Broody Silkie, removed eggs now depressed?

[CrazyFowlFreak]

I took away my Silkie's egg that she was sitting on. I had to lift her and steal the egg and then take her out of the pen to get her to act normally. I ended up taking her in the house, bathing and blow drying her, she loved it.

I just went in to check on her and she just seems depressed. Is it possible that she's upset about me taking her egg?

 

[CrazyFowlFreak]

Anyone have an idea what's going on? Her boyfriend has been leaving her alone, too.

 

[chickengrandma]

Just because you took away her eggs doesn't mean she is done being broody. She'll continue to sit and sit and sit - her body is telling her to do it. Their poor little brains don't actually connect "eggs to sitting".

My poor broody silkie has been sitting in an empty nesting box for almost a month now. I keep taking her out, every day, to make her free range for a couple of hours. And, every time she runs right back to her little empty nest.

You can look up how to "break" them from being broody on this site. I haven't had the heart to do it to her quite yet. You basically need to put her in a cage without any bedding for about two days straight. It keeps them from sitting, settling in and gets their body heat to go down - hopefully.

 

[CrazyFowlFreak]

Aw man, that just stinks. Poor baby I'll look into stopping it because she just seems so depressed and miserable. I figure it'll be better for her than to let her sit on eggs, right?

 

[rideadraft]

I have a silkie that has been a real persistent broody monster this spring. Every time I'm not paying attention for 5 min she's back at it again. We don't have a rooster (the neighbour thought that yelling "shut up" at it would work - I took pity on the rooster and re homed him to a classier neighbourhood). Anyways - since nothing she laid would hatch, I thought I'd be tricky and sneak some new chicks under her. It looked like it was going to work, they were all cuddled under her, she wasn't being aggressive, then when she got frustrated that they kept popping out she just got up, pecked at them, had a snack and left for the garden, leaving the chicks in the nest. Now they are in the kitchen much to the kid's delight and the hubby's dismay

The most successful attempt I had at keeping her off the nest was closing her out of the coop every morning and not letting her back in until bedtime. It took a couple of days but it seemed to break the cycle. The plan failed me because I started getting home too late and they weren't able to put themselves to bed properly... If you have a normal schedule it would be worth a try.

Good luck!