Broody every 6 weeks. Ugh

[jessietc]

I have a wyandotte that seems to be broody about every 6 weeks. It's so frustrating. She's about 16 months old and didn't start laying until around a year old. The pattern is that she goes broody, we put her in a separate coop with a perch and wire bottom, it takes a week to ten days until she stops going straight into the nest, the other two hens attack her and won't let her eat for a few days, it's a week or so before she lays again, then right when everything gets back to normal we have a couple of weeks and then she's broody again. This is the third time. I was hoping it would take less time to break her this time since I caught it right away and the "time out" coop was ready but she's still in there after a week. Is there a way to prevent her getting broody? She's bottom of the pecking order of the three anyway so I feel bad that she's having to make her way back into the flock all the time. I just feel like she must be pretty unhappy a lot. Plus I'm having to buy eggs. I can only have a limited amount of chickens so I'm not sure what to do here. I want eggs and I want her to be happy. Suggestions?

 

[donrae]

I'd buy her in a heartbeat. I'm always looking for good dependable broodies.

Put an ad on CL, FB or wherever you want to advertise. Offer her for sale, or to swap for a production layer. I'll bet there's someone around who would gladly take you up on that.

 

[sourland]

Some hens have an overdeveloped maternal instinct and will continue going broody as you have described. Sometimes allowing them to raise a brood of chicks will increase the period between broody spells.

 

[jessietc]

Darn it, Sourland! That's not what I wanted to hear. Ho hum, I was thinking we might have to find an actual farm for her to live on with a rooster and chicks to hatch. Not quite sure how to find that. No room in my suburban farm for more than four or five unless I'm going to raise them for roasting and not sure I have the gumption for that.

 

[aart]

With a small flock capacity a broody could be fantastic way to renew your flock...did you have a plan for that yet?
As you've found integration can be problematic, any way to put a broody breaker(or hatcher) cage right in with the other birds so that re-integration is not as much of an issue?
You might be able to get some fertilized eggs somewhere local, or a few day old chicks to stick under her.
Or some folks would give gold for a broody hen.

Knowing more about your coop/run sizes(feet by feet) and flock capacity might garner further suggestions.