Help for Coco-Chanel, broody for a bit now

[Cotton Hill Chick]

Hi Friends,

This is Coco Chanel (named for the designer). She's a sweet cochin, all black with a "necklace" of white around her neck. Her head is bald right now, as the roos were after her before she went broody. Today, I've brought her inside the house in this pet crate with food and water, no litter, just the bare floor.

Coco has been broody now for WEEKS. I've been attempting to find her "reset" button by removing her from the coop many times a day, walking around with her, even taking her up into their fenced pasture, a ways from the coop, to see if she will stay and scratch around and forget about being broody. She scratches a bit, poops, then runs for the coop like the road runner! These maneuvers worked for 3 broody hens before her, but not for Coco.

I've even tried the frozen water bottle under her a few days (nope, she keeps moving it). It's not warm enough here to give her a cold-water chest-dip.

She's becoming ridiculously skinny, it's time for bigger intervention. I don't want her to starve herself to death, which I'm concerned she's on her way to doing. So my questions for those of you with stubborn broodies:

* Will keeping her in this crate, plastic floor, no bedding, with food (right now she has some scratch grains, meal worms, and a bit of banana) and water for a few days be enough for her to forget about being broody?

* Is there anything else I can do for her in there?

* Is there anything I am missing/don't know that could help her? (For example, feed her anything special to help her gain back some weight?).

She's a REALLY stubbon broody girl! Thanks for any insight, advice you can share!

 

[azygous]

You're on the right track with the cage, but the solid floor won't quite get it done. What you need is cool air circulating under the broody to cool her body temperature and that will interrupt her broody hormones.

Permitting a broody access to any solid surface beneath her will reflect her body heat back at her, perpetuating her hormones. Ice packs, though cold, are still solid surfaces. Dunking in cold water is merely a temporary cool down. Cooling needs to be constant over at least 48 hours, longer in very stubborn broodies.

The earlier you intervene with a broody cage, open mesh bottom, elevated for air circulation, the less time it takes to break the hormones. Your broody may take several days. Be sure she has food and water in her cage, and you may let her out for five minutes a day to dirt bathe, but back into the cage she goes until she no longer makes a beeline for a nest when freed.

Another tip is to install the broody in a cage in the middle of flock activity. That helps break the spell, since a broody craves seclusion to perpetuate her hormones.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Agreed, she needs to be on a wire floor. The more uncomfortable she is the less likely she is going to feel that's a great spot to raise a family. Any particular reason you didn't just let her hatch some chicks out or foster some day-olds under her to trick her off the nest?

 

[Chickassan]

I'd cook her up some liver too, she looks a little pale. Maybe some boiled eggs or mackerel to get her back to weight.
Also from recent personal experience, check her for lice/mites some broodies house them like motel 6.

 

[aart]

Another tip is to install the broody in a cage in the middle of flock activity. That helps break the spell, since a broody craves seclusion to perpetuate her hormones.

Ditto Dat^^^
Or even move the crate around to different part of coop, run, yard.
Probably going to take more than a few days to break her if she's been broody for weeks.

My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.
Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

You're on the right track with the cage, but the solid floor won't quite get it done. What you need is cool air circulating under the broody to cool her body temperature and that will interrupt her broody hormones.

Permitting a broody access to any solid surface beneath her will reflect her body heat back at her, perpetuating her hormones. Ice packs, though cold, are still solid surfaces. Dunking in cold water is merely a temporary cool down. Cooling needs to be constant over at least 48 hours, longer in very stubborn broodies.

The earlier you intervene with a broody cage, open mesh bottom, elevated for air circulation, the less time it takes to break the hormones. Your broody may take several days. Be sure she has food and water in her cage, and you may let her out for five minutes a day to dirt bathe, but back into the cage she goes until she no longer makes a beeline for a nest when freed.

Another tip is to install the broody in a cage in the middle of flock activity. That helps break the spell, since a broody craves seclusion to perpetuate her hormones.

I implemented all of the above suggestions... wire cage, food and water (even gave her the same treats as the flock) and under shade in the activity of the chicken yard. I'd let her out in evening, and if she installed herself in the nest, I moved her into a wire cage in our larger coop for the night. When morning came safe thing: when I let her out, if she beelined for the nest box back into Broody Retreat she went! It took easily 4 days for her to snap out of it! Such a relief to see her out and about again. I've since moved 3 more hens through broody retreat, who have taken less time for the hormone shift. Thanks for the details, they helped me get Broody Retreat together!

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

Agreed, she needs to be on a wire floor. The more uncomfortable she is the less likely she is going to feel that's a great spot to raise a family. Any particular reason you didn't just let her hatch some chicks out or foster some day-olds under her to trick her off the nest?

Yes, the reason is, I'm still new to all things chicken, and I already have way too many roosters. If any of the girls hatches out eggs (which I would love to do by the way), that will mean more roosters, inevitably. I'm not sure how I'd move those guys along to new homes, a lot of people here have chickens and there's always a dearth of roosters. So I don't want to add to that, and I'm not someone who can cull them... If the eggs would hatch hens-only, I'd go for that!

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

I'd cook her up some liver too, she looks a little pale. Maybe some boiled eggs or mackerel to get her back to weight.
Also from recent personal experience, check her for lice/mites some broodies house them like motel 6.

Oh these are great nutrition ideas, thanks! My DH often throws the flock pieces of liverwurst (probably not the best thing as it's processed), but he likes it and so do they (they go crazy for it) and it's only occasional. Based that, I'm sure she'd go for liver.

Stupid question: DH cooks chicken livers for our dog... would you feed them chicken livers? It just seems weird to feed them their own kind! LOL. Or would you use beef liver?

When I've got extra eggs I often scramble them up for the whole flock with oregano herb added.

I never thought of fish... the mackerel... is that why some folks use cat food?

Thanks again, I'll incorporate some upgraded nutrition into Broody Retreat!

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

Ditto Dat^^^
Or even move the crate around to different part of coop, run, yard.
Probably going to take more than a few days to break her if she's been broody for weeks.

My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.
Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.
View attachment 1780226

Hi! I like the idea of moving the crate around a bit, give them a different view! LOL. My experience so far has been as you describe. I've let them out morning and evening; if they head for the nest they go back into retreat. I've also seen the same thing, that each day their time out gets longer, more normal activities, before they run to the nest. I've got a BA who's been hanging pretty tight to the nesting trough in the larger coop, so she may be the next girl to go on Broody Retreat. Nice idea to add that 2x4 for a bit of a perch... as long as they can't rest their broody breast on it for warmth yes? Thanks for the reply! I love this group, so helpful!