How do I control the breeding habits of a rooster so that not all of my girls are going to be broody

[Chookepie]

I am just wondering,

How would I control a rooster so that my girls are not constantly having chicks and being broody? I'm think of getting a roo and want to know the best techniques to have most of my girl laying nutritious eggs, and maybe one or two being broody.

Thanks

Chookepie

 

[appps]

Your rooster has nothing to do with them going broody. They will do it just as much without him. If they aren't going broody without him now then that won't change just because you get one. That has to do with the breed of hen you have, some go broody a lot, some never do.

To control the chicks, don't leave eggs under the broody hens unless you want them to hatch and for any you don't want hatching then search breaking a broody hen for ideas on how to discourage the behaviour so they more quickly get back to laying for you.

 

[Pork Pie]

Good advice from appps. I am getting rid of my broody hens today, but keeping my oldest broody hen for hatching. It can get rather frustrating to have multiple hens being broody at the same time - no eggs and constantly using my broody buster got tiresome. My other hens don't go broody and lay 5-6 eggs per week, which is great.

CT

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Best technique to break broody hormones is a dog crate or cage, CTKen called it a broody buster. Lock the offending bird in the cage without bedding, it's better with a wire cage that is on blocks so air can get under the bird. By cooling the rear, not allowing her to warm it in nest she will break from being broody usually in three days. The sooner you catch one being broody and cage it the better. Makes for faster breaking and sooner return to laying. If allowed broody for days before starting to break them it can be a month before they come back to lay. If found and broken immediately they can return to lay in about two weeks.

 

[aart]

Not sure if this would work on ducks but it worked for me on chickens.

My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, 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 and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day 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.

Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.