Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

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Niss said:
Welcome to the wonderful world of broodies! So glad she's sitting and not digesting!!! I would move her too, it may break her brood, but I would try anyway, as I worry about nasty critters sniffing her out even though she's imposable to see. Do it tonight, after dark. Have the new spot ready. If you have a helper one person can grab her and the other can scoop up the whole nest to relocate to the brooder. A contained place keeps other hens out of her nest and may help convince her to settle back in, If other birds can enter your brooder be sure to mark the eggs.
As to eggs--1. Yes, if she stays broody when moved she will sit as long as it takes. 2. Yes, a hatch with that big of a stagger won't work--she'll have to take the first set out to eat and drink and learn how to be chickens before the new eggs hatch--also watch the total number to be sure all are covered. I don't have a bo, so I don't know what the upper limits are, but you may do better with fewer eggs. If you stick with the ones she has in the nest you could try candling to remove duds now...I'm personally an aweful candler though!
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Thanks! We went ahead and moved her after dark. It was impossible to actually take her whole nest as it basically consisted of a bunch of fallen limbs/large branches. But we were able to give her a nice little setup in our brooder by putting a box in it filled with freshly cut branches to make her feel safe there and hopefully give it a similar feeling. We had that all set up with a new batch of eggs in it before it got dark then after dark we went out to get her (again, even knowing where she was it was hard to see her and even after we saw her it was still hard to reach in and get her because she was on a fairly steep slope). She seemed to settle down a bit on the nest before we went in, but we tried not to look too much because we didn't want to upset her with the flashlight. Later that night, it started raining so I went outside to double check that she wasn't getting wet, and she was off the nest. I set her back on the nest and went in for the night. When we checked on her in the morning she was sitting very intently on the nest. We have only seen her out of her nest once since then, though the food we have nearby for her looks like it has been pecked at just a little bit so it looks like she's taken at least one other short break.

No other hens are able to get into the brooder (though we did see one on top of it looking in at her and cooing to her) so we didn't mark the eggs that we gave her. We gave her a total of 16 eggs, which from our very amateur observances she seems to be doing a fine job of keeping covered. We have wondered if part of the reason she got off the nest that first night is because we didn't consider the fact that the new eggs we were giving her would be cold(we took them straight from the coop to her new nest). She seems to be doing fine now though.
 
artsyrobin said:
ok, tried it, no go, she won't stay on the eggs unless she is in 'her' box.... so i am going to have to watch real close - she just won't go for being away from that box- so maybe if i lower the box to the floor and enclose it?
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I'd try to at least get the box to the floor, you don't want to take a chance when the chick hatches it may fall out.
 
Thanks this is her 2nd day if she is still broody tomorow
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I think I will give her some eggs!!!
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4 days ago, I posted


Quote:

Yesterday evening, Nutmeg was sleeping in the nest box. Not wanting to get too excited, I ignored it. Today, she is still there! I gave her some golf balls to sit on till Tuesday, if she is still there she will get 6 LF eggs to hatch. It will be her first clutch but this is her 3rd time broody. She is 9 mos old.

 
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I will try to keep a long story as short as I can. I am a novice with three production chickens that were doing fine. Built them a new 4x6 coop in the summer. On an impulse I added a bantam silver lace wyandotte. Not a great layer. One of the hens decided to start picking on the other two. Was about ready to get rid of the bantam and then she started laying an egg a day for a couple of weeks. Of course I removed them. Then I noticed she was always in the nest box on top of the golf ball. We thought she was her usual unsocialable self. Then my father in law said he was broody, so I ordered 4 fertilized eggs. A few days before they arrived I moved her to a small coop in the garage with a new nest box and her golf ball. It is very cold here in Wisconsin. The eggs came and we placed them under her. She sat on them for three days and then I noticed she was down in the lower part of the coop and the eggs were cold. I moved her back up to the nest and blocked off the small area she is in so she has access to food and water. Any chance the eggs are still okay? Would you expect them to get off the nest so long the eggs get old??
 

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