Thanks to everyone for the information I needed to "kill" the broodiness in my hen. The simple grass bottomed run during the day and the pet carrier at night broke her in a few days. Everything is back to normal. No more insanity and turkey imitations. :)
All very good and interesting information. I'll stick with the program and see what happens.
Towards the end of the day, just before I let them out of the tractor to free range before dark and coop lockdown, I threatened to eat them all if I didn't get my eggs...hahaha. Thirty minutes later, I...
Ok, this broody chicken crap has got to end. My hen is still insane. She is quarantined from nest laying materials and has been in a pet taxi for the last two nights. My other three hens have not laid an egg for the last two days. Sympathetic broodiness???
Maybe I should just look for fertile...
I remember those "good ole days" as well. Only problem was that during my summer visits to my Grandparents; I was the one milking the cow for that "real milk". That was the easy part! Fence building, cattle wrangling, goat wrestling, plowing, combining, grain shoveling, hay baling and hauling...
Ok, I put together the "Broody Breaker" wire run. Five feet long x 36" x 36" and my poor confused hen is in it now that the rains have stopped for a bit. Going to storage today to get my pet carrier to keep her safe and "un-nested" at night. So today is Day Zero. We will see what happens!
Thanks for the advise. I had no idea the instinct to "nest sit" would be so strong. She is full blown broody now and refuses to get up and leave the coop. I have to steal the eggs she has stolen every morning. I think I will have to build a "broody breaker" cage. It is so sad to watch her be so...
So if I collect eggs every day then how long will she continue this?
If I leave a couple of marked eggs in the nest for her but she tries to hatch them (sterile eggs) then will she stay this way for a long time? She is epecting them to hatch so this could go on for a month right?
The diagnosis of broody has been confirmed for my turkey imitator. I pull eggs every day but she still went insane about a week ago. She is still insane. Yesterday when I let the girls out she was sitting on the nest and threw her "pluffy fit" while still sitting. When she finally did get up...
All four hens share one nest no matter what I do. They toss my plastic easter egg to a different part of the coop and ignore it. If I try to shift their laying spot, they throw the plastic egg aside and will actually move all the eggs (that I moved and left in the new spot) all the way across...
I have four of the coolest buckeye hens anyone could ask for....well at least they are since I got rid of the obnoxious rooster that was trying to kill me.
However, I woke one day to find that one of my hens has turned into a turkey. That's right, you heard me!
How can a perfectly happy and...
Breed, Lay, or get et....yup, that's about it.
I have six about ten weeks old or so. I have no idea what sex they are. I don't know how to figure out what a saddle feather looks like. They all have plentiful tail feathers, thick and everywhere so I don't think I'll have any luck sexing them that...
I have six chicks that are a month old. I have never been around this breed but I have one chick that is much larger than the others too. It is the most friendly of them all as well. I can't get over the difference in personalities these chicks display!