Broody 5 mo. old Buff: What Do I Do?

[Barry Natchitoches]

One of my buff orpingtons, born around late March of this year, is Big Time Broody.


We do have a 5 month old roo (an Easter Egger), and he has been having his way with all of the 5 month hens and one of the year old hens (a different Buff Orpington) as well.


Her heart is so into mothering her eggs that my wife and I don't have the heart to try and "de-program" her. So we've taken the last two eggs that the year old Buff has produced, and tucked them underneath her bottom so that she might have a chance to hatch a successful egg or two. The little girls eggs are so small right now that I just can't see their eggs successfully hatching.


Besides giving her the older Buff's eggs to sit on, what should we we doing to help her along? It's OK with us if she gives up on this maternity thing without producing any live chicks, because we really didn't have in mind to get any live chicks from the flock right now anyway.


But if she really wants to do the motherly thing, then we want to do whatever we can to help her fulfill her wishes.


But we have never raised chickens before, and we don't have a clue what it is that we should do for her -- before or after the hatchings.


Please share your wisdom and insights with these relatively new chicken parents.

 

[Megs]

just make sure she has clean water and food available as usual, she will probably get off the eggs once a day for a quick snack/water and then go right back. you dont really have to do anything with a broody, other than perhaps giving her her own cage/space if any hatch (depends on the flock really) i have been able to leave my broodys with their chicks in the runs with other chickens and the moms take care of them, some chickens will attack babies though, so you will have to watch them if you want to leave them together.

 

[txchickie]

Leave her alone

She knows far more than any of us about how to care for her eggs. Be sure she has feed & water accessible to her, and possibly a spot to dustbathe, and other than that, she's good to go!
If others are picking on her you may need to move her or block her off to give her her own space.
Moving can be tricky if she needs to be moved, I've only had to move broodies a handful of times and have never been successful.

After the chicks hatch, I leave them be with the hens. It's too heartbreaking for me to take chicks from a broody after they did all that hard work of sitting

No lights or heat, mama does all of the heating for the chicks. Keep chick starter and water available for the chicks, and Mama does the rest!