Broody Welshie sitting on infertile eggs

[Lilki]

One of our Welshies has gone broody over some eggs we missed in the duck house. They are not fertile. She will not leave the house for anything and hisses when we get too close. I really feel for her but I'm worried that she's not eating or drinking. Do I let her figure it out on her own or remove her from the house?

 

[silkie1472]

Honestly, I would remove her. If the eggs were fertile, I would leave her there, but knowing that they are infertile, the hen should be removed. She is broody as she would like to hatch ducklings, and many will set as long as it takes, whether anything happens or not. Really, it would just be a waste of her time, health, and life to set on those eggs.

 

[eggbert420]

You could purchase some fertile eggs for her.

 

[lomine]

If you don't want to get fertile eggs I would try to break her broodiness. Brooding is hard on their bodies and there is no point letting her go through it. Force her off the nest, remove the eggs, and close off access to the house during the day. If that doesn't work you can look at other threads about putting her in a wire bottom cage.

 

[Lilki]

Yikes. This is sounding a bit like ripping off the bandaid. I don't want her to go through any unnecessary stress. They don't actually let themselves starve for setting on a nest do they?? Ugh, poor baby.

eggbert420 I am actually considering that.

 

[Duckieduck]

I just bought some fertile eggs for my broody muscovy who was sitting on infertile eggs. I couldn't bear to break her of it. I don't think my eggs are doing well though so now I might have to get her some newly hatched ducklings and stick them in her nest!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I just bought some fertile eggs for my broody muscovy who was sitting on infertile eggs. I couldn't bear to break her of it. I don't think my eggs are doing well though so now I might have to get her some newly hatched ducklings and stick them in her nest!

Two of my Muscovy ducks recently decided to go broody...and they can be nearly impossible to "break" of broodiness, in my experience. Take away their eggs, move their nest box, shut them out of the coop - none of those methods has worked for me. They are astoundingly committed.

This surprised me: I decided to clean out the coop the other day and replaced the uncovered nest boxes with covered ones and while the girls protested and generally did everything they could to get in my way, once the new nest box was in place, they seem to have lost interest in co-brooding in it. I keep thinking that this was way too easy, but the girls have been out and about and seem nearly back to their normal selves. Now they just need to start laying again!

Figures that they decide to go broody after I filled up my incubator with their eggs.

 

[Lilki]

Sorry about your eggs @duckieduck.

My girl seems to have given up. One of the other hens was in the house with her this morning and they both left the coop together. I was able to get most of the eggs and she spent most of the day browsing with the others. Whew, I won't let that happen again!

 

[lomine]

That's good she wasn't too into it. My 3 WH took turns doing the same thing last Spring; one of them did it 3 times. They had the urge to brood but it wasn't intense. Pushing them out of the nest was enough to break them of that urge. Of course they still took a week or two to start laying again which was annoying. Just FYI, a brooding hen should get off the nest at least once a day to eat, drink, poop, and take a bath. They shouldn't starve themselves to death but I still think it is best not to let them go through it if there is no chance of hatching or you don't want ducklings.

 

[Waddlein]

My chicken went broody for about 2 months, so I finally got 12 fertile eggs, and she stopped 3 days, 'till hatch