Crazy Broody Chickens

[gis777]

I love my flock, however, I do not love breaking broody chickens every few weeks~! I have a silkie who continues to be broody and 3 out of 4 australorps that take turns being broody. I am sick of it! We live in TX, and its hot, I am about to pop with my 3rd baby, and need ideas how to keep them from going broody so often.

THis is what I ahve done:
-make sure eggs dont stay in nest long
-and caged them with a spotlight for about 48 hours which does snap them out of it.

My question is how long do they keep this up? Is there anything I can do to prevent this crazy cycle?

THX!

 

[gis777]

I also do not want to add to my flock so bebe chicks are not an option!

 

[Mrs. K]

I live up much more north of you. Which I assume means shorter amounts of total daylight. I only get broody hens during the summer, and not too many.

Sounds like you want egg layers, so you need to pick different breeds. Stay away from the dual purpose breeds, as they tend to go more broody, the two breeds you mentioned are prone to it.

However, a woman who is about to pop, with two little ones. I think you should just ignore them,

keep them fed and watered. And right now, if you have to buy eggs, well do so.

up in the north, not adding artificial light, keeps them from going broody.

MrsK

 

[Mrs. K]

oh! and best wishes on the new one!