Help broody hen sitting on golf balls

[kaylakala]

Well we have no rooster... So I removed the eggs and put in golf balls. What else can I do?

I'm considering trying to find some viable eggs for her.

 

[cmom]

What breed is she?

 

[Guinea Goonie]

If you can find some fake plastic or wooden eggs, I would get these and let her set. If she is dilegent, I would find a farmer in your area and get some fertilized eggs and let her hatch them out.
This is a great way to start a flock and you know where your birds come from. Be weerry cawful though, you may end up like some of us. Then you have to go to the meetings and meditate .....

 

[Sunny Side Up]

If you don't want to have her hatch chicks, but get back to the business of laying groceries for you, put her in a wire-bottomed cage up off the floor a few feet. Set it up on sawhorses or cinder blocks so she gets a nice breeze up under her bottom. Give her food & water and let her recalibrate her birdy brain for a few days in there. If after 3-4 days when you let her out she hastens back to her nest box, she'll need a few more days of reprogramming. If she goes back to the flock, scratching & pecking, then she's through with being broody...for a while.

I have an old parrot cage on a wire stand we call The Broody Busterwhich is used for just that purpose.

Otherwise, you can let her stay on those golf balls until you find some fertilized eggs for her to incubate. Check at the store where you buy your chicken feed to find someone with a mixed flock from whom you could get some fertilized eggs. Or buy some online from Egg Bid or EBay. While you're waiting you could fix up a quiet place for your broody to set, some place private where the other hens won't try to interrupt her, where she won't get mixed-up after taking her breaks and return to the wrong nest box, letting her eggs get cold.

Why don't you have a roo? Remember if you hatch chicks you have a 50% chance of getting rooster kids. Make sure you know what you'll do with all the cockerels that result, and don't count on being able to find them all loving homes as pampered pets.

It is delightful to observe a Mama hen raising a brood of chicks, and there's a lot to like about mixed-breed chickens. The hens make good reliable layers, healthy & uniquely colored, and the roos are handsome and good enough for the table. Let us know what you decide to do!

 

[kaylakala]

I'm working on getting some fertalized eggs. I've gotten a few replies.

It's all very eggciting! LOL
I'm losing my mind.

 

[Whirlwind]

good luck. Hope you find some eggs. I sure did have a RIR acting all broody on me this morning. Hope not. I got 7 chicks in the brooder and I don't need any more. Thats not saying I won't let her hatch some if she is broody.

DH might not be very happy tho.

 

[kaylakala]

She's just being soooo sweet. I bring her drinks and food.

 

[Appytaz]

I just love watching the momma hens with the new babies. It is amazing how well they take care of them and teach them new things.