Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[FOGELLY]

One on the tricks to breaking a broody is not to allow her a place to nestle and get warm and cozy.So don't use bedding. I am not saying make to uncomfortable but she needs a bit of an airy place with sunlight. When I break up a broody I will place her in a 2'x2' wire cage that is on a stand which allows air under her (Of course with food and water). It usually takes 3 days to get her broke. It is not as cold here but chickens are more hardy that we give them credit for. I don't use any supplemental heat during the winter unless it gets very cold, but 15-18 degrees is about as cold as we get.


Good luck
Ron

 

[3riverschick]

Karen, you will not want bedding in the cage. You want air circulating around the hen to cool off her abdomen...helps break the broody mood.
When I cage a broody, I do not use the bottom tray. Just the cage floor itself. I hang the cage on the wall of the coop where it get sunshine or I suspend the cage from the ceiling so it has a gentle swing when the hen moves.

Also, a broody is a lot of bluff. Use leather .gloves or a hand towel laid over the hen's head and slip your hand under to get the eggs. Breaking really doesn't hurt that much.

This 7 1/2 sq. ft coop, I have. It is raised and I can shut the door to the outside. It has a big window and I can keep lights on her 24/7. Can pull the pine shavings and lay heavy newspaper on the floor. Will that work? No access to outside,, no drafts no dark corners, nothing to nestle in. Do I feed and water her? She has never been in this coop before. I had Junior in it the first few days he was here. I am not set up to incubate right now as Yelow House said about my schedule. I will throw these eggs away.
Thanks all for you help. I am totally lost here.
Karen

 

[Delight in Dominiques]

OK the shop was open when I got off work; this thing is much bigger than it seems in the picture, a Farm Master No. 171 600 egg model. All the egg trays are there complete with the little levers that roll the screen to turn the eggs. The two small vents at the top front are stuck shut and I didn't want to fiddle with them too much and break them. ALL of the electrical guts are gone. I forgot to check under the bottom tray for a water pan, but that shouldn't be too hard to work out. Suggestions for replacement parts greatly appreciated; I know someone mentioned Sportsman. Also he's not too stuck on the price and willing to come down under $200 soooo off to check the cost of replacement parts!

. I just finished tuning up this very model the other week. The water tray should be located above the egg trays. Look on Smith,s poultry supply, they have the heating element with the porcelain knobs and I think they have the fan that would fit it also. PM me if you have any other questions. JOhn

 

[NanaKat]

From what you are saying, it is too cold in your area to put her in a cage outside...so yes, newspapers to keep the floor of your coop clean. Yes, food and water, yes on the light during the day if you cant get her outside light. lights off at night . Drafts are okay.

 

[maryhysong]

. I just finished tuning up this very model the other week. The water tray should be located above the egg trays. Look on Smith,s poultry supply, they have the heating element with the porcelain knobs and I think they have the fan that would fit it also. PM me if you have any other questions. JOhn

ooooh Thanks! & yes, I'll be sending you a PM! THANKYOU!

 

[3riverschick]

From what you are saying, it is too cold in your area to put her in a cage outside...so yes, newspapers to keep the floor of your coop clean. Yes, food and water, yes on the light during the day if you cant get her outside light. lights off at night . Drafts are okay.

Ok, thank you! This answers the rest of my questions. Yes, it is too cold to put her outside. Ok, I will use the 7 1/2 sq. ft. coop with no access to outside run. Newspaper on floor and light at day, off at night. Plus feed and water. I can fit a hardware cloth screen over the door so she gets air but can't get outside.
Thank you all so much for your help! I rechecked the breeding schedule and if I do incubate these eggs, it will dovetail perfectly into my schedule by one day. I can just eliminate the hatching of April 10th. Depends on how many eggs are under her. Not going to do this for only 2 eggs.

 

[Zanna]

Ok, thank you! This answers the rest of my questions. Yes, it is too cold to put her outside. Ok, I will use the 7 1/2 sq. ft. coop with no access to outside run. Newspaper on floor and light at day, off at night. Plus feed and water. I can fit a hardware cloth screen over the door so she gets air but can't get outside.
Thank you all so much for your help! I rechecked the breeding schedule and if I do incubate these eggs, it will dovetail perfectly into my schedule by one day. I can just eliminate the hatching of April 10th. Depends on how many eggs are under her. Not going to do this for only 2 eggs.

Karen, also be prepared to "alter" your original hatching schedule if need be. I had a BCM pullet last year that I was doing a single mating with. She laid anywhere from 9-21 eggs, went broody. I broke her, she was laying again in 2 - 4 weeks, laid her 9-21 eggs, broody again. It went like this all season from March - October. I did manage to hatch all of her eggs I wanted too but what a pain......... Chickens will be chickens despite our well thought out plans

 

[Bentley]

You have to pay attention to all parts of the bird. Sometimes we just get to close to the project and miss the mark. This is one of two things I have seen with oversize birds.....that shallow look, but more often weak legs. If it can't walk it can't mate. I am not sure if it the fleshing not catching up or that it may never be there. Bentley can probably tell us. This size business takes care of itself in the end.

Walt

Walt, you are exactly right, as the legs go the mating frequency diminishes and therefore fertility wains. Interesting though, body weight and frame size/shape does not effect the physiological ability for a male to mate. Meaning, that frame size/shape does not diminish the males ability to produce viable sperm cells. So when a bird gets excessively large and fertility seems to drop, it is almost certainly due to infrequent mating. Like I said before, the vast majority of fertility problems are due to infrequent mating and not other issues with the bird.

One more interesting thing. Not sure why I always seem to think of 'something else' to add, but I do so here goes. There is a correlation between male body shape/type and competed matings. Trying to eliminate breed or strain characteristics, males that have more of a submarine type posture, similar to Dorkings or Houdans, in that the breast seems to be more horizontal to the ground, tend to have a lower percentage of attempted matings actually completed. In commercial Turkeys as they selected and bred for birds with increased breast muscle mass the male birds' posture changed into more of a forward leaning position. As this happened fertility decreased. It didn't decrease for lack of attempted matings, it was for a lack of completed matings. We have seen certain strains of birds that have been selected for breast fleshing begin to have a breast or keel bone that was more horizontal to the ground. When this has happened the percent of completed or successful matings decreased but not attempted matings.

Kind of makes you wonder how Dorkings and Houdans and breed with this posture have survived over the years doesn't it? Having said that, my Houdans are very fertile while my Dorkings struggle with fertility at times. Too many problems sometimes......Grrrrrrrr

 

[FOGELLY]

Karen, there is one thing I have learned with breeding. Very rarely will everything go as planned. Chickens don't cooperate, weather, or any number of things. If have a particular mating that is valuable to me and I only get 1 or 2 eggs in 6 days I will set them. I have been put in that situation recently because our power was off for three days. The next week the hens really slowed down.

 

[Bentley]

I try to break broody hens as soon as I notice them going broody. For me, I want my best hens to continue to lay eggs so I can get more chicks and pass on their genetics to more offspring. When they go broody and nest they don't lay eggs so that is fewer chicks from the best hens.

I have a similar program to that that has been mentioned by several people here. Usually I will remove the bird from the pen and place her in a wire cage. Wire top, sides and bottom. When the weather permits I do not feed them or water them for a couple of days. The idea is to make them uncomfortable. In nature, a hen will not want to hatch chicks and bring them into a world of all wire and little feed They don't feel safe or secure on all wire, especially without food or water. I call my bank of cages that I used for selection of breeders "time out" for the birds when used for breaking broody hens.