broody making me nuts!

[nuchickontheblock]

I have a ameraucana (ee) girl who has been broody now for quite a while -- had a hidden nest which we moved her off of, gave her the wire cage treatment for about 36 hours, but then we had a cold snap and I felt bad and let her back in the coop. It was down in the single digits at night and she was alone in the cage on our covered but outside porch.

She was pretty docile initially when she was back in the coop, but now is doing the growling, aggressive thing, when we move her out of the nest box, or reach in to get the eggs that the others have laid there. The girls were free-ranging until a couple of weeks ago all day, but due to the weather, darkness and our work schedules -- off to work in the dark and back home at dark -- we are keeping them in the enclosed coop/run unless we are home. She will come out and scratch around early in the morning with the others when physically removed out of the nest box, but I assume that she goes back and stays there for most of the day after she has done her eat, drink, poor, flap her wings thing. She also sleeps in the nest box these days.

So my big question is, will she snap out of it on her own or not. I hate to isolate her again -- makes me feel mean in the winter, but she is continuing after at least 3 weeks that we are aware of. ( we found 8 eggs in her hidden nest, so she must have been doing this for longer than that as they had been confined to the run for a week prior to our locating the nest.) She was broody in the summer as well and I wondered if hormonally she will just tend to continue to do this over and over. We are thinking that we will get eggs to put under her in the Spring, as she seems to be the mother hen type.

Help!

 

[PoultryParadise]

There are lots of hens you can snap out of being broody. I have tried a number of different methods, a lot which work. Honestly though, there is the odd hen that will brood when she's gonna brood, and no one is going to get in her way. I have had one hen, who insists on setting eggs. I really needs the eggs I get, because of sales, so this one little lady "Pretty" sat 4 times this summer. At first we tried to break her. Moving her, isolating her, cold bottom baths, but when it came to the point she was looking thin from sitting so much, we gave her some eggs. The next hatch she flew the coop, litteraly, to lay and hatch a few eggs under the duck house. When I figured out where she was, and you can not reach her under there, I set up temporary fencing so nothing could get her.
So ladies, are going to sit when they are going to sit, and there is little you can do about them. Most though, you'll break them eventually.
Good luck

 

[abhaya]

I would give her some fertile eggs let her hatch out a few chicks. she will keep them warm safe and all that good stuff. Free chicken no fuss no mess.

 

[nuchickontheblock]

wish I could let her set on some eggs, but now is not good -- cold here and our coop would be too small to set her up in a separate nest there. I also am relatively new to chickens - this is our first winter - and I don't know much about baby chicks. I would be pretty scared about having them at this time of year. We have an ordinance related to chickens that limits the number to 5 hens and no roos, so we aren't equipped right now to handle the baby chicks -- in the Spring though for sure!
Thanks

 

[PunkinPeep]

If you aren't going to give her any fertilized eggs, then you need to go all the way with breaking her. It isn't healthy for her to continue to be broody. She's not getting enough nutrition. You need to break her so that she'll start taking care of herself again. If she's so determined, she might go on like this for an awfully long time.

 

[nuchickontheblock]

thank you PunkinPeep.
I just kind of needed a push to put her back in the cage. I hope she comes out of this broodiness soon. The poor thing has undergone a major personality change (growling and aggressive) when she isn't zoned out in a broody daze.

One thing for sure. Owning these chicks is never boring!