than 5 minutes off the nest in every 2 days and runs a 19 day hatch.
I use kitty litter or shellgrit as nesting material as hay goes moult and causes sickness due to the extreme wet conditions.
Click to expand...
That might explain why my girls hatch early. We are popping out regularly on day 19. Interesting observations.
 
My Barred Rock is on days 19, 18, and 17. I put 12 eggs under her and 3 broke so she had nine. We float candeled on Monday and 7 were good. I candeled them and one looked clear and porous and the other looked like a blood ring. I cracked them open and one was infertile and the other seemed like it was starting to develop and there was just red yolk. Wish me luck with these 7 babies.
 

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