Broody hens are driving me crackers!

joebryant

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In the last four to five weeks I've had two of the three black hens with a splash rooster go broody. One miraculously hatched four of several eggs after leaving them for a long time during a cold day; she now has four chicks. The other of the two sat on air for more than three weeks after I gave up trying to break her out of it. For the last week the third black hen has not been laying any eggs, or so I thought. I noticed today that she wasn't with the rooster, and I went looking for her in the yard and woods. I looked in her coop, but I didn't see her in there (see My Page), so I became very concerned thinking of all the terrible things that must have happened to her. I went back to searching everywhere again without much hope. When I got to the coop again, I thought, "... surely not..." Sure enough, she was sitting up in the black poop catch box under the roost, and what did I find under her?
Yep, about five eggs. I'm not going to fight her; she can stay up there, lay lots of eggs, and have her chicks. It's not worth fighting with a determined hen. I'll just give her chicks away; that's the last thing that I need, more chickens.

EDIT: She and her eggs were on wood chips, not poop. Later, I'll move her, MAYBE.
 
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I gave up trying to break my Japanese of their broodiness after they sate on an empty nest for 2 weeks. Now there's 3 of them all broody int he same nest, a hen pile, and they have about 5 eggs of unknown age. I figure I'll give them another 10 days then candle the eggs to see if any are developing.
 
Hah, this is my 6th broody this season, and Chickenlittle has 7 of hers gone broody. This seems to be the year for them to drive us nuts.
 

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