What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[ChrisEllis]

Our Black Silkie has now decided to go broody and seeing as we alreayd had ducklings hatching we thought we would give her some of her own to hatch...she sits in their most of the day now...how offen should she come out to eat and should we pull her out every now and again to have a wander...although we dont want to do it too much as we want chicks ...shes stopped laying...is that what happens? she has 6 eggs. Would it be an idea to put a bit of food in front of her when she is in her box?

[Space Chick]

Yes broody's do stop laying, as they are turning their efforts to sitting on eggs and hatching them.

 

She should get off the nest every day to have some food and to drink.

 

I would suggest nipping over to the Hatching and Raising Chicks section, as there are lots of threads giving advice, and lots of experienced hen keepers who have hatched using broodys.

[Falkor]

Space Chick is correct - lots of advice if you pop in to chick section.

 

Is she is a seperate broody house Chris?

[ChrisEllis]

Space Chick is correct - lots of advice if you pop in to chick section.

 

Is she is a seperate broody house Chris?

 

No shes in the chicken coop she layed them in is that nt ok

[Space Chick]

No Chris, she needs to be in a separate coop.

[Falkor]

A seperate coop is best as when the chicks hatch the other chickens may attack them.

 

They will also need access to chick crumb and in my experience if older chickens have access to it they will snaffle it up before anything else so the chicks would not have anything to eat.

[Redwing]

yes, she'll need her own home to keep the chicks safe, a rabbit hutch would do for the first couple of weeks after they hatch then maybe a small run attached to that later

 

In answer to your question you need to hook her off once a day to eat and drink, this is harder with your current set up as there is a chance she will get distracted by the others as she is still young herself and this is her first lot of eggs

 

When you get her off her nest run your hands under her from the sides and lift her wings slightly as you lift her, broodies tuck eggs under their wings and so many people lose eggs when they lift the broody off without checking first, the broken egg then contaminates the rest of the nest so do take a moment to double check for tucked eggs

[ChrisEllis]

Right, we have a new seperate coop for her, filled it with the shavings, and picked some shavings from where she was sitting before and moved them into their with the eggs...bu she wont settle. she keeps standing to leave and not sitting on them ??

[Griffin]

It's best to move her at night when she's comatose so she doesn't know what's going on.

[ChrisEllis]

Can i not move her to the new coop once the chicks have hatched? Or must i move her now? Im worried she will stop sitting on the eggs

[Redwing]

she did need to be moved really, in an ideal world that would have been before you set the eggs under her

 

All you can hope now is that she settles back on them

 

Try draping a blanket loosely over the front of the coop to keep her in the dark tomorrow morning, hopefully she will get back in to the routine and sit back on the nest

[ChrisEllis]

Just put her in the new coop and she settled on the eggs straight away