Hi, everyone I have a chicken question. My Guineas were bullying and harassing my Australorp hen who happens to be setting 19 eggs. Due to this I feared when the chicks hatched they would be hurt or killed. I resolved to move her and her eggs into another structure which I did today. She was very upset by this, and she seemed to be uninterested in her new quarters or her eggs. Will she settle back on the eggs or have I really screwed up? Please tell me what you think.

Thanks,

PoePoe

-- PoePoe (rpd932@yahoo.com), February 18, 2002

Answers

I have always found that the hens will go back to the nest. Confine her in there some way just to be safe.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), February 18, 2002.

I've found sometimes it works and sometimes it dosen't. Can you keep the eggs warm for her and give her golf balls till she sits again?

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), February 18, 2002.

I moved a bantam hen once by putting her eggs in the bottom of a mail keg and leaving her in there all day so she couldn't get off the eggs. Then when I tool to top off so she could jump out and take her daily break, she stayed and hatched the eggs. Eag.e

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), February 18, 2002.

I moved a bantam hen once by putting her eggs in the bottom of a mail keg and leaving her in there all day so she couldn't get off the eggs. Then when I tool to top off so she could jump out and take her daily break, she stayed and hatched the eggs. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), February 18, 2002.

What a good idea eagle. If the eggs got cold, it's too late this time. If she had been sitting on them for a week or so, then if you try to replace the eggs with new, she will stop sitting on them if they don't hatch when she expects so keep that in mind.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), February 18, 2002.

If she's still persistant in refusing her new quarters, go ahead & put back her nest where it was, then move it to the new location at night.

Good luck, if all 19 eggs hatch, that will be one darling little family!

-- Buk (noaddy@chickensrus.com), February 18, 2002.

Next time, prepare the new place and wait until after dark to move her.

-- Nina (ingardenwithcat@hotmail.com), February 18, 2002.

In the past, I have put a scrap of woven wire fence around a setting hen, with food and water inside with her.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), February 18, 2002.