Question on moving broody

[junior67]

Ok so I have 3 broodys right now. I am going to break one. The other 2 hatched and raised chicks last year so thinking of trying again this year. But they are taking up the nest boxes. Lol. They will let others go in to lay but they don't let them kick them out and I collect the eggs daily so no staggered hatches.

I have a plastic nest box inside my coop that no one uses so it would be ideal for a broody. I have tried to move both but they aren't having it. I think I can squeeze the plastic one inside the wood one they are in. If I do that for a few days then move it out with the broody would she be grafted to the plastic box or just the wooden box since it would be in the same spot?

I have eggs in the incubator due to go into lockdown on Mon and hatch around Thurs, last hatch was early. I was going to give them to the broody that has been broody around 2 weeks. My plan is give her one egg at lockdown to hatch then the other chicks if that goes well.

Then I think I am getting eggs today that I was going to give to the other one.

But I am worried if I don't move her the eggs may get broken since my 1 yr old hens have been a bit jerky when I had unproven broodys.

Ideas? Last year I moved one to a different sectioned off area and she broke so I know that won't work. I had 4 hens raise chicks in the coop last year so not worried too much about that

 

[sourland]

When moving broody hens it is best to move them in the evening to a site separate from where they are setting. Hens bond more to the nest site than the eggs, and if possible will return to the nest site.

 

[junior67]

When moving broody hens it is best to move them in the evening to a site separate from where they are setting. Hens bond more to the nest site than the eggs, and if possible will return to the nest site.

I tried at night but they can see the other nest. I don't have anywhere to move them that they can't. I know they bond to nest site not eggs. That was why I wasn't sure if putting plastic bin in other nest then moving it and her would work or if it would be the area she bonded to and not the box itself.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have something you can try, if your set-up allows. Build a pen with a nest, food, water, and very little extra room. Build it with the expectation she will stay in there until her eggs hatch and so no other hen can get to that nest. Try to avoid bright light, but as a minimum make the nest fairly dark inside. I make the nest so I can lock her in the nest only.

Move her at night with as little light and commotion as you can manage. Lock her in that new nest in the dark until the end of the next day. I assume she is sitting on some "sacrificial" or fake eggs. Move those with her. Just before dark open her nest to allow her to come out to eat, drink, and poop if she will. She may still break from being broody but I think this gives you the best chance of moving her without breaking her. Once she has accepted the move give her the real hatching eggs.

On the hen that you are going to give the incubated eggs I'd give her at least a few, like four minimum. Or you can give her all of them. If she can cover them I'd probably give her all of them. You never know if one will hatch. I'd give her enough to assure she has a couple of eggs that should hatch. I think the chances of her bonding with them is greater if she is talking with them after they internal pip and she feels and hears them hatching under her.

One time I had a hen hatch a couple of chicks in her nest and I tried to give her some incubator chicks the same age. Her chicks hatched early and were all red. The incubator hatch had a few black ones in it. She accepted the red chicks and rejected the black chicks. I guess she bonded with the red ones. Earlier that year she had hatched and raised both red and black chicks. That's the only time I had a hen reject some incubator chicks and accept others.

I can't give you guarantees about any of this but it's the way I'd try it. Good luck!

 

[junior67]

I have something you can try, if your set-up allows. Build a pen with a nest, food, water, and very little extra room. Build it with the expectation she will stay in there until her eggs hatch and so no other hen can get to that nest. Try to avoid bright light, but as a minimum make the nest fairly dark inside. I make the nest so I can lock her in the nest only.

Move her at night with as little light and commotion as you can manage. Lock her in that new nest in the dark until the end of the next day. I assume she is sitting on some "sacrificial" or fake eggs. Move those with her. Just before dark open her nest to allow her to come out to eat, drink, and poop if she will. She may still break from being broody but I think this gives you the best chance of moving her without breaking her. Once she has accepted the move give her the real hatching eggs.

On the hen that you are going to give the incubated eggs I'd give her at least a few, like four minimum. Or you can give her all of them. If she can cover them I'd probably give her all of them. You never know if one will hatch. I'd give her enough to assure she has a couple of eggs that should hatch. I think the chances of her bonding with them is greater if she is talking with them after they internal pip and she feels and hears them hatching under her.

One time I had a hen hatch a couple of chicks in her nest and I tried to give her some incubator chicks the same age. Her chicks hatched early and were all red. The incubator hatch had a few black ones in it. She accepted the red chicks and rejected the black chicks. I guess she bonded with the red ones. Earlier that year she had hatched and raised both red and black chicks. That's the only time I had a hen reject some incubator chicks and accept others.

I can't give you guarantees about any of this but it's the way I'd try it. Good luck!

Thanks. I don't have the space to do it. Last year I did that since I had a "temp" chick brooder set up in my coop under the poop boards and it wasn't being used so I moved her in there. yup she went nuts in there and broke really quick. LOL Which at that time if she broke I didn't care. This year out the back of the coop but under the poop boards we built more nest boxes so I can't really block that section off as I have a couple hens that will ONLY use those boxes no matter what. Then the other section under the poop boards is where my chick brooder is now built.

The thing with giving the other hen all the eggs is if something happened to them then I don't have any. Plus I got them from the breeder that I use and I had bought eggs about 3 weeks ago that should have been Lav Orps and they hatched black. So she didn't know if she had a sneaky black split in there or if they were mislabeled. So she sent me 1 egg from each lav girl to hatch out so I could watch and see what hatched from each girls eggs to be sure that it wasn't that one is in the wrong pen. I have 1 egg of my own in there that developed that I was going to give her. Last year she got some shipped eggs and a few of my own that I had no luck with so only 1 under her hatched, I had some of them in the incubator as well and 1 hatched in there so I gave her that one in the day and she took to it with zero issues. Another one I had hatch 4 and another 14 hatched in the incubator (had her hatch all of 1 breed so I could mark them) and I gave her the other 14 and she raised all 18. LOL

I got 16 eggs today which is more than I thought I would so I may just give the new broody some of them and put the others in the incubator so hopefully some of them hatch with no issues........