➡I accidentally bought Balut eggs: 2 live ducks! Now a Chat Thread!

[CrazyCrttr75]

It needs to be a wire bottom crate—no bedding, no tray, nada. The poop should fall through the wire openings. The crate should be elevated for maximum air flow under the hen's breast. To elevate it, put it up on cinderblocks, milk crates etc. Provide food and water (duh), and a piece of board for a roost (optional). Keep her in there for 24 hours, then let her out and see what she does. If she goes for the nest box, put in her back in the crate for another 24 hours. Repeat.

Cooling the hen's breast in important, so some people couple the crate treatment with a cool (not cold) bath or even sticking a bag of frozen veggies under her.

Good luck!

ETA: the crate should ideally be somewhere that the hen can see the rest of the flock so she doesn't loose her place in the pecking order. I put my dog crate broody-breaker in the run the whole time she is in it. Just make sure she will not get too much sun where ever you put her.

So be sure to take the tray out of the dog kennel. Check! Idk what I'd use for roosting. Will have to think on that one. Keep her outside with flockmates. Check! Too much sun is definitely a concern. I am going to have to get creative since she won't be able to travel to different areas for shade. Elevate kennel somehow to maximize airflow. Check! I'm hoping that she will get the hint on her own like my Buff Orpington Priscilla did. She seems so much more focused and purposeful than Priscilla was. But I can hope! Thank you! I appreciate the help.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

Thank you.




I have several cage set ups for broody hens. My hen house has a deep litter floor. You could lay out newspapers or flattened feed sacks. The key is elevating the cage so air circulates to cool off the hen's breast and bum.
My favorite is an 18 X 24 X 24 cage with a pull out bottom tray. I remove the tray for breaking a broody. I suspend the cage from the rafters in the hen house. The cage is made from 1 X1 inch hardware wire. Water and feed go in cups that clip to the inside. No bedding or hay for her to make a nest. Her movement makes the cage gently sway. Her bum gets cooled and within a few days, she is ready to be a good hen again.
Another set up is a cage attached to the wall. Also no bottom tray.

I don't have room in the coop to put a cage so I am going to have to get creative. It will probably be more work on my behalf just because I am not really prepared for this situation. Do you think it would be ok to have her in a cage during the day and let her out to be with everybody and roost with then at night time since I can block off access to the nest boxes once I am sure everyone has laid for the day?

 

[CSAchook]

So be sure to take the tray out of the dog kennel. Check! Idk what I'd use for roosting. Will have to think on that one. Keep her outside with flockmates. Check! Too much sun is definitely a concern. I am going to have to get creative since she won't be able to travel to different areas for shade. Elevate kennel somehow to maximize airflow. Check! I'm hoping that she will get the hint on her own like my Buff Orpington Priscilla did. She seems so much more focused and purposeful than Priscilla was. But I can hope! Thank you! I appreciate the help.

The roost is optional. She will be okay without one. (I sometimes forget to put one in and they are fine). If I remember though, I put a pieces of two-by-four or a thick branch directly on the floor of the dog create. Doesn't need to be elevated or suspended. Anything they can sit on will work. Just don't use anything really wide. You don't want them to make full body contact with it.

ETA, For shade I usually have to jerryrig a tarp or something to provide temporary shade / shelter in whatever part of the run I put the crate in.

 

[CSAchook]

So be sure to take the tray out of the dog kennel. Check! Idk what I'd use for roosting. Will have to think on that one. Keep her outside with flockmates. Check! Too much sun is definitely a concern. I am going to have to get creative since she won't be able to travel to different areas for shade. Elevate kennel somehow to maximize airflow. Check! I'm hoping that she will get the hint on her own like my Buff Orpington Priscilla did. She seems so much more focused and purposeful than Priscilla was. But I can hope! Thank you! I appreciate the help.

In the meantime, you can always try the cool bath. When my most stubborn hen went broody during the worst summer heat I gave her the bath plus crate and she broke much more quickly than she ever had before. For a less stubborn bird, maybe the bath alone would work?

 

[ShrekDawg]

The rain is coming down so hard it’s crazy lol and then right when I was gonna get out of the car it started coming down way worse so I got trapped out there for a few minutes cause I wasn’t about to walk through that and turn into a wet rat haha thankfully it was only like a couple minutes though if that of the SUPER SUPER heavy stuff and then it slowed again. Enough so I could run in ha

Anyway, there’s a little lightning too but I haven’t heard any booms.

But this rain is good. We need it.

Anyway, my brother’s birthday was yesterday so we had a lovely dinner tonight with him & FSIL & my parents.

Mine was delicious lol tried to be healthy and get vegetables and stuff instead of like meatloaf lol

 

[Kiki]

I'll have to clean the hard water deposits off the glass first, and that's a lot of work.

Are you done cleaning yet?

 

[Kiki]

OMG! That face! You MUST kiss him on the lips for me. And give him a treat!

He will be eating quailies soon.
I'll tell him you insisted I start feeding him quail more often.

 

[CarpCharacin]

Are you done cleaning yet?

No, but I think I might still have some magic erasers. I'm not sure.

 

[Kiki]

I bought a couple of melons a little while back. One was called an Orangedew. It is a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew. Orange solid flesh and has a smooth skin. I didn't really care for it. It was ok but I kept finding myself not eating it and it was just sitting in my fridge. Then I bought a type of cantaloupe called a Sugar Kiss. The description on the tag made it sound so good. So against my better judgement, since I really don't care for cantaloupe at all, I splurged and bought it. The flesh was supposed to be sweet and almost dissolve on your tongue due to the high sugar content. It lied. It was a bit stringy so I didn't care for the texture. I won't ever buy them again. So I gave my chickens a treat today. It was nice and cold and watery like melons are and I am sure they enjoyed the sugar boost. They don't get a lot of treats like that so I know they appreciated it. I grabbed Daisy out of the nest box and sat her down in front of it and she went to town. Stayed out of the box for a while afterwards. But she ended up going back in again. I put the bars back up to block them off. I was looking up how to break a broody. I'm going to try and be more diligent by redirecting her attention at first and see if that will eventually work. If it doesn't, I guess I will have to try the cage thing. I'm just not exactly sure "how" to do so. If you aren't supposed to put shavings in the bottom of the cage, what do you do about the poop? My dog kennel/cage is in my house. Do you leave her in a cage outside with everybody? I'm just not sure what exactly to do. I need to do some more reading.

@aart Has some good jail pictures.

 

[ShrekDawg]

No, but I think I might still have some magic erasers. I'm not sure.

Go look for some and then clean tomorrow