Broody hen in first laying season and fall???

[cmom]

*sigh* Sometimes you have to let them have one.

Like my cockerel who sleeps on my back deck. I'd rather have him SAFE in the Roo Barn and he said nope. He wants my social chair as his bed.

Hopefully he won't come up missing some day. I never close the pop doors to my birds coops but I do have the coops and pens very secure.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Belated Most likely she will be broody in another nest box. I have put broody's in a wire cage to break them but now I just make them get out of the nest boxes. They may not like it but I make them get out. Sometimes they peck hard at me and growl but I always win.

But how do you make them stay out without disrupting all your other girls? And how long does it take for them to break?

I do want to note that I have experimented with elevated and non to see if it made a difference. It really has made NO difference. It seems to be all about the individual. So I go ahead and set my kennel on the grass. But it still is wire bottomed and not quite comfy.

 

[cmom]

It take several days to break them. I have so many birds that for me I just toss them out of the nest boxes whenever I see a broody who I know is not laying but just wants to brood. Many years ago I did let some of the broody's hatch some eggs of my choice. Now I only hatch chicks once a year in the spring and I put the eggs in my incubator, but i usually hatch out around 300 chicks every year.

 

[mooseb]

By some miracle our broody hen slept on the roost last night and isn't in the boxes this morning, after four days separated in the tractor. Yay!