Looking for broody hen info...where to read up on info?

[JenMT]

Another newbie question...I got all the girls as day old chicks and I've been winging it with BYC. They are 7.5 months old now and one of my Buff Orpingtons is broody again. She did this once before for about a week. I kept her out of the coop for 2 days to break it. She's been broody now for about 2 weeks and hasn't laid an egg in about a week. She's sitting on nothing and I don't have a rooster or want chicks right now. I can tell that she's getting thin, I took her off yesterday and hand fed her tomatoes, avacado, yogurt and raspberries. WHAT DOES BROODY MEAN AND WHERE CAN I GO TO LEARN ABOUT WHAT A BROODY HEN IS AND WHAT TO DO WITH HER? Any good links, books or web-sites?

 

[Judy]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=215937&p=2

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

To break a broody, put her in a wire cage with no nesting material, with the cage up on something so there is air flow underneath her. Should break her in 2 or 3 days.

 

[RedStarDaddy]

Quote:
No avocado. It isn't good for them.

"Broody" means the hen's mommy switch has been flipped and she is ready to hatch eggs. She will quit laying, pull feathers from her breast to make a brooding patch, stay on the nest sitting on whatever eggs (or pseudoeggs) are there, and vigorously -- even violently -- resist any attempt to remove her. Once sitting, she will leave the nest for a few minutes once a day to eat a little, drink a little, and defecate prodigiously.

ddawn gave one recommendation. Another I have read of is giving the broody hen ice cubes to brood. A third is put her in with a young cockerel.

HTH

RSD