I have a banty who is brooding - she's in the hen house on a nest so she's warm. I continue to take the eggs away from her but she gets rigt back on the nest or on another chickens eggs. Will this hurt her? She's not eating much or going outside. We will let her hatch some chicks in the spring but we're not ready yet. We're just starting our chicken adventure. Please help - I'm sure they're is answer here on the site, but not enough time to look through everything. Thanks fo the help.
I think if you just keep taking away any eggs she sits on, so they don't develop, she will give up in time. And she's probably eating and drinking when you're not around because when you're there she feels she must protect her nest. I've had hens do that and they will give up in a month or so and go back to normal behavior. Well, normal for chickens, anyway.
LY;I know exactly how you feel. I have a broody bantam right now also. She sits on everybodys eggs! She gets out once a day and eats, drinks, has huge poo's and sits on the roost for a few minutes and terrorizes the other pullets... Then back to the nest where the other pullets climb on top of her to lay! I let her sit on the eggs until they begin to develop and then I put the eggs in the incubator. I am worried the other chickens will harm the chicks in the coop and, that it might be too cold. This am when I was feeding the chickens, the broody pullet was out eating and I saw another pullet jump into the nest box and start moving the eggs around. I left them alone and came back later and the broody was on the roost and the other bird was sitting on the eggs. Now, they're both in the box at the same time! If they both go broody, I'll try to break one of them. ETA: I would like to know how often a hen opr pullet might go broody??
