4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[WitchHazel]

Hi, this question is aimed at those who raise chicks under a broody.

 

Our Dorkings are both broody, 2 weeks apart. They are in their nest box, and have free access to the outside. Their coop is 2 and a half feet up in the air, accesed by a ladder.

 

Once the firstt one has hatched, we will move her and her chicks to a small coop which is more or less on the ground (if we had thought about this before, we would arranged the ground coop and moved her and her eggs into it when she first went broody. Too late now.

 

Anyway. We are going to put a small run on the broody coop so that the chicks can't go too far in their early days. We noticed today that one of our chicken books advises that the Broody is confined to the broody cage and manually removed for half an hour a day.

 

Do you confine your broody?? We hadn't planned on this at alll, but obviously we will do it if it's necessary.

 

Hazel

[Guest]

I didn't confine Rue - she could have come and gone as she pleased if she had wanted to, but she pretty much just stayed put. I did lift her off the nest once a day (and set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes) and she would run around, do a poo and have a dust bath during this time. Usually, just as the timer was going off, she was making her way back to the nest.

I also did not have the broody coop ready before I set her on the eggs, but moved her without any problem as soon as it was ready.

I have to say that I would guess it depends on the hen. Rue was absolutely rock solidly set on being broody, and is being a fantastic Mum!