Australorpe sitting in empty nesting box (5+ weeks and she's done!)

[lurky]

Well thats just mean. I think you should just let her be broody. I wish mine were not all broody, but life is too short to be worrying about your broody hen. Its really not that big a deal. If you dont like her, post her on here for a new home. I have 2 and they are not too sociable either. I wont get them again.........but i dont let it bother me.

 

[greginshasta]

I'm not trying to be mean, but is she going to work her way out of this? Does one leave her alone until she figures out that nothing she does is going to result in peeps?

 

[Davaroo]

I'm not trying to be mean, but is she going to work her way out of this? Does one leave her alone until she figures out that nothing she does is going to result in peeps?

Often enough, yes. read on...
Quote:
There are a lot of things you can do, assuming that it bothers you in some way that she has become broody. It's what hens do, you know?

But if you are determined to have her get over it according to YOUR schedule, then you can try these:

1. Leave her alone.
She'll probably give up in a few weeks.

2. Give her some golf balls to sit on.
When nothing happens in 4 weeks, or so, she'll probably give up.

3. Kick her off.
Make her get out, the lazy wretch. Whenever you catch her in the nest with that trancelike stare broodies get, just give her the boot.

4. Move the nest.
This sort of disorients them. It's the chicken equivalent of, "Now where did I put my keys?..."
Since they have the attention span of a gnat, the hope is they wont remember what they were doing and just move on.

5. Move the hen elsewhere.
Preferably where there are no nests, naturally.

If none of these work or you are inclined to more stringent, even punitive, measures, you can...

6. Put her in a wire cage suspended off the floor by a rope.
Give her food and water but leave her to dangle. This has a somewhat medieval appeal, but it's reputed to work wonders.

7. Keep putting ice cubes under her, but.......
Then show her the boot toe once they've melted. Chances are good the cold treatment will shake her resolve, and when followed up by the boot application she just may give up.

Keep in mind through all of this that a determined broody hen comes very near to an implacable force of nature. Each is different, but in that difference lies the bother - some could care less, BUT some just will not give up until they are ready.​

 

[lurky]

I just let them be. My last australorp was broody for a month and a half or better. She was getting skinny so i started carrying her out to the yard and putting her down in the grass. She would go back each time, but eventually she stopped. They sure are persistant. I let mine have some eggs to hatch but they didn't......so i picked up 3 day olds at the feed store and she was going to kill them. So i got the silkies to raise the babies. She was difficult

 

[greginshasta]

This has become simply awful.

Now she has plucked every feather from her breast so that she is bare-skinned against the bedding material in the coop. And for 3 days running, we have found a smashed egg under or adjacent to her.

 

[arlee453]

Man, she's persistent!

What broke our broody hen was dusting them for mites. Don't know WHY, but I think she got soo peeved at us for dusting her that she forgot she was broody... LOL

You can always isolate her in the wire cage with no nest box.

 

[greginshasta]

Quote:
We have some wire baskets which are rectangular. They are open-topped. To create something large enough for her to fit, we can connect two of these (top to top like a clam shell) which will basically make an enclosure from which she cannot escape when she decides she has had enough.

Is the fact that she will be trapped inside this be appropriate?

I think I read somewhere that this is to be suspended and hanging so it swings. Is that correct? Or just set it somewhere that is out of the way until she breaks? Cripes, this sounds like Gitmo!


I know I sounded like I was being nasty before but I'm really not. It's just that after the other hen got herself stuck in the barn behind a stack of plywood for 3 weeks with no feed or water, and had to be nursed back to health after we found her, the last thing I needed at the moment was more chicken drama.

 

[greginshasta]

Well, I thought I'd just check in and report status. I originally posted on the 5th that this hen had gone broody. Man is she stubborn.

For a while she had flipped a plastic sour cream tub over and was sitting on it. Now she, and the Maran that also went broody in the mean time, each have a golf ball to care for.

The Maran is a bit less hard core, and is less of a surprise to see when she trots out of the hen house for a dust bath, but they are absolutely stuck on sitting in their respective positions all day and all night.

The Australorpe has lost nearly all her weight and is as grumpy as it gets. We go back and forth between referring to her as "black broody" or "huff 'n fluff". That's because when she sees us coming she gets all fluffed up and huffin/puffin and sounding grouchy.

The Maran's crown is practically grey in color, and a bit less grumpy, but stubborn nevertheless.

So... 26 days later, and there she sits with no signs of giving up her vigill. Does this last much longer?

 

[greginshasta]

5 weeks later, she finally gave it up. Holy crap she was stubborn. She quit this past Wednesday, spent the day outside and was the first up to the roosting ladder for the first time since July 5.

In the mean time, the Maran has sat in her box with nothing but bedding under her, occasionally straying out to dust bath, currently for about a month.

So once they get past this, when oh when will they lay again? Out of 9 hens, we are getting like 3-4 eggs a day, some days less.

 

[keljonma]

It could be 2 to 3 months before she lays again. The longer they are broody, the longer it takes.