Chick Return Program??

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

While I do believe you, Badonkadonk is a quite a nasty broody and tore out some of Goose's cheek feathers yesterday because she wanted her favorite dust bathing spot back. I don't want poor Goose to get truly injured if Badonkadonk isn't feeling like herself

That’s unfortunate - broodies can be so moody!!! You certainly know your chickens best! Mine pretty much are just thinking of how to get back to their nest so aren’t up for drama, but I do have a few I wouldn’t pair up together without close supervision!

 

[sean_wonder]

That’s unfortunate - broodies can be so moody!!! You certainly know your chickens best! Mine pretty much are just thinking of how to get back to their nest so aren’t up for drama, but I do have a few I wouldn’t pair up together without close supervision!

To be honest, her behavior is so shocking because she’s one of our sweetest birds! She’s never been a trouble maker and has only recently become a higher ranking chook. Hormones change things I guess

 

[Kusanar]

Hormones change things I guess

A very good fact to remember in life...

 

[ellend]

Try putting her in a clean wire cage inside of the coop, but off the ground. No straw or any other material in the bottom; you want cooler air to be under her. It might take a week or two to break the broodiness, but she might be a chronically broody girl.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

The best way to break a broody is remove the nest.

 

[Sea Wolf]

Try putting her in a clean wire cage inside of the coop, but off the ground. No straw or any other material in the bottom; you want cooler air to be under her. It might take a week or two to break the broodiness, but she might be a chronically broody girl.

I will echo this and it is the only thing that works. It takes a week or two to break a bird. Not a couple of days with ice in the nest. You can hang the cage (I use a small wire dog crate) or put it up on bricks. The cage must be up off the ground so that the birds underside is always exposed to cooler air. No bedding, newspapers or anything else. The bird will be fine during this. Keep the bird in there for at least a week with no breaks.

 

[tacothechicken]

Imma be honest. over 10+ years I had only one hen that never broke broodiness, and had a nasty temper.And as a person who breeds and sells chickens, needing to home at least 50 birds just over summer I say at this point it's probably easiest to just grab a pair of chicks and give them to her. If she's becoming a danger to herself and other birds thats an issue. And even if broken she may just try again come next season! Ive found if you give a broody a chick even once they get the experience and understanding and it prevents repetitive broodiness, fighting, etc. Usually after the first babies by week 4 mom is fulfilled and ready to be done. And now that she has "hatching" experience she should be easier to break if there's a repeat as she'll know proper nesting requirements and get much pickier, narrowing chances to brood. Plus having chicks will cut down her temper as she'll be focused on said chicks and their protection. I post accidental clutches the day they hatch and adopt them out at 6 weeks to prevent "children's gifts" cause their no longer fluff balls and cause then mom has passed on all she can and taught them necessities like roosting bathing etc. I find it's easy to rehome chicks on like Facebook neighbor hood pet pages, Craigslist, or even farm auctions. I personally just find it more suitable to work whith the bird and also give some chicks a chance at a proper start to chicken life and finding a good home than putting you're bird through stress and anxiety whith no real gain and no assurance it wont happen again. I have a top hat I let hatch twice now simply due to the fact that polish are awfull layers and if she wants to invest her time to hatching me some proper laying hens and fulfilling her urges id rather have her be comfortable and watched than lose her to some cause or another cause she was desperate enough to hide herself away in attempt to hatch whithout discovery and prevention. That's just my take though

 

[townchicks]

How is it going with Badonkadonk? (I love that name, BTW)

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

How is it going with Badonkadonk? (I love that name, BTW)

Also wondering how the broodies are doing? Susan is back in the run with her friends! She broke fast, but we got her into the cage early.

 

[sean_wonder]

Badonkadonk is broken-- but she's completely different chicken now. She's alarmingly aggressive with Goose, to the point where I had to physically stop her before she drew blood from Goose's comb (I gave all of them some grass time yesterday). She also keeps making nasty hissing/growling noises at everyone, despite the fact that she's not broody. She's still the perfect lap chicken once you pick her up, but if you reach for her, she occasionally bites. I say again, she's an entirely different chicken. Is this really what broodiness does to them?

I can't get the cage off the ground because the wire on the bottom is so large the chickens will simply fall through.

Goose is now in jail for the past 24 hours but she's still extremely not herself. I understand why she and Badonkadonk haven't been laying but for some reason Chickie Minaj isn't laying either-- all my active layers have just stopped, including the non-broody. I know they're young, but when they started laying they laid once a day every day extremely consistently, to the point where we stopped buying eggs. And now we're back to no eggs. Why? Water's clean, food's full, they're not sick or stressed. The only thing is the broodiness.