Broody girl: How young is too young?

[Southernbelle]

My little silkie hen is 6 months old exactly and she's been broody for the last 2 weeks. I'd rather give her fertile eggs than try to break her broodiness, but I'd rather not give her eggs if she can't go the distance. I thought 6 months was too young to even want to hatch babies. Has anyone else had sucess with a broody hen this young?

 

[DTchickens]

if the chickens doing it-Never too young. they know when their ready.. only thing is. if you gave her the eggs now they'd die. she would leave the nest about day 25 (For her). and eggs would only be.. half finished. i'd break her up. she'll start laying again.. then go broody. THEN put eggs under her

-Daniel

 

[Southernbelle]

Really? I thought a broody would sit until they hatched something. I thought I read a post where someone noticed their hen go broody, let her sit on golf balls until they could have some fertile eggs shipped then tucked the eggs under her. Now I don't know what to do! My girl is a Silkie and they're notoriously hard to break of broodiness.

 

[shelleyd2008]

That's what I think too. I now have 4 hens with chicks, and they had just started laying beofre going broody. I only have trouble with one, concerning how she takes care of the chicks. But she is really fat, and whenever we try to let her free range with her chicks, she runs off and forgets about them when she sees food being tossed out.

I don't believe she would necessarily leave the eggs on day 25. It really just depends on the hen. You could go ahead and give them to her, and have your bator ready if she does leave. My dad had a hen that sat the nest for 6 weeks,(all her eggs were no good), and didn't even leave when she had no eggs left. We finally went and got her some day old chicks from a guy in town.

 

[DTchickens]

Quote:
usually they leave.. they expect them to hatch 21-22 days after. the extra 3-4 days is for a "make sure" then they have to leave or the other chicks can die from.. lack of water/food. if none hatch they usually get the "their dead" thought. and leave on the 25th. isn't always the case. but is pretty often.. silkies would be easy to break up like other hens i think (never dealt with them but i would THINK so if you have the know how. and right stuff). if you have a pen "big enough for her to be comfy in" put her in there. with no nests. eggs. or golf balls... anything laying oriented. AND THEN... about a 1-2 weeks. should have stopped setting., and is laying again...

-Daniel

 

[vfem]

I just broke my 6 month old silkie from her broody ways last week. She had been on that nest for 6 days and would peck me constantly! I kept taking the eggs though (they are not fertile) and kept trying to take her off the nest. Finally she got off for feedings, and started spending less time on it until I finally had her taken care of.

I just don't think its time yet for her. If she'd like to in the spring, I'll get her some eggs. You should probably just break her being so young. I don't know if she's go the distance since its her first time?!