HELP! My Broody Is Not Taking Care of Herself!

[CallyB57]

My Silkie got off her nest regularly for about 19 days, then I brought her in, with her 5 eggs and put her in a large dog crate. She would not eat or drink or get up and eliminate or leave off the eggs. So, I got a dropper and gave her water with that and she drank a good bit of it that way a couple of times a day. She would then peck a little bit at her scratch grains and sunflower seeds. She still did not eliminate until after 2 of her chicks had hatched and it was very stinky and huge. So, I got some t.p. and cleaned it up...it was not on her feathers or anywhere else, so I didn't have to clean her, just the shavings she was sitting on. When her first 2 chicks were going on 2 days old, I put a shallow container with warm grower/starter mash in the crate and she started making a funny growling sound in her throat, which brought the chicks out from under her...then she began to peck at the mash and the little chicks followed her example. It was amazing to watch this. It has been 51 hours since the chicks began to hatch and #4 was coming out of its shell an hour ago - it's probably out now and under the mommy hen. If I had brought Sugar in sooner than the 19th day of setting, I would have removed her from her nest for 20 or 30 minutes and taken her outside to do her business. This weekend, when ALL the chicks are up and about, I'm going to take her outside a couple of times a day for about 20 minutes and leave a warm 60W bulb above the chicks when they are alone. I just didn't realize that confining her to a crate would cause her to 'hold it' for so long. She's a very devoted little hen and this has been an exciting and touching experience for me to see her in action with her chicks. Chickens are wonderful creatures, aren't they?

 

[goldeneggtees]

Hi everyone, I'm going through the same thing with my broody. She won't get off the nest unless I physically remove her. She also will not eat unless I hand feed her. Here is a link to my questions from this morning and a very similar thread… https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=274280

Interestingly, I was told not to remove her from the nest, I'm confused! I want her to live through this ya know?

 

[technodoll]

Yep, same situation here...

We brought our broody silkie in the house last week with a fresh clutch of eggs, she had been sitting on a bunch of infertile eggs for 8 days before that (we candled...), so disappointing but she really is determined to hatch a chick so here we are.

First 3 days: no poop, no eating and no drinking.

Here is her setup:

So she has space to get out and do her business, but no go.

If we don't pick her up and bring her out in the coop once or twice a day, she will do NOTHING BUT sit on those darn eggs! This way, she is forced to stretch, she poops the second her feet hit the coop floor, she eats a few quick bites of food, takes a 2-minute dust bath and then back in the house she goes.

I have however not seen her drink in a week.

She has food and water an inch from her nose but won't touch anything (we tried it all).

15 more days to go...

I'm really worried though, shouldn't she be drinking *something*??

 

[BlueMottie]

I recently had a broody who didn't get off her nest for three days as well...so I picked her up and tossed her off her nest (not literally, haha) a good 15 feet away from her nest infront of food and water. So what did she do? She squaked a bit, before realizing that she had to take a major poo and was starving. So she ran around, drank and ate (and pooped!) before hopping back on the nest, and now she's been getting off every day.

So that's my broody-who-won't-leave-nest-syndrome (BWWLNS) story.

 

[sunket77]

OH! I thought I was the only one with this problem... it has been very concerning for days! This is hatch day and we have 5 out of 13 babies so far and she has pooped TWICE now in the nest! That was a big fiasco!!! we had 3 fluffy dry, one wet chick, three pips and one halfway hatched and poop everywhere!! I moved her the other side of her cage (a plastic bin on one side and a rabbit cage on the other) and put the wet chick and half hatched one in the bator and the other eggs in the bator as I wiped them off and the whole time keeping her from getting back to the other side was NOT fun. I had to take the whole nest and dump it and put fresh litter. I hope ALL the little ones will be okay when all the hatching is done. She has been pooping on her nest like every two to three days from the start! even if I physically move her she won't stay out long enough to poop! AARG!

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
Hey technodoll,

She's a pretty girl. I had one of my pr's in chicken hospital aka big dog crate in my bathroom. Anyhow I'd open the crate to let her wander around for some exercise and she'd wouldn't step out at all. I finally figured out that the shiny linoleum was freaking her out and put some old towles down in front of the crate, problem solved. Maybe your girl doesn't like the crate floor?..

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

Quote:
Unfortunately, there is nowhere in the henhouse to set up yet another dog cage. We already have one dog cage in there, where the three chicks she hatched nearly 11 weeks ago live. (We have to segregate them because we have no other way to keep them from eating the calcium laden layer pellets that the older hens eat.)


Anyway, we have had bad storms all day today, and Friday/Saturday we are supposed to be hit with freezing temperatures, and a very good chance of an ice storm and/or tornados. Yes, there are two panel heaters in the henhouse, but they are programmed to come on at 35 degrees and go off at 45 degrees. I would think it would be better to have Momma inside where it will be warmer when that Arctic blast comes through.

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
I switched my flock to 22% gamebird feed and just put out oystershell free choice for the ones that need it. It's a bit more expensive but worth it to be able to feed the whole flock one thing and know that everybody is getting what they need.