[HesterF]

One of my hens went broody last week. After a few days of kicking her out of the nest box to no avail, I put her in a wire run with no shelter but she just brooded in the corner instead. I was going to escalate to trying to create a base with pallets so she had air underneath her instead when I had a rethink and thought maybe I'd let her have some duck eggs to brood (not allowed to hatch chickens yet under vets orders). All background really but gives you an idea that she's not been doing much foraging or eating for a week or so.

I moved her to a small house with a run within a run and she sat on one chicken egg overnight, then she's been on fake eggs today and has sat tight on those. So I've just done my best to dust her with anti-mite/louse powder, gave her a chance to eat/drink and put her back on seven duck eggs. She seems to have settled down again OK.

So now my questions:

- Should I have done anything else as preparation? She's caught me off guard a bit because I was planning to start with goose eggs which I was going to kick off in the incubator so I could check them for fertility and so the hen would only have to sit for her normal time.
- How can I make sure she eats enough? She's still quite a young hen so not overly fat nd now she'll have to sit for four weeks. She only wanted to eat for a couple of minutes before she headed back for brooding so I'm sure that wasn't enough. Should I take her off twice a day?
- Thinking forward, how long will she need to stay with the ducklings post hatching? Will I need to get heat for them or will she happily stay with them until they're feathered?

Now I've also got to think about a second broody set up for the geese in about three weeks time since she'll (hopefully) still be sitting tight. Head hurting   

Thanks!

Hester

[HesterF]

Bump! All's going well so far - she has taken a little longer to eat yesterday and today and has now worked out how to get back to the eggs (bit dim). But I've only been taking her off once a day, still worried whether that will be enough - 20 mins eating a day doesn't seem very long. And still worried about what happens if & when they hatch and how long she'll care for them. Some of you must have used broodies for ducks and/or geese (questions on that still to come!). Also should I have wormed her? They were last wormed around Christmas time with the Flubenvet/Marriages pellets.

H