Broody this time of year???

[shareverwonder]

My hen went broody about 2 weeks ago. How do I break her? I've tried getting her out of the coop, but she just lays on the ground then. I don't know if she's eating or drinking (I work all day so I don't see what's going on). It gets so darn dark so early by the time I get home everyone else is roosting.

The funniest thing about all of this is - I don't even have my rooster anymore, so the eggs aren't even fertilized. She just sits there on the unfertilized eggs.

 

[bakerjw]

Mine never growled. They just made a light "uck uck uck" sound.

My latest free ranging broody made the "uck uck " sound whenever I came near but the tone changed to a more content sound when I started feeding her from my hand. My assumption is that there was some understanding that I wasn't a threat to her.

There are threads on breaking a broody. I believe that a lot of it has to do with getting her cool underneath. Never tried to break one though.

It's one of the oddities of life. If you want a broody you'll probably not get one. If you don't then sure enough they'll start getting broody.

 

[DelcoChix]

Chickens seem to delight in keeping us newbies on our toes...raised a lot of pullets last year, they are in various stages of moulting but nary a one has gone broody.....then raised another couple of batches of chicks this year (20+ total) and still nothing...until now--early October two out of the three 8 month old BCM pullets that have only been laying for a month go broody. Crazy--one just kept on laying her beautiful dark brown eggs, one's broodiness lasted about 2 weeks and the most determined girl FINALLY got off the nest after almost a month. I admit, I did "encourage" the two of them to leave the nestbox on a regular basis, and the last week or so I'd just take "Miss Determined" right out and set her loose in the yard with the other two who had free reign (the rest are in a large run for most of the time)--then she would enjoy herself a bit, scratching around, then remember she had to get back to her nest (empty nest) and begin to pace along the run fence....Both of them made the funniest sounds, reminded me of Jurassic Park and the Veliciraptors 'trilling/growling sounds as they'd fluff up, but never acted aggressive at all. Final note--haven't had a rooster around since we re-homed our Silkie roo over a year ago, long before the BCM's were even a sprakle in their daddy's eye...