Relocating broody hen

[grammychick]

After assuming my speckled Sussex hen succumbed to a predator I found her yesterday laying on lots of eggs. She had been “missing” for 10 days and I was ecstatic to find her (she’s my shadow!) The problem is the place where she picked to nest is not in the safest area for newborn chicks. She’s next to a 3 1/2 foot ledge and in dirt. Should I try to move her and the eggs to a safer location or leave her be and try to place a barrier between her and the ledge so babies don’t fall over it?

 

[nchls school]

After assuming my speckled Sussex hen succumbed to a predator I found her yesterday laying on lots of eggs. She had been “missing” for 10 days and I was ecstatic to find her (she’s my shadow!) The problem is the place where she picked to nest is not in the safest area for newborn chicks. She’s next to a 3 1/2 foot ledge and in dirt. Should I try to move her and the eggs to a safer location or leave her be and try to place a barrier between her and the ledge so babies don’t fall over it?

There are pros and cons to whatever you do. You can make her nest better and safer by putting a low plastic container at her "hidden" nest site. Make an appropriate nest in the container; low but deep enough to keep new chicks in. Put the eggs and broody in the new nest. Predators are still a problem so if you do this make a cover for the nest at night to keep the hen and eggs safe.
If you decide to move her, do it at night in the dark. The con here is that the hen may not accept a new location and the eggs might be ruined. Putting her in a cage would prevent her from trying to return to her original nest, but I'd still recommend checking her first thing in the morning to be sure the new nest has been accepted. If she rejects the move the eggs can be returned to the original nest as the hen will, most likely, return to the hidden nest.

Good luck.

 

[SharW75]

We just had the same issue with a broody bantam game bird. She decided to nest at the edge of the field next to our house. The nest was amazingly well hidden, but we have all kinds of predators, and I just knew she wouldn't make it all 21 days without being eaten. We attempted to put her in a cage in the coop, but she flipped out and then refused to sit back down on her eggs. We would have just tossed them, but they were all viable when we candled, so we stuck them in the incubator for a couple days, then under another broody when the earlier eggs went on lockdown. They're now on day 7 and doing great.

There are definitely risks to trying to move a broody, but in our case, the risk of her getting eaten was very real, and we didn't have a choice.