HELP! My EE has been broody for 29 days!

[ZaneyMama]

We don't have a rooster, and she is sitting on a golf ball, poor girl!

She has been coming out of the nesting box every day to eat, dust bathe, and drink, but she is very thin.

I am worried - her face has become really light pink and I think it's time for her to stop being broody!!!

What can I do for her to keep her strong? Will she ever stop being broody or should I just get her some eggs to sit on?

Thanks,
Sarah

 

[Soaring Chicks]

take the golf ball out . keep taking her off the nest. Try hand feeding. I have broodys that I make sure I take treats into and sit it right by them some will eat out of my hand. you could also move her from that coop for a day or so. also putting water on her- dunk her everytime you find her on nest. I have not had to do that yet!. Some hens will die from being broody they just waste away. So the sooner you stop it the better. Good luck hope one of these work for you.

 

[ZaneyMama]

Taking the golf ball away doesn't seem to help. She goes to the nest and sits with nothing there. Then when another chicken lays an egg, she moves there.

I'll try pouring water on her, or maybe keeping her in a crate in the coop for a while.

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

being broody is a physical condition, not a mental one, they will stop when thier bodies tell them to, and not before.... She will not starve herself to death, tho she may get pretty thin.

Bring her a good meal once a day of scrambled eggs mixed with a high protein game bird crumble if you wanna fatten her up, but only once a day. put a small cup of water near her after the meal, and let her alone. It is harder on us sometimes than on them, but let her do her thing. Next time, try letting her hatch something if she wants to that badly, sounds like she would be a good mommy! Order a few eggs, and have some fun with it...

Dont dump water on her, if she is already thin and her immunity low, you may chill her and make things worse, not to mention make a wet nest box

Good Luck

 

[RedfogsFlock]

We had a runner duck that did that! No matter what we did she stayed broody. She was sittin on a nest & covered from head to toe with ants, but she wouldn't leave. I tried the give her eggs, and she hatched them. She still wouldn't come out of the "broody" mode tho. She would move to the chickens nests. I tried taking away her eggs, and she went balistic! We finally had to move her to a new coop & pen her up to keep her out the coop with the nesting boxes. It seemed to take forever too for her to come out of it. When we would go into the coop to feed her she would chase us out, but eventually she got over it.

 

[Gingersprite]

I had 2 of my Buff Orpingtons go terribly broody on me, and it was very stressful for me and them! The one, I was certain she would starve to death, and in fact on my Yahoo henpecked group several people said it can happen. My one went broody for much longer than would have taken to incubate eggs, it was weeks. I work every day but would take her out of the box every time I was home, and I would put ice cubes under her in the box (didn't work) and I would also dunk them in cool water every day, and that at least got them out of their hormone trances for a little bit. I did feed them on the boxes, they both took snacks but they still lost a lot of weight, and still are the smallest in the flock. These girls sat on empty nests, it didn't matter whether or not eggs were in, of course they preferred eggs. The only thing that "broke" them in both cases (girls went broody at 2 separate times, incidentally, right after I got wooden eggs to get them to lay in more than one of the nesting boxes) was to #1 "break them up" whenever I found them on the nest, meaning get them out of there and make them get outside with the rest of the flock (even though they'll just growl at them) and #2 at night, move the broody one into an elevated position, I put my girls on a milk crate INSIDE a large wire dog cage so they couldn't get warmth under them and couldn't get back to the nesting box. Then let them out with the rest in the morning. I can fit the dog crate inside the secure chicken run, so they were safe. In both cases it took 3 nights but it was an absolute cure. I wish you luck and hope this helps!