A 7 month old Broody Buff Orphington?

[serendipity22]

What?

Can this be right?

I had no idea she would go broody at such an early age.

Is this common?

 

[ChickyGal]

Yes chickens sure can go broody so young. I have a Bantam Cochin hen that was 6 months old and she went broody and successfully hatched a clutch. Now, I have 2 more hens from the same batch that I bought back in the spring and they are just about 7.5 months old and they are currently broody and setting on eggs as well.


Shirley

 

[horsewishr]

I was just going to post about my BO. She's 6 months old, and I think she's becoming broody. She's in the nest box for hours, and today I had to steal the egg and physically remove her from the nest.

I felt like an ogre! But I really don't want to deal with broodiness.

 

[linpach farms]

I also have a 7 month old Buff Orpington, and she has been broody for about a week now. She refuses to leave the nest box, so we force her out for a few hours a day, but that is not working, she goes right back when we let the other girls in. We can't block all the nest boxes, because I have 12 other girls that need to lay, so we just shut everyone out for a few hours a day, hopefully that will kick her of the habit soon.

 

[chickenlips]

I had a 5 month old frizzle and 2 golden laced cochins go broody and they refused to leave their nesting boxes, so I let them hatch out some babies and they were wonderful attentive mamas. I put the mamas back in with the rest of the grown-ups, after a week, and put the babies in the brooder. That broke up the broodiness for now and hopefully they won't become broody again until spring or summer.

 

[ozark hen]

I have a little black australorp who is brooding right now...nothing under her!! I got her when she was six months old and she started brooding immediately. I put some eggs under her and she hatched them...guinea eggs...

Then she later she went broody again and stole eggs from my red stars and hatched them. Now she is broody and has nothing under her.

I tried running her out of the pen and she broods on the ground right outside so I let her back in. she isn't bothering anything so we decided to let her be. she is like a little bobcat when you try to move her to see if she has an egg under her. she is so funny. She is the best momma when she does hatch so we just let her do her thing. I really don't want babies running around now since the weather is turning cold.

 

[horsewishr]

Quote:
Mine's not that bad (yet), but she's the only one that will peck at me while she's in the nest. She's fine outside the nest. I thought she was just a grumpy layer, but now I realize she must be acting protective! I really do feel horrible taking the egg away, but we don't have a rooster, and I don't want chicks.

Does anybody know a good way to get a broody out of the nest?

 

[Mac]

I'm in the same situation with a cochin hen. She's been sitting on a golf ball for a week, until I removed it. The double bags of ice in the bottom two nest boxes worked like a charm in about 6 hours with my frizzle cochin, because she could only reach the bottom two nest boxes. The others layed their eggs in the top. But this hen can reach the top boxes and uses them all after I remove her from one. I guess the only thing I can try now is bring a big dog crate into the coop and put her in that for a few days.

Or, do they just eventually get over it? Any harm in just letting her sit there? She is pretty funny though. She never pecks me, but she does utter some odd sounds when I reach in to remove her.

 

[Freebie]

I let my broody alone and just took her eggs everyday. Then she sat on nothing for what seemed like forever. I would just sho her off every other day or so. Then she returned to the flock. I might add...she went from the bottom of the pecking order to almost the top after that.

 

[horsewishr]

Quote:
Interesting. My broody hen has done the same thing. She used to be mellow, but she's gotten pretty bossy.