Well, what now.

[Maxamus]

My favorite chicken (Mable) has been missing for the past week. We found her sitting on who knows how many eggs under our porch.What do we do, should I move her? Take the eggs? Lock her up? I don't know so please help.

 

[copper2]

Offer her food and water, do you have a rooster? Maybe you will get some chicks! You can try moving her.

 

[copper2]

I would suggest letting her brood the eggs, if the eggs are fertile and you want to take them away, you will have to puck the eggs.

 

[Maxamus]

Thanks for your reply. The chicken run in right next to the deck, so she runs over for food and water. We are worried about her because it is getting so cold out and predators. We do not have a rooster and do not have a big enough coop for one.

 

[Maxamus]

The eggs are not fertile. I was planning on purchasing fertilized eggs to incubate. Maybe I could put them under Mable? Has anyone had any experience doing this? Thanks for your reply. Sure appreciate it!

 

[ChicksAre4Kids]

I'd make her a new spot inside the coop with the eggs she's on now, wait until beddybye time and gently trade the infertile for whatever you want her to hatch out! She will not care about the swap as she'll be drowsy. I've done this many times.

 

[riverat2014]

Why would all my chickens freeze in place in the pen an not move a muscle for nearly 20 minutes. All I can think of is they saw something they thought was a predator. Sure was strange.

 

[ChicksAre4Kids]

Most likely a predator. yes. But what does that have to do with Maxamus' broody hen?

 

[donrae]

Thanks for your reply. The chicken run in right next to the deck, so she runs over for food and water. We are worried about her because it is getting so cold out and predators. We do not have a rooster and do not have a big enough coop for one.

If your coop isn't large enough for a rooster, it's probably not large enough to add chicks. The chicks themselves are tiny, but they need a lot of space to get out of the way of the older birds. If you're cramped already, I'd suggest taking her eggs and breaking her from being broody. there are several threads that spell out exactly how to do that most effectively.

If she's been setting for a week or so, I wouldn't eat the eggs myself but you can scramble them and feed them to the flock, or dogs or cats (in moderation, of course. don't make your animals sick!).

 

[aart]

Quote: Ditto Dat^^^^

You probably don't have room in the coop for this, so you'd have to find somewhere else to put it.....
.......in a sheltered spot during the day and put her on a roost at night and block the nests.


My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.

Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken: