My stubborn broody EE is back in the garage on lockdown as of yesterday. She escaped the dog kennel yesterday by learning how to unlatch it, I found her roaming my garage and promptly put her back in the cage(I have bungy cords locking the door now). I’m going to buy a metal rabbit cage tomorrow as being broody seems to be her thing now. Yesterday she dehydrated herself so bad that I had to give her nutri-drench. She’s lost so much weight in the last month being on/off broody. If she continues to be this stubborn I may just let her hatch eggs even though I don’t have room for many more chickens.
She must be really smart to figure out how to get out of there. Wow!
I have two friends with chickens that have had broodys that will take their broodyness to extremes.
One of them will be broody for months.
My other friends broody ended up killing herself because she raised 3 clutches in a row and just dropped dead because she was in such bad shape.
Her birds free range and this hen would hide her nest all the time.
You might consider getting her some day old chicks and see if she’ll accept them.
You could just get 3 or 4 sex links or something so you can sell them after they feather out. That way you know they’re pullets.
Tractor Supply is supposed to have chicks again later this month.
Or fertilized eggs, like you mentioned. But with that scenario you’ll have to deal with cockerels.
This is what one of my friends with a broody did...
Because we knew I was going to be getting chickens soon, we agreed that I would pay for the chicks and she would let her broody raise them and then I would take them after they were feathered out. By that time it was early November so her hen Phoebe didn’t go broody again until the next summer.
I think they were about 8-10 weeks when I took them.
Those 4 chicks are my sex link & 3 Wyandottes.
It worked out great for us.
