barba
In the Brooder
- May 20, 2016
- 12
- 0
- 14
My 9-month-old cream legbar has gone broody -- to be clear, she is sitting in the egg box at all hours of the day, even when there are no eggs -- and as I really don't have any desire to have more chickens at this time (and we have re-homed our roosters out of courtesy for our poor neighbors, who suffered through 6 months of their crowing), I've been surfing through a lot of broody hen forums, all of which detail placing the hen into an elevated cage or other quarantined location. My question: is it wrong to just... wait for her to finish?
My hen is very sweet and, even though she puffs up and makes a tiny growling noise, she has never bitten me when I check in on her, even when I pet her hackles down in an attempt to calm her down (which seems to work). Sometimes I pick her up and bring her outside the coup with my other hen where she grazes like she normally would, but when I put her back into the run, she returns to the egg box. Is it bad to keep picking her up and bringing her outside? I just keep thinking that exercise would do her some good and she doesn't seem particularly stressed when I do it.
Another thing I've been doing is picking her up and putting her in my lap to pet her, and she seems to really like being pet; should I not be doing this? My fear is that I'm causing stress to her or confusing her naturally broodiness, and that is in no way my intention.
In summation: My hen is broody, I have no interest in having chicks, and I've been lifting her out of the egg box to socialize with her and allow her to graze on occasion, usually without complaint on her part. Can I keep doing this until she stops being broody? Or will this make it last longer? And is waiting for her to stop being broody a bad idea?
My hen is very sweet and, even though she puffs up and makes a tiny growling noise, she has never bitten me when I check in on her, even when I pet her hackles down in an attempt to calm her down (which seems to work). Sometimes I pick her up and bring her outside the coup with my other hen where she grazes like she normally would, but when I put her back into the run, she returns to the egg box. Is it bad to keep picking her up and bringing her outside? I just keep thinking that exercise would do her some good and she doesn't seem particularly stressed when I do it.
Another thing I've been doing is picking her up and putting her in my lap to pet her, and she seems to really like being pet; should I not be doing this? My fear is that I'm causing stress to her or confusing her naturally broodiness, and that is in no way my intention.
In summation: My hen is broody, I have no interest in having chicks, and I've been lifting her out of the egg box to socialize with her and allow her to graze on occasion, usually without complaint on her part. Can I keep doing this until she stops being broody? Or will this make it last longer? And is waiting for her to stop being broody a bad idea?