Brooding hen question- how often to take her off the nest since she is not moving on her own?

[Thrilled Chicken Mama]

My buff Orpington seemed determined to stay broody so I decided to let her have some babies since I have the space for a few more. I put 8 eggs under her 8 days ago and she has barely left the nest. I have food and water right within reach because she wasn’t even walking the 1-2 feet needed to the food and water in her maternity ward spot I set up for her in my brooder cabinet under the poop shelf. I have read that I definitely need to move her off to poop and dust bathe etc, but I have also read to try and not disturb them too much because it can interfere with their commitment to stay on the eggs for the full 21 days.
When I do move her off, she does her big broody poop, dust bathes and preens herself and then goes back to the nest within an hour.

My main question is should I do this once every day? Or every 2 or 3 days (to follow the advice of disturbing as little as possible)?

Yesterday when I took her off, it had been 2 or 3 days and she seemed shaky for a few minutes until she found her legs. So I don’t think that is often enough. Just want to do right by her. She seems so committed and I am hoping she will be a good mama, but I want HER to make it to the end as healthy as possible too!

I am giving her Nutri Drench with a dropper - a few drops each morning because she is barely eating and drinking even with food and water directly in front of her. So I’m worried about my sweet girl!
Her name is Penny and I am including a picture too.

 

[sourland]

Move the feed and water away from the nest and out of her reach. If she continues to not leave the nest on her own, I would continue to remove her daily.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll go through my standard response first and then get to how your case may be different.

Before a pullet or hen even starts laying eggs they store up a lot of excess fat in the pelvic region. I've butchered enough pullets, hens, cockerels, and roosters, the difference is dramatic. That fat is mostly what they live off of if they go broody. Nature set it up that way so can stay on the nest and take care of the eggs instead of having to look for food and water.

They still need to come off of the nest sometime to poop. They typically eat, drink, and maybe take a dust bath when they come off. They should know to not poop in their nest by instinct. I've had a broody come off of the nest twice a day for over 2 hours each time. I had one that came off every morning for 15 minutes then straight back to the nest. I've had several that I never see off of the nest but I know they are coming off as they are not pooping in the nest. All of these had good hatches.

Once a broody hen is fully committed to being broody you can take them off of the nest without worrying about them breaking from being broody. Before they are fully committed you might break them by removing them but your hen is well beyond that point. It does not hurt anything to take her off of the nest once a day and set her down. It's a good time to check the nest. The hen will likely lay there a short while and then either move off to eat, drink, and poop before returning to her nest or she may go straight back to her nest. I check under my broody hens every day after the others have laid to make sure there are no extra eggs and that everything is OK. I have never had a hen break from being broody doing this and I generally have 3 or 4 broody hens each year.

Yesterday when I took her off, it had been 2 or 3 days and she seemed shaky for a few minutes until she found her legs.

This part bothers me. It is possible she does not have the right instincts to come off when she needs to poop. So taking her off once a day may be a good thing. I'd do it in this case just to be safe.

But I have another worry since she seemed shaky. A poultry science professor once said that roost mites have killed more broody hens than anything else. So I'd check her for mites. Roost mites only come out at night, in daylight they hide from the light. After dark using a flashlight, take her off of the nest and look in her vent area. The mites will try to get out of the light but you can see them moving.

If she has mites, treat her, the nest, and the entire coop. Treat the other chickens also. Then treat again in about 9 days to get the mites that hatched from eggs but haven't had time to lay any eggs themselves. If you had not mentioned that she was shaky I might not have thought of this but it never hurts to check them for mites, just in case.

Good luck!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We just had two pullets (they will be hens in a few weeks) hatch a chick each. Every day we took them off the nests and tossed them over a fence so they could exercise their wings and join the flock for an afternoon snack of scratch, BOSS and mealworms. They'd also then scratch around a bit, dustbathe, poop and forage for a while before returning to their nests. They are now co-parenting the chicks.

 

[Thrilled Chicken Mama]

I'll go through my standard response first and then get to how your case may be different.

Before a pullet or hen even starts laying eggs they store up a lot of excess fat in the pelvic region. I've butchered enough pullets, hens, cockerels, and roosters, the difference is dramatic. That fat is mostly what they live off of if they go broody. Nature set it up that way so can stay on the nest and take care of the eggs instead of having to look for food and water.

They still need to come off of the nest sometime to poop. They typically eat, drink, and maybe take a dust bath when they come off. They should know to not poop in their nest by instinct. I've had a broody come off of the nest twice a day for over 2 hours each time. I had one that came off every morning for 15 minutes then straight back to the nest. I've had several that I never see off of the nest but I know they are coming off as they are not pooping in the nest. All of these had good hatches.

Once a broody hen is fully committed to being broody you can take them off of the nest without worrying about them breaking from being broody. Before they are fully committed you might break them by removing them but your hen is well beyond that point. It does not hurt anything to take her off of the nest once a day and set her down. It's a good time to check the nest. The hen will likely lay there a short while and then either move off to eat, drink, and poop before returning to her nest or she may go straight back to her nest. I check under my broody hens every day after the others have laid to make sure there are no extra eggs and that everything is OK. I have never had a hen break from being broody doing this and I generally have 3 or 4 broody hens each year.


This part bothers me. It is possible she does not have the right instincts to come off when she needs to poop. So taking her off once a day may be a good thing. I'd do it in this case just to be safe.

But I have another worry since she seemed shaky. A poultry science professor once said that roost mites have killed more broody hens than anything else. So I'd check her for mites. Roost mites only come out at night, in daylight they hide from the light. After dark using a flashlight, take her off of the nest and look in her vent area. The mites will try to get out of the light but you can see them moving.

If she has mites, treat her, the nest, and the entire coop. Treat the other chickens also. Then treat again in about 9 days to get the mites that hatched from eggs but haven't had time to lay any eggs themselves. If you had not mentioned that she was shaky I might not have thought of this but it never hurts to check them for mites, just in case.

Good luck!

Thank you for all this good information! I will definitely check for mites tonight after dark. And I will also make sure to move her every day now. Thanks again for taking the time to respond!

 

[Thrilled Chicken Mama]

I'll go through my standard response first and then get to how your case may be different.

Before a pullet or hen even starts laying eggs they store up a lot of excess fat in the pelvic region. I've butchered enough pullets, hens, cockerels, and roosters, the difference is dramatic. That fat is mostly what they live off of if they go broody. Nature set it up that way so can stay on the nest and take care of the eggs instead of having to look for food and water.

They still need to come off of the nest sometime to poop. They typically eat, drink, and maybe take a dust bath when they come off. They should know to not poop in their nest by instinct. I've had a broody come off of the nest twice a day for over 2 hours each time. I had one that came off every morning for 15 minutes then straight back to the nest. I've had several that I never see off of the nest but I know they are coming off as they are not pooping in the nest. All of these had good hatches.

Once a broody hen is fully committed to being broody you can take them off of the nest without worrying about them breaking from being broody. Before they are fully committed you might break them by removing them but your hen is well beyond that point. It does not hurt anything to take her off of the nest once a day and set her down. It's a good time to check the nest. The hen will likely lay there a short while and then either move off to eat, drink, and poop before returning to her nest or she may go straight back to her nest. I check under my broody hens every day after the others have laid to make sure there are no extra eggs and that everything is OK. I have never had a hen break from being broody doing this and I generally have 3 or 4 broody hens each year.


This part bothers me. It is possible she does not have the right instincts to come off when she needs to poop. So taking her off once a day may be a good thing. I'd do it in this case just to be safe.

But I have another worry since she seemed shaky. A poultry science professor once said that roost mites have killed more broody hens than anything else. So I'd check her for mites. Roost mites only come out at night, in daylight they hide from the light. After dark using a flashlight, take her off of the nest and look in her vent area. The mites will try to get out of the light but you can see them moving.

If she has mites, treat her, the nest, and the entire coop. Treat the other chickens also. Then treat again in about 9 days to get the mites that hatched from eggs but haven't had time to lay any eggs themselves. If you had not mentioned that she was shaky I might not have thought of this but it never hurts to check them for mites, just in case.

Good luck!

Ok so I checked her out tonight for mites and didn’t see any signs of activity. I will check again in a couple days to be sure.

She also got off the nest on her own today. I think she has realized she enjoys that bit of time. I hope she will again tomorrow, but I am prepared to take her off the nest every day that she doesn’t leave for a while on her own.
She seems a lot stronger these past couple days too. Being up and about some, along with the Nutri Drench boost and me hand feeding her some yesterday helped a lot and potentially contributed to her feeling good enough to get off on her own this morning.
So hopefully we have found a good groove. Thanks again for the good information. Almost halfway there!