Cant break my broodies!!

[chicmom]

I have a black copper marans hen, Fancy, and she was broody for two months! Now, when you put them in the wire cage, another thing that might help is suspending the cage so that it's up in the air.....like set it on a crate or something that's not solid. Do this for three days--no bedding--food and water only. Then, let her out. If she goes back to being broody--back in the cage for another few days......I've heard of people dipping their hens in cold water, and I think that's just plain mean. One thing is you can feed your broodies chick starter....there's more protein and such in there.

 

[Bookworm chick]

Quote:
I just broke 3 broodies and also penned them together. They were all about equal in the pecking order so there wasn't any fighting. They had food and water, no bedding (in a wire dog crate) and after a week put them back with the flock. This is their third day back and so far so good.
It's been a bad summer for broodies. Out of seven hens, I had five broody at the same time. So you can see I wasn't as lucky with my egg production.

 

[The Tinman]

I have heard in the good ole days they use to dunk a broody hen in a bucket of water to break her. That is where the saying "Madder than a wet hen" came from.

 

[Beekissed]

Tinman, I've done that before and it really works for a lot of broodies. These I had this year I think were spurred on by the unusually hot weather we have had here this summer. I've never had this many broodies at one time in my whole chickening life. Can't cool off a broody when its 95 degrees outside!