broody breaking questions...UPDATE!!! FALSE ALARM!

[melloladies]

I think that as of this AM I have a broody girl (she is part cochin...) She was sitting in her nest I believe on an egg just laid by another girl- and I went to check and she got a little puffy and churtled at me. Normally she just lets me pet her

Sooo...I had to go to work, so I left her for the time being. I figure if she's still in there when I get home at 4:30 I'll deal with it then. So my question is- I have a dog crate I use as my "hospital" but it doesn't have a wire bottom- just plastic. If that is still okay to use, do I put it in the run with the other girls? The whole run is only 5x10 and the dog crate is a good 2x3. Also- do you leave her in there overnight? Or put her (in the cage) somewhere else? We don't have a lot of predators, but we have some neighbor hood cats... there are some gaps at the top of the run, and I'd hate to leave her just sitting there in the cage. Maybe in the garage overnight? Please grace me with your opinions! I cannot give her eggs/chicks. I would love too...but as I am 4 hens over my limit already, I'd like to keep my numbers down. :barn
She was walking around with her buds when i got home, and now they are all peckin around the yard.

 

[NYREDS]

If you put her in something with a solid bottom she'll just keep setting. A dark enclosure like a dog crate is a perfect environment for a broody hen. The purpose of the wire bottomed cage is to make her uncomfortable. As far as I know it's the only way.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Broodies like dark & seclusion. You want to put her in the opposite situation to change her broody mood. When they're truly broody they lose feathers on either side of their breast, making bare broody patches. Having fresh cool air up underneath them seems to switch the gears in their heads.

Each hen seems to have her own component of broodiness, this girl may be easily persuaded to stop and may not go broody again for a long time, if ever. But some hens get the broody urge regularly and often. I see that you also have a silkie, a breed known to be broody. Instead of fighting their natural instincts, you may want to either trade them to someone wanting a broody, or find someone with fertile eggs they'd like to have hatched. You can have the pleasure of your pet hens, and the fun of watching them incubate & raise baby chicks -- or baby ducks, turkeys, guineas, or geese -- and give the chicks back once they're grown a bit. Many broody hens are ready to leave their chicks after they're only halfway grown.

 

[azygous]

I had a GLW one-year old go broody last year and she was truly psycho! I had a wire milk crate which I inverted over a wrought iron patio table. I placed Irene inside and she tried to bite, claw and batter her way out. I got some sturdy wood-working clamps and clamped the crate to the table, but for the next twelve hours, Irene was a ferocious, very angry broody.

It was summer so I left the crate with Irene in it in the shade outside where it was bright light and lots of cool breezes blowing under her. By evening, she had reverted to her old self, and she was returned to the flock. She made no attempt to return to the nesting box. She had been broken in just twelve hours, and has never gone broody again.

Good luck. Broodys are a challenge.

 

[melloladies]

oh boy! Thanks for the replies. I'm hoping I just scared her, and she's really not trying to hatch a golf ball

I got some great ideas.- I think renting out her broody bum would be hysterical. I hadn't thought of that. I think if I need to I can create a unbroody environment for her to change her mood in. Thanks again to all!

 

[Pinky]

My game hens hatch eggs in a hardware cloth wire bottom cage. They've done twice. Nothing stops mine except to block off the nest area for a few days