We are having this trouble too. An Orpington mix who has been a fanatical broody before (to the point of not eating or drinking). Two months ago, after an unsuccessful set, we got her some babies, and she was a wonderful mother. However, now she's gone broody again. We can't handle any more...
That's good! I had actually posted on Craigslist that I was looking for newly-hatched chicks, and I did get several replies. Could work for you, if nothing else does. Good luck!
Good news! Glossy is now a happy mother. She talks to her babies all day long and takes excellent care of them. About ten days ago we got her some young chicks from the farm store. The photo below is from their first morning--we followed the advice about the night-time switch. Other than...
Deterrence sounds good to me. I am not going to shoot an animal just because it hunts. This isn't the frontier, this is "Backyard Chickens"--I do not depend on chickens for the survival of my family!
Chicknmania, here is the thread about our recent losses. I take some blame for the killings. We've been fortunate, I guess.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/foxes-take-away-my-joy-of-keeping-chickens.1237433/page-5#post-19912262
I would be very surprised if there are any chickens in the area we chose. I drove out there beforehand and then google-mapped it from home to check for roads. We believe in doing unto others as you would have others do unto you. (That goes for predators, too.) :-)
Maybe we'll give them a try. We have really enjoyed free ranging our chickens, and then last week we lost all but one. The first was to a fox (saw it happen) and then three to some nighttime predator, probably a raccoon. We have borrowed a trap but so far have only caught a possum...
Thanks, ChickNanny13, I agree. We and the kids were so looking forward to having the natural hatching experience (which is something I remember from childhood). But this hen must surely be stressed at this point. It would be wonderful if her one "good" egg actually hatched (should have...
Thank you for the advice. Yes, she is stressed, I think. She has been separated from the others by virtue of setting. Also, unfortunately, if you see another thread I made, we suddenly lost all four of our other hens to a fox/raccoon. It's a sort of post-nuclear war scenario; I am not sure...
Hello,
We have a hen who went broody about a month ago. At first we let it go, expecting her to forget the idea. We have no rooster, anyway. Finally, after about 10 days, we decided she was serious, so we got 8 eggs from a friend who has roosters in with his flock. Glossie broke one, and...
Has anyone had reasonably-correlated success in repelling predators with blinking lights (Nite Guard and similar products)?
Many reviews of such products are along the lines of "We use these and we've never lost a chicken!" That, to me, is little proof of their effectiveness. Too many...