broodys and there bad timing!

[CrazyChickensEverwhere]

Anyone have bad luck with broodys. Grrrr I have two hens that lay for a month, then go broody they raise chicks then they start laying and broody so on and so forth. Well they both are finally pickin up there laying after the molt and I really want them to raise me some chicks and now they decide they don't wanna brood! grrrr! Lol. And when I don't want them to, they decide they want babies I just dont get it!? anyone else lol

 

[RareBreedFancier]

My ladies refused to go broody at all... till I sold the roos. Now I have a bunch broody and I broke up all my breeding pens a few weeks ago.

 

[amosygal]

They usually don't go broody in the winter (or are you from the Southern hemisphere?). All you can do in general is give them a nice breeding pen and make sure they have enough food and water. Good luck!

 

[RareBreedFancier]

amosygal is right, if you ladies have just finished moulting they likely won't go broody till spring. Mine have waited till the beginning of summer. I wouldn't have sold my roos apart from the fact they started crowing 3:30 - 4am and DH said they had to go!

 

[Jferlisi]

Ya i had bad luck with my favorite hen. She was a silkie/EE, she looked like a silkie and everything but laid a green egg. She went broodie twice and both times was when i was on vacation and the first time she went she was grabbed out of the box by my dog cause my parents left the coop door open. The second time she went broodie something went into the coop and took her and my other silkie who just hatched two babies and took both silkies and both babies.

 

[rirbrahma]

Can't wait till mine go broody!!

 

[CrazyChickensEverwhere]

Mine did finish there moult. They brooded in winter before, but I guess I dont want to get my hopes too high

 

[macdoogle2]

I never had a broody until I got a roo. Sold the roo... no more broodies. Roo came back...three hens went broody.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

Quote:
Hens don't go broody in the winter?


Will you PLEASE explain that to the THREE Ameraucana hens that I have brooding as I write this? Or the broody that delivered chicks a few weeks ago.... I only have 13 Ameraucana hens -- and 4 of the 13 are broody (or have recently hatched chicks) here as we go into winter...


I've got a regular broody EPIDEMIC going here!


The first broody delivered three little chicks about a month ago.


The second went broody while the first one was still brooding. The second broody should have delivered babies four weeks ago, but none of her babies made it. So I gave her four eggs from the henhouse with the active roo -- exactly three weeks ago today. (This is the same roo that provided the fertile eggs for the broody that delivered the three chicks a month ago).


Well, in about 10 hours, it will be exactly 21 days (3 weeks) from the moment I gave broody #2 her four eggs. Right now, there is no sign of any baby chicks, even though I know for a fact that broody #2 has been dutiful sitting on her nest. The "maternity ward" consists of two large wire dog pens in my bedroom. So I KNOW she's been sitting dutifully.


But thus far, I haven 't even heard a peep or a pip out of the nesting area where she sleeps.


Meantime, with the maternity unit full, I have yet another broody brooding in the nests over in the Ameraucana henhouse. That makes FOUR broody hens out of the 13 Ameraucanas I got as babies last April....


And despite the calendar, the 25 degree nights around here say it is already winter.


So I WISH my birds would declare winter off limits for brooding....

 

[sonew123]

good grief mine go broody all the time in Winter I'd be fine with it if it were in Sept or even OCt but Not December or Jan!