# Broody Chicken~updated question



## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

I have a chicken that went broody last week. This is my first one. She started with three eggs last Friday and now she must have 15-20. She is a big hen but is now having a hard time covering all them. I have a rabbit hutch I would like to move her to so that the other hens will leave her alone and stop contributing to her clutch.
Finally the question: If I move her will she continue to sit on the eggs or will she snap out of it. I do have an incubator but I am currently incubating turkey eggs and really don't want to mix them all. I would love for her to hatch these so that is the most important thing.


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## naturalgoats (Jan 3, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

I'm not sure.... one we tried it with did decide she wasn't broody anymore but I don't think we did a good job moving her.... I'm not sure what your coop situation is but if you really don't want to risk anything the best option might be to just make a little cage around her.... If you do decide to move her I'd do it at night and maybe keep the hutch covered for a day to let her settle in.... 
good luck!
Miranda


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

Some will move well some won't. 
Is there other nest boxes for the other hens?


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

Yes, there are four nesting boxes in that coop. (My other chicken coop currently has goats in it til I get test results back).


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

are the nest boxes at the same height? Hopefully the other girls will start using another box and poor mama wont be overwhelmed with more eggs than she can sit. I would try moving some of the eggs from the outer ring to another box and maybe that will give the girls a hint. If not well you could try and move her but you could also leave her and some of the eggs would end up hatching.


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## iddybit acres (Feb 18, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

Is there a way you can "make" a chicken become broody?? No of my hen's will sit on the egg's for long period's of time. And my old gal .... i'd love to get a few chick's from her!


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

How long are you leaving the eggs? A hen won't get broody until after they get a good clutch going. They generally will lay a egg a day and when they think they have a good clutch 7 eggs or more usually then they will stat to sit them. This way they insure that the chicks all hatch the same day.


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## iddybit acres (Feb 18, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

After day 9-13 she leaves the nest of 5-8 egg's she goes to a different nest and lay's a egg. I just read a article on it and think i have come up with a plan, we will see how it work's out she has 3 egg's in her nest now


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

Huh thats a new one for me. Let me know how the new experiment goes. Hopefully well! If it works I am sure we would love to hear the trick.


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## Robynlynn (Jan 18, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

I have moved the nest succesfully! Just make sure she has a covered quiet spot in the cage and make her a little nest ~carefully placing her eggs inside it. she should take right to the new nest.


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## missy (Apr 22, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

Sometimes you can move the nest and sometimes you can't. Some chooks are real "homing pigeons". I knew someone who, if she had to move a nest, would lock the chook in a meat safe for a few days in the new location. She let her out each day for a stretch and this "isolation strategy" seemed to work. Most of mine seemed to move ok. Probably moving them at night helps. But if you can't move the nest successfully at least mark the eggs that she's sitting on and then check each day and pull out any new eggs that the others have laid in her nest.


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## Trip Trap Mountain (May 1, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*



Robynlynn said:


> I have moved the nest succesfully! Just make sure she has a covered quiet spot in the cage and make her a little nest ~carefully placing her eggs inside it. she should take right to the new nest.


Can you tell me more detail about how you moved her?
We have one that is finally broody!! But I want her moved so we can get some eggs again. All the other girl are putting theirs under her. She's got to have 10-12 under there by now. 
How did you move her and the eggs?


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## jduwall (Aug 7, 2009)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

what we do is label the egg you want to hatch out, I have different breeds so sometimes a different egg goes under my broody hen. I usually just put the date on them. we only let her sit on 5-8 eggs at a time. I remove the rest without the date. Other hens will still try to lay eggs on her nest so their offspring hatch, we just take those out...

After 28 days or so the first little check should start to hatch, the eggs get very light to lift and almost thin shelled...you can also hear the chick peeping inside...My broody hens don't mind me watching the hatching but some are kinda mean, pecking at you and such...

The last clutch we hatch had 6 and all 6 made it...they were so cute...


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## Trip Trap Mountain (May 1, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*



jduwall said:


> what we do is label the egg you want to hatch out, I have different breeds so sometimes a different egg goes under my broody hen. I usually just put the date on them. we only let her sit on 5-8 eggs at a time. I remove the rest without the date. Other hens will still try to lay eggs on her nest so their offspring hatch, we just take those out...
> 
> After 28 days or so the first little check should start to hatch, the eggs get very light to lift and almost thin shelled...you can also hear the chick peeping inside...My broody hens don't mind me watching the hatching but some are kinda mean, pecking at you and such...
> 
> The last clutch we hatch had 6 and all 6 made it...they were so cute...


How do you remove the eggs? My girl is not budging. And I hate getting pecked.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

My mom would mark eggs as well...and she also would wear gloves when lifting the hen to remove the unmarked eggs, this was for the hens that were going back to the coop to lay, most times we found eggs in the hay loft, goat stalls or the dog box and duck house.
Her chickens free ranged from March to November and I can remember seeing hens come out from under our wood pile or the dog box with peeps from May to September....they always brought their babies home and once they were seen, my mom would watch her and see where she took them at night, after that, mama hen and babies were put safely in a rabbit pen to avoid predators.


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## Trip Trap Mountain (May 1, 2011)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

Just moved our girl, sure hope we didn't break the spell! It went better than I expected, she puffed her feathers up and there was lots of squawking but I think I only got pecked twice! Fingers crossed.


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## FunnyRiverFarm (Sep 13, 2008)

*Re: Broody Chicken*

It is best to move the hen at night and you don't want her sitting on more than 12-15 eggs (Depending on her size) or so...if she can't cover them all well you will risk losing the entire clutch because she will rotate the eggs...the exposed eggs won't stay warm enough.


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

So the eggs are due to hatch friday and since I posted this there is another hen that is sitting in the box with the first hen. I thought it was cute that they were doing this together til today. I went out to collect eggs and the second hen had yoke on her beak. I found the cracked egg with blood all over it. She killed the chick before it hatched. I am going to separate out this new hen and put alot of the eggs in the incubator but does this happen often or do I have nasty hen.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

I have had hens eat eggs that broke but never had one what sounds like intentionally break a egg. Maybe it was a fluke thing. :shrug:


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

I was gonna start my own thread about this but what happened to me this morning seems to fit in here.
To be on topic, we move our hens whenever we know they are truly broody. I like to keep them caged. We have a rather large brooder that holds a hen and chicks. There is plenty of room for her to stretch. When we are sure we put fresh eggs in a nest box and add mama. So far they have all climbed right onto the nest.

Now, as for this morning and mean (or psychotic) hens. I went out and heard peeping only to find the hen killing and eating the chicks as they hatched. :GAAH: I was mortified. We have had chickens since the 80's and I have never seen anything like this. I salvaged 5 (one has hatched two are on the way). I have another setting and hers are due in just a day or two so I am hoping I can get her to adopt these. We are leaving on vacation and I do not want someone having to deal with brooding baby chicks.
We raise Buff Orpingtons and they are supposed to be great mothers.


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

I ended up seperating the original hen into a dog kennel. Two eggs hatched this weekend, one chick didn't make it and the other seems great. Mom is still sitting on the eggs so I am not sure how long to leave the eggs under her. 

I have always incubated my eggs so this is a whole new thing to me dealing with a broody hen.


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

One of the reasons I start with all fresh eggs is so they will hatch within 24 hours of each other. I like hen raising mainly because it is so much less work for me.
Last year I had a clutch where only a couple hatched. I happened to be at the feed store and they had day old chicks so I bought half a dozen, slipped them under her that night and she raised them just fine. 
My moms and babies graduate to a large dog kennel after 2 weeks. Our fence is not secure enough and babies sacrifice themselves to the neighbor's dogs so we cannot let them range until they are too big to go through the chain link.
As for today's fiasco; two are doing well, one is hatching and two seem to be duds. I wil keep them on the heating pad until morning.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Nubians I would candle them and see. That way you can remove them if they are duds. 

LuvMyHerd hope your little ones pull thru after all that. What a entry into this world!


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

I had four eggs in the incubator I took from her because she just had too many. I did a check before bed and one had started hatching. I took it out and slipped it under her. I removed two, one was a dud and the other I put in the incubator. Hopefully this one will survive so she has atleast two. First one is a light brahma and the one hatching is a black sexlink.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Oh I miss having baby chicks! We only have 8 free range hens right now and until we get a place for chicks to grow up safe I will have to wait. I always love when they hatch and you get to see the color. We raised bantams and would get all sorts of colors.


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

The reason I never had a chicken go broody was because I always collected the eggs 3-4 times a day even if the hen was on the nest. I talked to a friend that had chickens and she said she never collects if they are in the nesting box. She has had alot go broody. I tried it and had these two go right away. The turkey keeps thinking about it and then changes her mind after 12 hours. I really wish she would or I could get the second chicken to stay on the turkey eggs. I put a few under her when she is sitting, then the next time I go in she is still in the nesting boxes but has changed to a different box. I have three turkey eggs due to hatch on Monday. I have never done them before so I am keeping my fingers crossed. They are chocolate turkeys.


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

I once put 4 peacock eggs under a broody hen. Three of them hatched. It was a riot seeing her trying to get them all under her wings when they were 3 weeks old and nearly as big as her.
I ended up with 3 chicks last night. I had to do one c-section. :wink: I did not write down the date on the other clutch but I think they should go tomorrow or the next day. I hope I can get her to accept them. I was really not set up for this and the little fur balls are in a bucket, sharing the heating pad with the cheese I have ripening. (Yeah, I love that *knowing you're a country girl* thread.)
If you have hens ranging you never know. We have had hens go missing figuring they ran away or a dog got them or something; only to have them show up in 3 weeks with a dozen or so chicks in tow.


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

I found the eggs hatching on my afternoon rounds today. This evening there were two new babies and several with holes in them. Mama was being so protective she wouldn't eat. Not wanting her to starve herself I took her off the nest and made her peck at the food. She finally ate a little and drank a little and then went right back to the nest. I slipped the other three under her after dark. As broody as she is I am sure she will not notice the extras.


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