My bantam black australorp pullet went broody when she laid her third egg at 6 months old. Her first clutch I did not know about until I found a bunch of her eggs in the creek with half developed chicks in it. I am not sure what the story was there, but she definitely had been incubating them. The second clutch I let her set for nearly a month to find they were not fertile. The third was an assortment of other pullet's eggs she had hoarded. One hatched, but by the time I found it, it had frozen to death. This is because all the eggs had staggered incubation starts, so while she waited for the rest to hatch, she let the one chick die in the single-digits night. She has yet another bunch of eggs she wants to brood. When I have tried separating her into a pen I made, she quit being broody. She has been trying to brood in a cabinet in the tool shed. She has been doing all these clutches back-to-back and is starting to look pretty crappy. I worry about her being killed by predators in the shed.
My question is, should I let her brood this clutch? Try to force her to stop and maybe let her do it later? Should I put her in the separate pen, and if she quits, she quits? I can put her in the run to keep her away from the shed; she found it while free-ranging. I am thinking I should just call it quits. I have the room for chicks and I will keep cockerels, but the repeated failures are depressing. And winter is coming.
My question is, should I let her brood this clutch? Try to force her to stop and maybe let her do it later? Should I put her in the separate pen, and if she quits, she quits? I can put her in the run to keep her away from the shed; she found it while free-ranging. I am thinking I should just call it quits. I have the room for chicks and I will keep cockerels, but the repeated failures are depressing. And winter is coming.
