Very broody hen rejected her private setup

[NightingaleJen]

One of my young BR hens is seriously broody. Being fine with letting her set, after dark last night we moved her into her own little setup--the brooder, with food, water, shavings, and cardboard box with a small plastic dishpan of shavings and golf balls (which she has already been guarding zealously for days).

She apparently did not settle overnight, and when I popped in this morning to let her out to do her thing, she charged three other hens and roo who happened to be in the coop growled at everyone, and fluttered back up to the nestbox, cluck-clucking all the way. This happened three times (since she went back to a nestbox, I put her back in the brooder setup).

Any advice? Should we block her view in the brooder and try again tonight? Or let her brood in the nestbox? We have plenty of the latter, and she is not letting anyone in, but of course she chose one about four feet off the floor.

FWIW, I'm leaning toward trying to move her again tonight, maybe covering the brooder a bit so it is darker, but again, appreciate advice. Thanks!

 

[Az OEGB]

Here is my experience with moving broody hens after they go broody. They will leave the nest and probably won’t go back until you move her and her nest back to the original spot she went broody.

 

[Saveria]

They move easier after the chicks have all hatched in my experience. Maybe they think you are taking them away from their eggs, somehow. It can be a little scary to move chicks in the middle of the night, but it worked out okay for us.

 

[NatJ]

I've moved broody hens sometimes.

At some point I got tired of trying to break hens that wouldn't break, and move hens that wouldn't move, so I came up with a method that works for me:

I shut the broody in the place I want her to nest, with food & water provided, and ignore any pacing and fussing. Either she will settle down in the new place, or she will break her own broodiness. About 3 days is enough to be sure one way or the other. Then I can give her eggs (if broody) or return her to the main coop (if no longer broody).

Or, if I want to be sure she stays broody, I can just give her eggs in the main coop and move her after the chicks hatch. (But mark the eggs she is supposed to be hatching, and check each day to remove any new eggs.) That has worked for me with some hens that refused to be moved while broody.

I noticed repeating patterns, that a hen who could be moved while broody could also be moved the next time, while a hen who refused to move would also refuse the next time.

 

[MountainWoman73]

I have had to let mine hatch in the nest she went broody in. Then I move her and the chicks about 2 days after they hatch. I've had no problems doing this. Except it's a little bit of a pain that the other hens can constantly get in the nest and add eggs.

I previously tried moving the nest with the broody and eggs, but was unsuccessful. She got off the eggs and just paced and was agitated until she was allowed to return to her original nest. I think it's typical for hens to know which nest is theirs but not recognize "their" eggs if they get moved.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any advice? Should we block her view in the brooder and try again tonight? Or let her brood in the nestbox?

Some of us let the hens incubate the eggs, hatch the eggs, and raise the chicks with the flock. Others isolate the hen when incubating, when hatching, or after hatching. All kinds of different combinations of these. In my opinion, if your coop is small or the run is small isolating at some point may be a good idea. If your coop is elevated with a ramp or the pop door is challenging for a chick to negotiate you may need to take steps. I have no idea what the right decision for you might be since I know nothing about your coop and run.

We have plenty of the latter, and she is not letting anyone in, but of course she chose one about four feet off the floor.

My hens regularly hatch in nests this high. The hens have never had a problem getting the chicks safely to the coop floor. The hens fly/hop to the coop floor, tell the chicks to jump, and they do. Then they bounce up and run to the hen without being hurt.

I did have an issue one time. I let a hen hatch in a cat litter bucket nest. The bucket was so narrow that when a chick climbed up on the hen's back it missed the nest and fell unhurt four feet to the coop floor when it fell off of the hen's back. Four different times I had to pick a chick up and put it back with the broody, probably the same chick. I retired that nest. Other than that I've never had a chick fall out of a nest.

golf balls (which she has already been guarding zealously for days).

Hens imprint on the nest location, not the eggs.

when I popped in this morning to let her out to do her thing,

Don't let her out to do her thing. Put the golf balls in the nest in there and leave her locked in like NatJ said. It is safest to leave her locked in the new location until the eggs hatch. Some hens will return to the new nest after they have set on it for a few days, some won't if given a chance to go back to the old nest. A hen may return to the new nest for a week then one day you find her on the old nest. But if you open that up where she can go outside to do her thing, it's possible other hens can lay in her new nest. If you are going to let them do that, why did you bother to move her to start with?

 

[NightingaleJen]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and suggestions! We will move her tonight and leave her in the nesting area by herself for a few days. Truthfully, that was my inclination this morning and I should have stuck with it. Somewhat unfortunately we decided on a whim to fire up THE TEN COMMANDMENTS last night and were up much later than usual, so my thinking was foggy. Should I somewhat block her view of the other birds? I was only letting her out in the morning because I've read on other threads that she would want to run out to eat, drink, dust bathe, and eliminate.

Ugh, I ought to have taken a picture of the brooder but it's right next to the chicken area of the coop (inside the coop), just on the ground level (which I cannot blame her for disliking even if she DID grow up there) and separated by wire and clear plexiglass. It's roughly 3x4 inside.

The chicken area of the coop is 8x10/12 (altogether it's 8x16), IIRC. The brooder is on the 'people side'. If we do end up with peeps, I can set up steps inside the coop; we have a long ram to the ground from the door to outside, which we can also adjust to be chick-friendly.

(It was Coop Cleanout Day today, what timing.)

Thanks again for your help, everyone! No one in our first flock ever took this very seriously after more than a day and a half. They much prefer to wander around outdoors!

 

[NatJ]

Should I somewhat block her view of the other birds?

I don't think it really matters.

I was only letting her out in the morning because I've read on other threads that she would want to run out to eat, drink, dust bathe, and eliminate.

If the brooder space is large enough for her to do those things, there is no need to let her out at all.

If you have her shut into a space that is a nestbox and nothing else, you will need to let her out at least once a day, and put her back after. (No matter which nest she goes to, put her back where you want her to be.)

I ought to have taken a picture of the brooder but it's right next to the chicken area of the coop (inside the coop), just on the ground level (which I cannot blame her for disliking even if she DID grow up there) and separated by wire and clear plexiglass. It's roughly 3x4 inside.

That is definitely large enough. Just make sure there is food and water inside the brooder with her, and leave her shut in.

Put the food and water far enough from the nest that she must get off to eat. That will make her more likely to eliminate while she is off the nest, instead of making a mess in it. Moving around a little bit each day is good for her anyway.

 

[Yardmom]

Most of the time I move my broodies to dog kennels inside my coops. I have had more than one nest destroyed by other hens trying to lay in the nest ect. I have done this a couple dozen times. Only 1 would not settle on the new nest, she broke from broodiness in the process. This hen had been on her original nest for over a week. I had another that did not settle in 24 hours, so I let her out assuming she had broken broodiness. She had not. Put her back in 12 hours later and she settled immediately on the kennel nest. I use the system of letting/taking broodies out once a day. In the beginning the hens return to their original nest. After a few days the hens return to the kennels on their own. My kennels are large enough that I have used food and water in them, but have had the occasional hen poop on the eggs, so I use the release method instead.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I’ve successfully moved 2 of 2 broodies now…I’m not sure if I’m extremely lucky or if I have an unknown something going for my system by luck, but here is my method, most of it gleaned from others here on BYC, for what is worth:

I set up a small 30” dog crate partially wrapped with fleece (to give the broody a bit of privacy, and also to keep new chicks from escaping. I separated the crate into two parts with a 1x3 board that just happened to fit, mostly to save some on shaving usage but also to give the broody a nest fairly similar in size to our nest boxes.

In this picture you can see the inside of the broody crate…the purple is a towel I will talk about in a minute, the multi colored fabric is the fleece, and there is one egg in the nest side of the crate. I give them an infertile egg or two the first two days, and once they have been setting a few days, I give them the fertile eggs.

When I have the crate set up, I put it in the corner of the coop, opposite the nest boxes…mostly because that spot is out of the way and under the poop board, but it being across the coop from the nest boxes has also helped in training her to her new nest.

The morning I’m moving my broody, I pick her up out of her chosen nest and set her on the floor…she dazedly shakes, and runs off to do her business. When she comes back, I grab her as she is entering the old nest, shove her in the dog crate, close the door and cover with the towel the part of the crate not covered by fleece. I then retreat to the house and check on her via camera in the crate. For both hens, once I covered the crate with a towel, they were setting again within 3 minutes (we had a failed attempt without the towel for my first broody and she was still losing her ever-loving mind after 15 mins, so I think the quick cover with the towel might be key).

Broody #2 who originally gave the new nest 0 out of 10 stars…when she first set down after being unceremoniously shoved in (because I had a shrieking flapping pancake trying to get away from me as soon as I grabbed her ), she didn’t even set on the nest side:

However, within a few hours she moved to the nest side:

Leave her closed in and covered all day and through the night. Next morning, when I let the chickens out, I also open up her crate and she storms off to do her business. While she is out of the coop, I pull the nighttime nest box curtains closed, close the pop door and wait by the human door, keeping other hens out of the coop (to make my life easier, keeping nosy - and higher pecking order - hens from foiling my plans), and once she goes in the coop, I walk in behind her and close the door, then go stand in front of the nest boxes (because she’s still mad at me from the catching-and-shoving-in-a-new-nest incident from yesterday and wanted nothing to do with me). Generally she grabs a few more bites of feed, then turns to go to her old nest — only to see the curtains closed and me there. She gives the closed nest boxes another few stares then heads to the new nest after deciding she didn’t want to tangle with me over a closed nest box. I close her in and partially cover the front of the crate with the towel again, but leave enough open that she can tell it’s daylight out.

Here is picture of our coop, with nest box curtains closed and broody cage in lower left (first few mornings I stand in the upper right corner of this picture):

Next day, same thing - let her out, close nest box curtains and wait for her to return. This day she usually pretty quickly goes to the new nest. Today I don’t cover the front of the crate at all, so she can see the flock and they can see her. Next day, same thing, only I don’t stand in the coop, but I do still close the curtains. Fifth day, I don’t close the curtains but watch to make sure she goes in new nest. If she is an alpha hen, I stop closing her in at this point. The hen I have sitting now is lower on the totem pole, so I will probably continue to close her crate every day just to keep anyone from trying to bully her off the nest.