Question again about broody hen?

[stellas mommy]

I brought home 1 broody hen (from a friends house so i know she was broody) and now shes not anymore after I moved her. (that was a week ago or 1 1/2 weeks ago that i brought her home)

She laid 4 eggs today and started sitting on them for a few hours. I got out the chicken cage and put in food, water, small basket, and hay. I put the eggs in there and put her in there and she kept taking the eggs out and putting them on the cage floor. And when I went back in there she has broken open one of the eggs and ate it! I am at a loss for what I should do? If I keep her in the cage will she eat the rest of the eggs, she doesnt seem interested in laying on them anymore.

This is my first time with broody hens and I just dont know what to do. I could really use some advice on what kind of set up I should have, and what I should do.

Thanks guys.

 

[Czech's_chicks]

A hen is broody on her own schedule. When you move them you take a big risk of them snapping out of it, unless you have a tried and true breed that are hard to break. The constant interaction/intervention by you will do more harm than good. I would leave her alone completely withe the eggs where she wants them (it's her nest), and if she takes to them, good for you, if not, give her a few days or weeks and she may go broody again...otherwise, it's an unfortunate hard lesson to learn, but one you wont soon forget.

Good luck!

 

[stellas mommy]

So do you think its better for me to just put the remaining 3 eggs in the fridge because theyre probably dead by now. She laid them about 9 am. its 5pm now.

 

[Gypsy07]

She didn't lay all the eggs in one day. Where did they come from?

 

[stellas mommy]

She came from a friends house with about 20 other chickens. They live about 15 min away and its not a traumatizing ride.

 

[Gypsy07]

No no, that's not what I meant. You said she laid four eggs today and started sitting on them. But she can't have laid four eggs in one day. So I was wondering where the four eggs came from? As for how to retain/encourage broodiness, it's not really something you can influence too much. A hen decides for herself whether she wants to sit or not. If she does, you'll have a hard time getting her to stop, and if she doesn't, you'll have an almost impossible time getting her to start!

When my hen went broody, I moved her to a private coop to give her some peace. I made up the nest in advance and put the eggs in it. When I first put her in the coop, it took her a few hours to start sitting on the nest, and it obviously took her a few days to get down to it in earnest, because the chicks ended up hatching on day 25 or 26, so I reckon the first couple of days she wasn't really sitting properly. All the time she was sitting, I peeked in a window once a day to check she was okay, and only opened the door when her food and water was needing topped up. I really tried to disturb her as little as possible...

So.... if you've given her a private space and some peace and quiet, and she still doesn't want to sit, you might just have to give up. Sorry. If you want to encourage her without wasting any more hatching eggs, you could try giving her some fake rubber eggs or some plastic toy eggs. If she settles down on them for a couple of days, then you can swap them over for some real hatching eggs at night...

 

[Nostalchic]

It would be pretty optimistic to think that you could remove a hen from her home and "family" (her flock), put her in an entirely new environment with new individuals, social structure, routine, etc., and that she would be confident and relaxed enough to attempt to hatch out some chicks. She needs to adjust to this very stressful event, even if you did everything you could to make it as easy as possible for her. They aren't machines, they have friends and relationships and attachments to their homes. I wouldn't hold my breath on this one. Also, I generally wait until a broody is confirmed - won't leave the nest, fluffs up if approached, all that - for a week or so before I would consider putting her on eggs that I care about. Good luck.

 

[stellas mommy]

I have 17 other chickens so yeah I know where the eggs came from. The reason why we had to remove her was because my friend runs a business for just eggs. And The broody hen wasnt helping because she kept stealing eggs.


I'm just going to leave her alone and see what she does. Theres not much I can do anyways right?

 

[Czech's_chicks]

It's hormonal so just letting her be would be your best bet. Congrats..I'm waiting for my silkies to honor me with broodiness.