What do I do about others eggs in my broody's nest?

[gritsar]

I now have two broodies (please Lord, no more!

). The meatie broody is in her dog crate nestbox. No one is messing with her, not that I can blame them. She's big and mean

My other broody, Doe - a salmon faverolles - decided it would be so much fun to go broody in everyone's favorite nestbox. So far everyone's left her alone. Then this morning I saw one of the other SFs in the nestbox with her.

Today I am going to give the broody a few eggs. How do I keep her eggs from being added to by the other pullets?

If it were summer it wouldn't be a problem. I'd move the broody, nest and all, to the screened porch. But it's winter and I have no other place to house her but in the coop. I don't have another dog crate of a size that I could put her and her nestbox in it.

Do I just remove the others eggs daily?

This may sound simple folks, but I don't know the first thing about having a broody.

 

[ranchhand]

Mark the ones you give her and remove the unmarked ones daily. Then go to town and get another cage/crate!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Mark the eggs you want her to have with a sharpie, then remove any unmarked eggs daily. (with gloves

)

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
DH has a pair of chain mail gloves. Think those will do?

Y'all are seriously going to have to hold my hand through this.

 

[ranchhand]

BTW, get 2 cages. You'll need them.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
DH has a pair of chain mail gloves. Think those will do?

Y'all are seriously going to have to hold my hand through this.

I think leather ones will work fine.

Just wait until your silkies catch wind of all this..........

 

[ranchhand]

LOL, might as well get 6 cages! And yes to leather gloves. Don't let her intimidate you! I just lift with one hand and check for eggs with the other. I toss them off the nest once a day anyway, to make sure they eat, drink, poop, stretch their legs.


I don't like to use a Sharpie - that ink might be toxic and I worry about it seeping into the shell. I use a pencil, but I had to refresh the mark every other day. Once I moved Goldie to her own cage it was no longer an issue. But maybe a crayon?

A simple wood frame covered with wire will do for a cage, it doesn't have to be fancy. My favorite was a rabbit cage I got at the feed store. Because of snakes here, I covered all of it with hardware cloth. It kept the preds out and it kept the chicks in until they were able to join the flock.


HappyChooks, I'm glad somebody got the pun!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Dear Lord, please NO! As I was typing that I was sitting here thinking...wouldn't it be great if my silkies could suddenly morph into roosters? But no.....I got straight run silkies and they both turned out to be hens.

The only other disaster that could happen is for one of my brahmas to decide to finally go broody. Why not? If I can have a broody meatie....

I've decided to buy another dog crate when we go to town this week. Should I move her and her nestbox into the crate or make her a new nest in the crate?

 

[gryeyes]

What they said. Pencil won't do, use a sharpie as suggested. I used pencil for a while, then had to switch to sharpie as the pencil marks faded.

After a while, I would just count eggs by feel, and if there weren't more than she should have, I didn't remove any eggs. I know that makes sense, but I had to think it through.

And I never candled any of the broodies' eggs.

 

[ranchhand]

How deep is the nest box? I started my broodies in boxes but took the box out after I realized the chicks wouldn't be able to get out to eat and drink. So they ended up with a bed of straw that I fluffed a bit now and then and made a "well" in the center.