Why are my broodies so stupid?!!

[greyartist]

They will not stop switching nests. They are wasting eggs I could be selling. I have 2 right now and they will set for 2 weeks then all of a sudden move to a different nest! the eggs they had have to be tossed and then the ones they spent a day on are unsellable. I cracked a few this morning to check, ewwww! I tried moving one of them after her first switch hoping the eggs would still be ok but she wouldn't set in the broody box. I put her back with the others and back she went to the same behavior. she is going to kill herself in this 96 degree weather doing this. I can't do anything to shut her nest up, they are metal so I can't tack up any wire. It is a 2 level 10 nest thing. any ideas??????

 

[simplycreative]

fence off the broodie box perhaps? i have only just recently got chickens again after a long break but i built my nesting boxes on the outside wall of the run. i figured if i had girl go broodie i could put some chicken wire up over the entrance of the nesting box, take the door i have off the back for easy egg access, and put like a small cage on legs up against opening and secure it with a screw or too. She wont need alot of room, maybe 2x2 since all she will need to do is poop, drink and eat and stretch her legs a bit.

though when i had broodies before i would just move the whole kit and caboodle into a cage for them to do their thing.



simplycreative

 

[mycutekitties]

Why is it bad when they switch? Mine do that and I didn't know it was bad.

 

[greyartist]

It's bad because she gets off her eggs letting them get cold while sitting on fresh layed eggs starting them so they are not good for eating. Everytime she moves all eggs are wasted, no chicks getting hatched and limiting my eggs. I guess she forgets which one she was in when coming back from a bathroom break. But she doesn't seem to be giving up and she's been at it long enough to hatch and start another clutch.

Attaching a small wire run to the front with sheet metal screws might work. I'll have to look at that.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

The ideal set-up is if you can move your broody to her own private pen. I find that's best done well after dark, & done as seamlessly and quickly as possible. If the hen has made her nest in something portable then move the whole container. If not, then try to scoop up as much of the original material & keep it as intact as possible. If you can, put the nest & the hen immediately into the container in which she'll be setting in the private pen. Add things to make the private pen extra shady for at lest the first few days until she gets settled there.

Otherwise, do as suggested & fasten a wire pen to the front of her nest box. And I know you want to give your customers the very best eggs without any nasty surprises, but an egg really shouldn't spoil if it's only set upon for a few hours. Even if a hen laid an egg in the morning and a broody hen set on it until you collected the eggs in the afternoon, it should still be edible without any sign of development. Perhaps the yucky eggs you opened were older than that.

 

[sandraconvery]

she definitly should be boxed in with her eggs you can let her out once a day or two days to the bathroom they are well able to hold on untill they get out or they use just one cornor of there nesting box to go when very full that makes it easy to scoop out . i used a cat box for my girl so i could move her around to the shade ect and so none of others eat her food or lay in beside her mixing up the eggs.

 

[bad]

I have the same problem and cannot seperate my broodie from the rest. I mark only the eggs I want her to have and remove all others every day. It seems to work for the time.

 

[Southernbelle]

Quote:
I had a hen switch nests overnight, but it's been so warm outside, I thought I'd just give them back to her. I candled the eggs and they still looked viable (about 10 days development) so I tucked them back under her in her new spot and they're doing fine. So, if you catch her nest switching within a day, you may be able to give her eggs back.

It takes 24-48 hours for development to start on a fresh egg, so as long as I remove the fresh eggs daily, I feel comfortable eating them.

I use old cat litter buckets as nest boxes, so whenever I get a broody, I move her lock, stock and barrel to a dog crate and she doesn't complain. Fencing her and her nest off with wire sounds like a great idea, so she can't keep switching!

Good luck!

 

[greyartist]

I thought I had the problem solved by building a brooder box with growout pen. The first broody I had this season did fine and I moved her to the box after the 2nd week, she went on to hatch. But this one refused to set after I tried moving her, just walked around for days in the box. But went right back to trying after going back with the others.

I wish I had separate nest boxes that could be moved, but I was given this big metal 10 nest thing so I used that. It is nice for normal egg gathering but not good for broodies, especialy if they start on the second level. I guess marking the eggs would be the best, at least I could tell if it's eatible.