How long in the broody buster cage is toooo long???

[nuchickontheblock]

So, my little Princess is a broody queen! Unfortunately, we are not able at this time to have her hatch any eggs and no roo. Hopefully in the Spring.

In the Summer she was broody for 40 days. For the last 3 I put her in our wire cage and she finally quit. She got really skinny (she is pretty small anyway) and she had a bad molt afterwards and didn't lay for another 3 weeks. The poor thing was pathetic; and I decided not to allow her to go through that again. So here we are 4 weeks after she started laying and she went broody again. I immediately that day put her into the broody cage hoping she would break fast, if she hadn't had a chance to get too tranced out.

10 days later, she is still broody. The past few days I have let her out to see if she would free range, but she just goes to the pop door and coop door that I have closed and tries to get in. I put her onto the roost in the coop the past couple of nights to see if she would settle with the others, but NO. . . she jumped right down to crawl in the nest box. Even in the dark tonight! SIGH. . . so she is back in the cage.

How long's too long in the cage??? I tried the cold bath treatment in the summer with my broodies, without any luck. Perhaps I'll try the ice packs to the tummy over the weekend when I'm home.

 

[Judy]

Usually I just let them sit in the nest box, but at least twice a day I take them out and prod them til they eat and drink. I have one I'm doing this with now. If they don't feel like they are losing weight, I figure it's enough. They usually give up in 3 or 4 weeks. But then the only time I had one who felt like she really was losing weight, I got her some chicks. The broody cage is supposed to work in 3 or 4 days, I've read.

An article about broodies that I often share says the writer usually leaves the hen in the broody box til she lays an egg:

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-5.html