Breaking a broody 101 (Help needed)

[karlamaria]

my buff goes broody all the time, we just pull her out of the nest and take all eggs away every time there is one laid. at night we put her on a roost. she stops in about 5 days. it works for us. poor girl wants to have chicks so bad, we are going to get some fertilized eggs come february and let her lay them. She will sit for ever if we let her, but we want to break her as fast as possible so she will eat and drink .

 

[joneus]

I'm having the same problem, oddly enough, with the same concern about the weather. My EE, Matilda, hasnt voluntarily left the nest all day and BOY does she get mad at me when I push her out! She was like that yesterday, too. I just took her egg away and forced her off the nest (again), but I'll be going out tonight after lights out to check on her. Its finally getting cold enough to freeze their water at night (I put the heated bowls/base out today!), so I worry about her sitting, alone, in the nest box all night.

It looks like you've gotten lots of good advice! I'll be watching & following along with you, if you dont mind! Good luck!!

 

[fshinggrl]

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I will enjoy the company! She was out again today briefly. Her clucking is so unique.

 

[joneus]

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No progress, then? Nothing here, either. Matilda sat on the nest all day with the exception of the few times that I physically removed her from it. She's sort of cute when she puffs up like a little fluffy black basketball, but she needs to get over this soon! One of the times I brought her in the house & stuck her in the dog crate with some food & water so I could be sure that she had at least *something* today. The poor girl was ravenous!

I think, tomorrow, I'm going to borrow my dogs' crate for the day so I can force her to go outside and stay outside. The others are perfectly happy outside free ranging, so she *should* be okay, even tho she's confined, right?

Good luck with your broody!

 

[galanie]

Breaking them using a wire bottom cage or dog crate or something (with NO bedding!) will only work if you leave them in there till they aren't broody any more. The trick is to make sure they can't get cozy and warm under there. If the temp on their underside can't stay warm, it will cause the hormones that are making them broody to stop.

 

[fshinggrl]

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Thank you for explaining that! I guess the occasional coldness underneath is not enough.

That said, she is no longer broody. She stopped yesterday I believe. I was sick and just could not spend the time outside to try to break her. She came out of it on her own. She was broody for 9 days!!!

*question* Does that mean that she would NOT make a good broody IF she were to go broody in the Spring? I would often find her in the nest with no eggs in it while the eggs were one nest over. She did move around, so it wasn't as if the eggs just were laid in another nest.

 

[galanie]

In my own opinion, she would not make a good broody. I have one that will sit for as much as two months so long as there's some eggs under there. I know this cause she actually had to do just that this summer. She went broody and I had a hell of a time getting the eggs I wanted for her. So I kept a fake egg under her the whole time I was waiting for the eggs and when I got the "real" ones, she seemed thrilled to have something to really hatch at last.

This fall she went broody again and I kept her with some eggs that turned out to be duds. I pitched them after a couple of weeks and just left the fake one. I tried again, they were also duds. I threw them out, removed the fake one, and it's like she understood that nothing would come of it so she came out of it after a couple days with nothing there.

My others are easy to break. The biggest, all I have to do is make sure she can't get to a nest box for two days. I have another that is sort of like your girl. She'll go broody and "sorta sit" for a bit then snap out of it. I'll never give those any eggs.

 

[kinsey228]

My one and only banty, a Wyandotte, went broody last week, and I don't know what to do.

She's not even sitting on eggs. I might let her hatch one or two if I get another roo. I'll probably just let her figure out that she can't hatch chicks from thin air.