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- #11
Estrella
Chirping
Hiya, thank you for your long and knowledgeable reply; I will take your advice and move her inside a semi-heated outbuilding (about 60 f) and put her in ”jail” as I don’t want her so close to metal in this weather. I hope that will work to break her.Buff Orpingtons are a very broody breed so yes it sounds like she's broody. Just because she's broody though, doesn't mean you should give in to her demands and actually let her hatch eggs. As you mentioned, it's way too cold and the wrong time of year for broodiness. It's the wrong time of year for chicks, too. They can manage to some extent, but mid-winter in Sweden, you're pushing it. I would strongly recommend breaking her. If you don't feel comfortable using the crate, you can use a different method, keeping in mind that the point of it is for her to not have a nest, or anything she could make a nest out of. So put her in an enclosure that has no bedding in it.
Domesticated animals, especially chickens, have been changed and shaped by humans to such an extensive degree, that there's very little "natural" left in them, including instincts. Chickens' instincts are all over the place. Often they will kill their own young for no apparent reason at all. They lay every day for months or years at a time - what normal animal does that in nature? They will attack and kill members of their own flock/family for stupid reasons. What social animal does this in nature? Their brooding behavior is all over the place, too - they will go broody at the wrong time of year, or be inconsistent when sitting, or abandon their eggs, or abandon their chicks. So, don't rely on the hen to "know what she's doing", or on "nature" to guide the process. There is nothing natural about a hen going broody in the middle of winter in Sweden. For her own sake, and for that of her future chicks, break her now and try again when the weather starts warming up. Even if you take the fertilized eggs away, just letting her sit is bad for her health, too. Even if you give her food and water right under her nose, she will only get up to eat maybe once or twice a day - enough to survive for a few weeks, but not enough to be healthy and strong and withstand winter. And she may not know when to quit either (speaking of broken instincts) - hens have been known to brood indefinitely if allowed, until they slowly waste away and die. Sitting on eggs is very taxing on a hen's body, because she doesn't eat/drink/move enough, and doing it in a season when her body is already pushed hard to survive, is just extra challenging. Letting her sit because you don't want to have to break her isn't a very good reason to let her brood.