Broody EE, my first time setting please help!

[Zenbirder]

I was expecting my BO Emily to go broody and hatch eggs for me, she has gone broody twice each summer so far. But, my one year old EE Matilda appears to have the broody desire like mad! She is going broody every three or four weeks so far this year!!! So I decided to let her set some eggs. Today I will make a fool of myself in the henhouse watching each hen give her egg, because I need to choose the eggs to be hatched very carefully. I have some older hens who lay non-fertile eggs, they were raised without a rooster for the first two years and they just beat the boys off now...

How many eggs is a good number for her? She is a big EE, larger than a RIR, almost the size and weight of my bigger BR girls or BO girls.

If I put her in a medium dog crate, do you think I can move the whole crate around at night without bothering her? I can not put her outside yet in the pen where she can raise the chicks, it is too cold. It should be nice by the time the chicks arrive. I don't want to leave her in the hen house with 36 other hens coming and going to lay eggs. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[teach1rusl]

If you have enough nest boxes, I'd just leave her. As you said, by the time the chicks arrive, it will have warmed up nicely, and you can always crate her with the chicks then. If you don't have enough nest boxes, then try to move her and the eggs to a crate inside the coop. I doubt she would do well with being moved back and forth every day (if that's what you were talking about).

How many eggs is up to you...my EE is small. But one the size of my BO I'd think maybe 8 eggs.

* Mine is not the voice of experience...lol. I currently have a broody with 0 eggs under her and 0 roosters...lol.

 

[Zenbirder]

I thought it was dangerous to leave her with the other hens, in case she got up and went to another nest by mistake?