What to do this year?

[sevenchickens]

Last year my little bantam Hen "Flower" went all broody not just broody she turned into "Rambo" (her new name) anyway, she wouldn't let me move her during the day so after I was sure she was in it for the long haul I moved her, at night, to a prepared nest away from the other standard size chickens that wouldn't leave her alone. Once I moved her she wanted nothing to do with her eggs, I didn't (one is in the mail) have an incubator so I was panicking, I finally decided to risk it and put her back with the general population. She immediately settled on her nest. I checked on her constantly, but one morning I went to let everyone out and someone had destroyed the eggs, there were bits of bloody shell everywhere. I was heartbroken. She is trying to set on eggs already, I keep taking them from her, until I can have a better game plan. Any advice on what to do with little miss Rambo would be very helpful.

 

[journey11]

Could you set her up in a separate cage inside the coop with the others? I've not had any broodys before, but I had an injured hen that was so nervous without her flock that she wouldn't settle down and rest otherwise.

 

[SunnyDawn]

That is so sad! Could you move her and keep collecting her eggs 'til she goes broody again? They usually take a few days or more to get used to a new place but I bet she would go broody again in a new spot once she adjusted. Journey is right, chickens need to be part of a flock but maybe you could move her with one or two banties or more docile birds from your flock?
Hopefully someone else will have some first hand experience with this. Keep us updated on how it turns out!

 

[sevenchickens]

Those are both good ideas. I need to get my DH to build me a little shelf to put a dog crate on. I think I'll try collecting eggs for her too when we first rescued her she lived in the dog house maybe it's time to evict the dog again. He won't mind javascript:insert_text('

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