She's been broody for months...?

[GoPups]

One of my three girls has been broody for almost three months now. She's a white cochin. I've been taking her out every morning so she can stretch out a bit and get water and food, but she shows no signs of stopping. I even shut off her access to her nest yesterday and she just found another spot to settle down. She has always been very motherly.

How long does the broody process last, and what's the best way to break her of it? OR, should I take advantage of this and give her some hatching eggs to sit on? I'm not exactly sure what I'd do with the babies, though. Three chickens is my limit for now.

Here's a picture of my girl...

 

[Matt A NC]

If you know someone that wants a couple chicks you could let the hen do the work. You could even buy new hatched chicks and give her them to raise. At this point she would adopt anything.

Matt

 

[GoPups]

Quote:
Really? Even if I bought a couple babies at the feed store?

What about my other two hens? I have a black sex link and a RIR that can be a bit bossy and territorial.

 

[steffpeck]

I would put your hen & the babies in a seperate pen inside the coop for at least a few days, so that they are safe from the other hens, but can still see each other (we sectioned off a part of our coop with chicken wire for them). We let our 1 weekers and their mom out into our run (which is quite large) for a while yesterday, my DS and I stayed there in the run with them, just in case, but if anyone got too close to the babies, momma hen put them back in their place real quick. Get some day old chicks (or let her hatch some eggs)and put with her, there is nothing funner to see than a momma hen with her chicks!!

Here's a picture from a few days ago of our hen with her chicks.

 

[JennsPeeps]

If you don't want more chickens I've heard that you can have the hen "hatch" ice cubes. I've also read that taking her out of the box & carrying her around a few times a day will help break her broodiness.

There's a recent pic on the boards of someone's broody hen who is trying to raise a duckling. A-DOR-A-BUL

 

[Matt A NC]

Quote:
Really? Even if I bought a couple babies at the feed store?

Find out when your feed store will get in the new day olds. Have some dud eggs under the hen. Make sure switch them out every other day. Get a couple day olds at the feed store and switch them with the eggs. Done. She will be none the wiser and probably thrilled to have some little ones.

You want the chicks to be as young as possible. Too old and they won't know how to react to a momma hen.

Matt

 

[GoPups]

Looks like none of the feed stores have any babies and won't until september. The guy at one of the feed stores said she'd kill the babies because they aren't hers. True or not? I figured she'd adopt them.