two broodies

wildflowers

In the Brooder
11 Years
Nov 23, 2008
32
0
32
Washington
So a little over a week ago one of our hens went broody. So we went on a duck egg hunt and found some duck eggs for her to lay on. That was a week ago. We haven't been able to move her out of the coop because when we tried she totally freaked. So she has just been in one of the nest boxes. It is the favorite one though. She has let off the nest to let other chickens to lay there though and while we had to get the eggs out every so often, it was alright.
But then we noticed she was coming down. And she didn't seem to happy about it. And one of our other hens was going up there and sitting. At first we just thought she was laying. And now we are noticing that she is sitting on the eggs and our original broody hen is sitting right outside, she sitting like she is broody. So what do we do? This is our first experience with broody hens and eggs trying to hatch.
 
Let them both brood the eggs. I had two broody hens that brooded 5 eggs. Two of them hatched and both of those hens have mothered the chicks. Last weekend, I lost one of the chicks for what reason I don't know and now there is only one 3 week old chick. Both of those hens are still mother to that single chick.

It's a good thing. That's double protection for the chicks/ducklings. My baby lives with the flock of laying hens and NOBODY messes with that chick.
 
If you have alot of nest boxes try putting an egg in the closes nest box and picking her up and sitting her on it......see if you can get some fertile eggs and they'll hatch them out for you....
 
I have heard that hens will fight for and occasionally kill chicks on accident in the process. I would try and get some more fertile eggs or split up what you have.
 
They are fertile eggs that they are sitting on. Do you think I should try to separte them from the rest right now though? I am alittle worried about the hens having to fight through two broody hens to lay. We have 4 nest boxes but they all go in that one. We occasionally get an egg in one other but they pretend that 2 don't even exist. And the one is pretty much just laying on a ledge that leads into the nest box. It is sad. We have 10 duck eggs so I could split 5 to each hen if we move them.
 
If you want you can move them into another area...such as a small dog cage ...supply water and feed....do it at night with a flashlight...have everything ready so theres less stress for them....I think it'll depend on the chicken if she continues to sit on them...
I have a little bantam ....that expects me to move her ...and loves it...but yet again i have moved a first time broody and she then took a tantrum and destroyed her eggs...Good Luck
 
Thanks. We will try to move them tonight. The other one who was sitting on the ledge moved into the only other nest box that the chickens use
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so not good. We have a small coop, when we just had 3 hens. That should work. I hope.
 
So we moved them. The original broody hen freaked, the other one sat down and clucked with her eggs. And then later on we found that she moved over to sit with the original broody. So we moved the other eggs over there. And now it has been 2 days. I have seen the original in the box a few times, but mostly at night, I think she just decided to sleep there. Other times she is out walking around, scratching and isn't even puffed up anymore. Do we take her out? Or will she go back to broody? I feel really bad. Like we messed with her too much. Though I am also a little worried that the other one will just stop being broody though too. What would we do then? The eggs are on day 9. Though we don't know exactly how old they were when we got them.
 
Sounds like another case of their hormones being messed up from so much effort to breed broodiness out of them. I'd see if the original one will accept going back into the flock and hope the new broody sets til the eggs hatch. Good luck.
 
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