Suggestions? Lol, be patient.
My Cayuga Mama just turned a year old in June. She’s been laying since December or so, and ya, I’d been waiting for a brood since then. She’d reliably drop an egg every morning before dawn, but didn’t really care where. I tried putting a nest box in her run—definitely hit or miss on whether she’d actually lay in it.
even when she started making nest like structures, it was probably a good couple months before she actually acted broody.
Then, because I’d been picking up eggs to keep predators out of the nest area during the day (had some blue jays attack the eggs
), I pulled a couple out of the fridge and put em in the nest to encourage her to start sitting (allow them to come to room temp first). Once she had 8, between fridge and fresh, she started sitting. But it was FOREVER to get to that point.
She’s been a champ mom, though. She disposed of the fridge eggs early on, and the @#%^ chickens stole and ate all but one, so I put a chicken egg in with her (she happily took), and two two week old foster Cayuga babies once her duckling hatched. They’re the cutest little mismatched clutch ever, lol. <3
but ya—patience.
