AHHHH!! Silkie pullet gone broody now??!!!!!

[JLS]

OH MY!! I had read that Silkies go broody often but I NEVER thought it would be so soon AND in the winter! Yup, she's setting in the nest box...with NO eggs, puffed up, and "trilling" when I touch her

Here's my problem: It's too cold to brood a batch now (low twenties for daytime high temps), coop is uninsulated too, I'm at my limit as too how many chickens I can keep for my coop size, and I dont want to cage her because it's too cold for her to be on a wire-bottom cage all alone.

What, if anything can I do?? I have never had this happen before!!

 

[elizabethbinary]

If it's her first clucky I would let her ride it out.... I have terrible luck with first-time cluckies becoming mothers. They just don't seem to want to sit the full 21 days the first time, ever. For me anyway.

She'll go clucky again.

But I know how it feels to 'waste' a broody hen.

 

[JLS]

Quote:
So she will most-likely break the cycle herself? If so, that'll be wonderful! It's just a bad time to go down this path. We have a huge storm rolling in......looks like we are going to get 18-24" of snow with 50 mph winds tonight! FUN

 

[jen5680]

Just make sure and get her off the nest at least once a day if not more if you have the time.
You want to make sure she is getting enough to eat and drink and all esp with this cold
weather we are having.
I have 2 that are broody right now! Crazy chickens!!!! LOL!!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i've had silkies lay their first egg then go broody the next day. i always have a couple broodies, but like you, i am at my limit. i just let them sit, but make sure they come off the nest several times a day. If they don't, i pull them out and shut the coop for a while. You want to check their keel bone daily to make sure they aren't getting too skinny, and also keep an eye out for mites. Seems like the mites flourish when broodies are sitting in a nest box all day.

 

[emvickrey]

I've got 2 that just won't get out of the nest. They fill it up and get all pissy

when I pick them up to look for eggs. I don't let them sit on any but they just won't get off the nest. I don't want to stop them to where they won't sit at a later date but I do want them to stop now. How do I do that? The sizzle has been pooped on several times.
Here they are and they are both suppose to be white. The one that looks yellow is the one that is getting pooped on. My birds aren't normally so dirty.

By emvickrey at 2010-12-26

I thought about putting them in separate cages with a nest so they can sit on some eggs and not get pooped on. I have other silkies laying still and I thought about letting them hatch them out but it's so cold outside. I could put one in each side of the grow pen that is covered and has heat lamps in them.

Any ideas?

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
So she will most-likely break the cycle herself? If so, that'll be wonderful! It's just a bad time to go down this path. We have a huge storm rolling in......looks like we are going to get 18-24" of snow with 50 mph winds tonight! FUN

Oh sorry I keep forgetting others around here get snow. She will break the cycle herself most likely in about two weeks if it's her first broody (but that's MY experience and mine only, my first broodies never stay broody until the second or 3rd time unless they're ducks)... but if you have snow, I'd definitely do what everyone else is saying and make sure she gets off the nest and maybe locking her out so she gets food in the cold. In desperate times I've been known to handfeed my broody hens when they were extra stubborn.

 

[Judy]

I just take them off the nest, 3 or 4 times a day for me, and chase them a bit til I get them eating and scratching. I figure they get a lot more to eat that way than if I ignore them. Most of them have given up within a couple of weeks when I do this. If they don't, they don't. Had one stay broody for 4 months! She got so used to me getting her off the nest that she would get off herself when I went in the coop.

 

[The Lisser]

So far my silkies are too young to go broody (3 months old) but my neighbor has a silkie that was hatched in March and has gone broody 3 times already!!!! Hatched out two sets of eggs too. My neighbor solved the not eating/drinking problem by putting a small container of food and of water in the nest box - the pullet would eat and drink if she could stay on her eggs - - that is, if you don't have time to make her get off the nest.

 

[JLS]

She hatched June 5th of this year. She's only been laying since Nov 30th!!! So in less than a month she's decided to become a mother. Amazing and noble, but too soon!!!