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

[greginshasta]

What do I do about this hen? She set up housekeeping in a nesting box a couple days ago and won't leave. No rooster, eggs are not fertile, and in the mean time I removed all the eggs that had been left in the box.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Use the search option at the top of the page and look up info on "Breaking Up Broodies".

You have a broody, but she doesn't realize that her efforts are futile.

-Kim

 

[lurky]

I say you get a few fertile eggs for her

But mark them so you dont mix them up when others lay eggs in there.

 

[greginshasta]

Quote:
Ya right, what I need is more chicks. We have 9 hens, and 9 chicks. It's going to be a madhouse around here as it is.

 

[lurky]

Thats not all that bad.......if you make the run bigger and they are spread out, you feel like you hardly have any at all

 

[greginshasta]

Boy, is she ever grumpy, but worse than her - the rest of the flock is chasing her butt all over the place. She took over the other nexting box after I moved the one she had dominated, and I threw her out again. Should be an interesting upcoming few days.

 

[lurky]

We took the dividers out of ours and made one big nest box. When one is broody, they all wanna lay in the spot she is. This way they can all snuggle up without fighting and being crammed in there. I love it this way and they do too. Yeah they sure do get grumpy

 

[greginshasta]

We have recently had a broken egg in the coop every few days. We picked up oyster shell a few days ago in chance it's a calcium issue and simply soft eggs.

This morning, Ms. Broody was sitting on such a broken egg in the spot where the nesting box formerly sat. Is breaking eggs part of the broody behavior?

On edit, I just filled a large zip-lock bag with ice cubes, took it out there and placed her on it. She fluffed up, screamed at me, and in her biligerance to sit in her corner, is now sitting on ice. No eggs, just a bag of ice cubes. Man she is stubborn!

 

[lurky]

if she needs a name.....call her 'the ice princess'

 

[greginshasta]

Quote:
She's driving me nuts. I sat her on an ice pack now, as most of the cubes had melted, and she sits and fluffs and sneers at me.

So... Does a water hose actually work? I actually don't like this hen very much - I guess it's the breed, but she's not at all friendly like the others. So I really don't mind if she gets annoyed with me if a hose will ultimately take her out of this mood.