What to do!! 2 broody hens fighting over nest!! Plus got a new duckling too!!!

[autumn_g]

Hey all!!!! I know its been a while since I've been on BYC. Super hectic life. Soooooo I have 2 hens that laid eggs in a mutual nest and now they both want to be sitting on them and keep fighting each other. I tried to put a few eggs in a separate nest near the same location but they end up back in the original nest. I was thinking about taking half and moving them into the duck house and blocking one of them in. Is that ok to do? Any suggestions on what to do?

Oh and update on 3 other nests. 2 of them all the eggs went rotten. And the other there is 4 eggs left and 1 hatched today!!!!! One of the hens that lost all her eggs freaked out so I took 4 from another nest for her to sit on. Instantly calmed her down. Hopefully those dont die too...

 

[Ridgerunner]

What I'd do with the two broodies fighting is let one hatch and break the other from being broody. I had two fighting over a nest one time, they destroyed half the eggs a good way into the incubation.

But if you can separate them and keep them apart, hopefully so far apart they cannot hear the other hen's chicks when they start peeping at hatch, that can work too. There's always more than one solution.

 

[autumn_g]

Right now i cant really separate them. I'll take a few pics of what I have for them. Give me a few mins..

 

[autumn_g]

So this is their duck pen. They have their nest up on top one of the duck coups

 

[Shadrach]

A bit depends on how long they've been sitting and whether or not they are in fact both broody. Sometimes when a group of hens lay in the same nest box, one will sit while the other just pops in and lays an egg. If I haven't been able to keep track of what's been going on; I may not know where the nest is for example, I usually confiscate all the eggs.
This helps to avoid the staggered hatch which is a nightmare for everyone.

 

[Yardmom]

I put broody hens in a cage in the coop with fresh eggs. If they are left where other hens can go you will end up with eggs at all different stages. I would use two cages for this.

 

[Ridgerunner]

So it is broody ducks, not broody chickens. Sorry but I don't have experience with ducks. I don't know how easily they can be moved or how hard they are to break from being broody.

I'd still break one from being broody and let the other handle the hatch. It would simplify things and I like simple.