Constantly going broody

[jengrantmorris]

I'm a little frustrated with our beautiful gold laced Barnevelder, Marble. She started laying in the middle of July 2013 and since then she has been broody 5 times! The third time we got her a couple of fertile eggs to hatch. She was just a great mommy and everything went well. But we can't do that for her every time!

When she goes broody it really sets in and she is hard to break as well. We've tried isolating her from the coop, dipping her belly in cool water, and have even built a broody breaker with a mesh floor (with a beam to roost on) to air her nethers. We built it when we realised we'd need it often for her. Last time she took forever to break and the other hens started going broody too.

I guess I'm frustrated because I want her to be happy and she can't be happy if she's desperate to get to her nest and we keep preventing her, to break her broodiness. She also won't be happy if her health suffers, so we feel we do have to break her of it asap when it happens (as we've found, the longer we take to break her, the longer it takes).

Does anyone else have a super broody hen?? How do you deal with it? Is it just one of those things we have to accept about her and deal with all the time, or is there something we can do??

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I had one hen die after brooding for two or three months straight. I had tried to break her of it but to no avail (twice).

I just feel as though if you have tried to break her of it and just can't there is nothing to be done but let her have her way and let her set. Unfortunately this may spell her demise. It is a hard decision. I agree you can't give her chicks or eggs to hatch each time or your coop will overflow.

Hopefully this helps to hear of my experience.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Barnevelders are a broody breed, but sounds like you have the super broody. Any friends in need of babies? You could let her hatch and raise them, then sell/give them to friends. Otherwise, you'll just need to keep breaking her.

I have a couple of broodies that will brood more than once in a year (a barred rock and an Icelandic). I'm weak and give them eggs to hatch. That's why I have so many chickens now.