Broody Pullet!

[Lipkis]

Okay, we have a pullet and she's VERY broody. I mean that would be perfectly fine if we had a rooster but she's really, really, really broody! Poor little girl. I feel so bad.

I mean we look in and she looks so serious and determined. She really wants a baby! I mean she wants a baby like really, really, really, really badly! We feel so bad for her. We take her off the nest so she walk around and gets some food and such.

Should we be worried?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

I wouldn't worry until she starts refusing to eat or drink. If you want her to have babies, you can always buy some hatching eggs and stick them under her. There's a thread on here somewhere, where someone's hen was broody for two or three months. Eventually they will get over it.

 

[motherhen]

I have 2 banties and one is a silkie and she is broody and very commited. The last time it happened to both my chickens I had to put them in a separate dog crate and give them water and food and kept them in a spot they couldn't see the nest. I had to keep them confined in the create for 5 days and when they were released back into the coop and run they were back to normal.
My silkie is broody again and this time I am just gonna let her nest until she is done, hopefully within a week or 2. If not I will have to confine her again.

 

[Lipkis]

We take her out once a day. It's been a little hard lately since it's been raining a little bit. However, when we do let her out we makes sure that she eats. And three months! Shoot! That's a long time!

Thank you both of you. We're just worried about her. We love her so much. We love them so much and we want to make sure that they are okay. Truffles kinda "growls" at us she sounds like a Raptor. I hope that's normal too.

Are bantams broodiness the same as a normal chickens?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

The growling is normal, most broodies will do that. It's a defensive method, she's protecting her "brood".

Not all bantams get broody, just as not all standards will go broody. A lot of it depends on the breed. I've heard cochin and silkies go broody a lot. I've got a japanese bantam that goes broody about once a year. I had a black star that would do the same. The old english game bantams I have hardly ever go broody. I had some RIR or production reds (not sure what they were) that wouldn't brood either.

 

[Lipkis]

Ah, okay they're cochin bantams too.

So the growling, broodiness, and determined look is okay. That's good. We were really worried about her at first! We got some advice to put back an egg until she got over it. Is that okay to do?

Our other two girls, aren't broody at all. We're also a little worried since our Truffles will get pecked at by her little sister. Is it because she's angry and wants to lay?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

I would take the egg from her. Otherwise (since you don't have a rooster and it's not fertile) it may rot and break open on her later, because even though it won't hatch she thinks it will and will try to hatch it by setting on it until it does!

And pecking the other girls is normal too, it is because she's broody and grumpy.

 

[Lipkis]

Okay.

Gosh, thanks a lot. We wanted to make sure that she was okay. But thank you.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

You are most welcome!

She'll be just fine as long as you keep her fed, watered, and comfortable. And don't mind her grumpiness, she'll get over it eventually.

 

[Dawn419]

Lipkis,

I can sympathize with you...I'm in the process of "breaking the broody" on one of our Banty Mottled Cochin gals. Even after removing the eggs that she laid didn't stop her and removing her from the nest several times a day, for a few days...she was persisent enough in her broody that she decided she's just hatch out the golfballs in the nest boxes!

We just set her up yesterday with a cage in our main run so she can remain with her gang but not get into the coop and boxes.

Here's the post I started...Breaking a Broody

Dawn