Girls gone broody....

[BooBear]

Update:

Una's spell has broke. She is running with the rest of the flock now. Dad said we only got 3 eggs today though.

Fifi is now in the broody breaker cage and not happy about it. I took her out but she just wanted to try to go back to the nest box soooo back in she went.
Mrs. Grumpy has only gotten up to release her broody bomb, drink, eat, and back to the nest. Poor Dad found the broody bomb and cleaned it up. He said it stunk something aweful.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
LOL. Reminds me of the first time DH smelled broody poop. He was like...OMG! What IS that smell?!?! This from a man that grew up on a commercial chicken farm.

 

[BooBear]

hehehehe, bomb is the best way to describe it. It is the ultimate stink bomb!

 

[bburn]

I moved my broody Dark Cornish to a small corner coop by herself tonight. She has changed nests three times. She had two eggs under her and we moved those also. I had to shut the door to the coop so she would stay in with her eggs.....she was quite unhappy with the move. Either she will sit on the eggs or not but if not maybe this will break her. She has not been off a nest in over a week but has changed nests three times.

We will see what happens....she is safe, by herself and has a couple of eggs.....

 

[BooBear]

Hope she hatches them for ya

There is something so sweet and endearing about watching a momma hen and her chicks. I am hoping Mrs. Grumpy hangs in as I plan to give her some of the chicks that hatch from the brooder. As this is her first time I did not want to risk putting eggs under her and then she change her mind in the middle of incubating.

Figure if she turns out to be a good momma hen then next time I will let her do the hatching and rearing.

 

[TK421]

Does this mean that you broke your broody hen in a couple of days? My PBR has been broody 3 weeks now, and I'm resisting spending the money on a kennel/hutch. But this is really driving me crazy. If I bite the bullet and get a cage, are you saying it will only take a few days? (Trust me, I'm not asking for a guarantee!)

 

[BooBear]

Was only able to break Una in that short time.
Fifi is refusing to break. So I put some water on her tummy and back in the cage she went. It kinda depends on how determined the hen is to be broody. I have read where it can take a week or so to break them. Gonna leave Fifi in the cage for a couple more days.

Mrs. Grumpy got to move about on her break today. I was doing some cleaning and saw she was up so let her out to see what she would do. She ate, drank, pooped, took a dust bathe, fluffed n huffed at me, hopped up on the roosts which Lester ran to over to check on her. She was not interested in following him but instead went back to her nest. The 3 Blue Wheaten girls peeked in at her and then took a nap near her. Not much excitement around a broody. I added more pine shavings to her hutch for her.

Dad said he stopped in and peeked at the chickens while we were out shopping. Lester had hopped into the integration pen (the hutch is in the integration pen inside the main coop) to check out the Blue Wheaten pullets and see how Mrs. Grumpy was doing. Lester gets very concerned over his girls and has been fascinated by the new pullets. He said he told Lester to get out and Lester strutted past him casually. (Lester normally avoids contact so this was funny to me)

 

[BooBear]

Took 3 days to break FiFi and everyone was back to normally. Lester was ranging with 6 ladies in tow and happy as can be.

Lo n behold.....Alice parked herself in the next box this evening behaving suspiciously broody. There were no eggs in the box; but she was still fluffed up and whining at me. I pulled her out, checked her over, and put her on the perch next to her flock mates. She was not happy about it at all. I have a feeling she is trying to go broody on me.

Well there goes our egg collection count.

Hopefully Una and Fifi will re-kick in on their contribution soon.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Join the club. I used to rejoice when I saw a hen acting broody. Now I feel like crying.

 

[BooBear]

Looks like we can share a box of Kleenex. Something about the Spring air.