Can a broodie starve herself to death?

[LynneP]

Wow, she is *very* stubborn.

I can seehow these behaviors are useful in the wild, but in our well-stocked coops it looks so silly! Good luck with her!

 

[mylilchix]

Hooray for the poo, but please try to take her off the nest. I lost a broody because she stopped eating, drinking, and eventually getting off to poo. The poo got backed out and dried closing off her vent.

Take her off her nest for a little while every day. I've also been told giving them cornmeal with their feed will help. Good luck!

Sonja

 

[Chickenmaven]

I agree that you might have to take her off the nest. Maybe give her some boiled egg.
We keep an eye on our current 2 broodies. I brought them some meat and tomato this morning. They are on day 10 and just this morning acted like they wanted to stretch a little.

 

[kycklingmamma]

I have a partridge cochin that seem to have the broody bug every so often and when she does and I want her to set ( right now she is broody on an empty box so I am trying to break it,with no luck..) I have been giving here scratch in a small bowl in front of her and she eats that. I read somewhere that they don't need layer feed while they are broody and that scratch is OK even though it isn't cold outside and all.

Kycklingmamma

 

[Chickenaddict]

I recommend taking her off the nest at least once a day to eat,drink, and poo otherwise she may go on the eggs and believe me that is not what you want to happen

What worked for me was to take the hen off the nest and get her "fired up" by ruffling her feathers, she would start walking around eat a bit, drink, then open up the flood gates then eat some more and finally about 5 minutes later was ready to return to her nest.

 

[Granolamom]

Yup, that's what we did again this morning, and will continue to do until she hatches her babies. She huffed and puffed when we put her on the ground, but after a while we got her to scratch and walk around a little. She turned her nose up to the crumble mash we made for her, but did eat some black-oil sunflower seeds, and she drank a lot of water. I tried to offer her some organic catfood (beef&rice), which she usually loves as a special treat, but she did not want it, either.
Oh well, I'm just glad she's eating something...

. She's a very big, healthy girl, and has lots of body reserves...

She pooped, and after 10 minutes we let her get back on her nest. I don't think she's turning the eggs, either, because she always stays in the same exact position until the next time we check on her, and so I turned them when she was off the nest. Do I need to do that every day?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I think that most hens that go broody can do a good job all on their own -- BUT -- they all should be watched in case you have a rare exception that needs some assistance. They don't expend much energy so they don't need much food & water, but it's good to notice that they've eaten something, and leave a poop every day or so. If you don't notice that, then you might want to intervene. I don't know if I would interfere with the egg turning, I'd trust the hen to know how & when to shift them around. Maybe the next time you take the hen off the nest you can write an X with pencil on the tops of the eggs. Then see if the Xs are still on top the next time the hen is off the nest.

 

[Granolamom]

Quote:
Actually, we marked them on day one (we wrote numbers on them, which correspond with each one of our hens, so we'd know which chick came from which hen. This was my 7-year old's idea. Of course, it'll only work, if we're there to observe the hatching...).
When we placed them in the nest, all the numbers were facing up, and they still were this morning, on day 8. So, she has not turned them. I'm a firm believer in letting Mother Nature do what she does better than any of us, but I think we might have one of those rare mommie hens here, who are somehow "paralized" by her hormonal changes, and forget what else they need to do, other than just keep her eggs nice and warm.