Messing with broody's

[86121]

Its a guilty pleasure...
I love when they try to go broody, and then when you poke at them and move them from there nest to get the eggs they fluff up and yell at you haha. I cant be the only one XD
Anyway, onto the reason why im posting.
I have a hen named Missy, a Buff Orphington, who has decided to go broody. Well...She had to of shown the others how to do it because now I have a feather pile....
I went down to the coop this morning like I always do and opened the hatch.
All the birds came out, but I seemed to be missing some. Oh well right?
Well I finished letting the birds out and filled the food and refreashed the water, then went to collect eggs.
Four birds, Missy, Bug *Buff Orph*, Pepper *EE*, and V'V *EE* all smushed into a single nesting box...A feather pile.
I have never had to "Unload" hens from a nesting box before!!
I want to try and get a picture so i hope they do it again tomorrow!
Has anyone else ever had this happen before?

 

[Lollipop]

Sure, very common for several hens to want the same nest, even broodies. Usually they will share the mama duties as well........Pop

 

[BooBear]

I am experience the spring broodies....yep they get real nutty about it too!
Last year I had a bunch do the group brood thing so I gave them a large box to share and let em' at it. Got alot of cute chicks with 5 mommas to watch over them.

This year the girls were more into this nest is mine so bug off! They decided not to share; but, instead steal each other's nests and eggs.

Got one hen that has 2 two week old chicks and has been stealing the nest of another. Been kicking her out, but she just waits and steals it again. Boobear is determined to get the broody of the year award. However, she has tuff competition between my hardcore broodies Rosie and Blueberry. Rosie is on her second nest for this year. Blueberry has a rep of as soon as her chicks are 4 wks she starts getting ready to restart her cycle: will start to lay again in a week, sees the egg, and then....BAM! she goes full broody.

Anyway, I put a couple of the broodies on Craigslist along with chicks n roosters for sale. Hopefully I can find them new homes as I try not to let my flock size get over 30 birds.

 

[Chic_girl]

I know how you feel! I have at least three broody hens, all bantam Brahmas. They don't like to share their nests, but they are all setting in the middle row of my nest boxes. When ever I walk in the coop, they all fluff up and brood-growl at me at the same time, like a little chorus of angry turkeys! It makes me crack up all the time! They think they sound all vicious and fierce, but really, they sound cute...

None of them are setting on any eggs because I don't have room for more chicks, but I bet they would be great mamas! I would love to give them some eggs, but only if I had sure homes for any chicks they hatched... anyone want bantam Brahmas or WCB Polish?