Minnesota!

[scandiafowl]

I had thought this silly young lady had given up her quest to lay eggs on my tool shelf. We found another nest yesterday with four eggs in it on a lower shelf. I'm not going to fuss about it because she clearly puts work into making her nest. If she would hatch them that would be fun.
We could play a game of who is your chick-daddy?

 

[Minniechickmama]

Dang chickens indeed. I just pulled out my favorite box because of sleeper/poopers last night. So I relate to what you're going through. No doubt she is scared and sometimes with older birds they are the less flexible to newcomers or newcomers do not lend themselves to be accepted. I've had birds take a whole 3 months or more and still you could see the divided lines between brooder mates and newcomers. Do you free-range or confine to a coop and run? Do you have a rooster? Or is it all hens? I will say that when a bird comes into lay the rooster finds them acceptable and will quell the bullies if you will. That would be helpful. But we're in that time of year where eggs are not likely for a while and especially if she's being bullied. You may need to pull her out of the nest box each night and set her right next to the lead hen or rooster when it's dark on the roost. Keep repeating it.

Broody's. Find a wire dog kennel. Put it in the garage with the lights on all day & night. The light will trigger and shift her hormones towards laying and out of broodiness.
No bedding. Put in a roost to keep her above the poop. Cleaning cage required everyday. Food & Water of course. Extra treats and exercising of the legs...which then requires you to peel her off a coop nest 2 minutes later. But then back to the broody cage. Usually takes 2-3 days.

It is possibly wise to invest in or make a cage like we keep rabbits in for those broody Bs. You could even install one to hang in the coop if you have room in there so they have plenty of air flow underneath them. Of course, if you are adding the light 24/7, you wouldn't want them in the coop with everyone else.

And of course, if I had read on before posting this, I would have seen you already have a cage. LOL
But, I think that you may want to try something smaller. You want her moving around, but you also want to throw her off her game, if you will, so her hormones will get worked up and out of the broody stage.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

I have a large homemade cage in the garage right now - the chicks just graduated to it. I could divide that up and put her on one side. Each side would be the size of a "Giant" sized dog kennel (I speak Fleet Farm!). Do you think that would be okay or too distracting for her? I figure it would work perfect since the lights are already always on. However, I don't know if chicks would put her hormones in overdrive.

There are some really nice roosters that can present themselves in your chicks. And you may need to ride out some hormonal orneriness with some new cockerels as they come into season. But if you have a couple to compare to one another...sometimes you can see the nice(r) one. Just from my experience. My nice rooster can sometimes be territorial with me. I'm okay with it because 98% of the time he allows us to pick him up and I know that he's got just a bit of feistiness to protect the girls.

You ask an interesting question. I think the cheep cheeping of the chicks WILL keep her brooding. To be honest. But at the same time the lights may still force it out of her. IDK which force would be stronger ....

 

[Cluckies]

Quote: I think i'd try and shove the chicks under her at night, she might take to it, you never know, just keep an eye on the situation...

 

[Minniechickmama]

I think i'd try and shove the chicks under her at night, she might take to it, you never know, just keep an eye on the situation...

I guess I missed or forgot that about having chicks. Heck, that is probably the easiest thing to do if you can try it.

 

[duluthralphie]

Why does he have to go?

I have 22 turkeys right now, free ranging. Turkeys are like dogs, they want to be next to us wherever we are. Their favorite place is the deck when we are in the house. ( I have learned to NOT laugh at Judy when she runs out to chase the turkeys off the deck. When car pulls in they all rush the car to see who is there.

Of the 22 turkeys I have about half are toms. A black Tom is not going to give me the variations in colors I want, They have a very limited range of offspring they can have, Mainly black.

I wish I could keep them all, it is not possible, I would go broke feeding them and their babies in the future. I do not have the room for them.

I love my turkeys, if I had to chose between turkeys and chickens the turkeys would win based on pure coolness. If I kept every hen and I got 100 eggs next year from them I would have 500 turkeys if only 50% hatched. My DW would have me committed at that point.

I plan to keep and breed the ones that give me the best variation. I will breed some blues slates and self blues. I will breed my rusty slates which give me so much color variation. If the info I got from Porters is correct I can have a ton of different colors from them, I think near 50 shades and variations. I want one of each, my DW does not.


So he will have to go, Judy knows this but is reluctant to put words to it. My getting rid of him without her blessing would mean I would need consoling.

 

[MinnesotaNice]

I think i'd try and shove the chicks under her at night, she might take to it, you never know, just keep an eye on the situation...

I guess I missed or forgot that about having chicks. Heck, that is probably the easiest thing to do if you can try it.

Alrighty, tonight I'll put two of the smaller chicks under her. The nest boxes are single and removable, so maybe I'll just move her and the nest box she is in to the floor and place the chicks. I'll hang in the coop for awhile and see how this little experiment goes. I'd hate for anything to happen to them. If she isn't having it, to the garage cage she goes.

 

[MinnesotaNice]

There are some really nice roosters that can present themselves in your chicks. And you may need to ride out some hormonal orneriness with some new cockerels as they come into season. But if you have a couple to compare to one another...sometimes you can see the nice(r) one. Just from my experience. My nice rooster can sometimes be territorial with me. I'm okay with it because 98% of the time he allows us to pick him up and I know that he's got just a bit of feistiness to protect the girls.

I'll hold on to two that have better temperaments and see how it shakes out. I really only need one. There are two chicks in particular that even at two weeks old, have an attitude. They'll come up to us like the rest, but peck at us. Needless to say, they won't be in the Rooster running. I had a really great EE Rooster that I got with my straight run chicks back in April. I'm kicking myself for rehoming him now. He was young, but great with the girls and great with us. I didn't think I would need him.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Our "nicest" rooster was the friendliest and could tell right away he was the leader. He might have pecked...realizing I was the food lady and "asking" me for food when he was young. He always came right over to me when I put my hand in the brooder. So it went with our bunch. The first we culled was the most skiddish with us...but he was a serial pullet rapist. The hens HATED him. They gravitated to Mr. Friendly. So there are two things to look at really I guess. One skiddish of me. Would never attack me....but HORRIBLE with the hens. And then Friendliness to you and to Hens. A little bit of spunk good for free ranging. To me those are good rooster attributes.

Good idea on trying to meld the broody with a couple of chicks. I know I wasn't successful getting Dixie to take chicks. But she was off the nest for a week with the ones she hatched when we tried adding in a couple more.

 

[KlopKlop]

I have a crazy dog story from today since we were talking dogs...

About 6 months ago we were fostering a hound dog for the local humane society and eventually ended up adopting her out to a family of a resident at DWs nursing home. Today I got an email from the humane society asking if we would foster a hound dog that got brought in to a neighboring county's humane society that was full (we are their 'hound dog specialists' ) she was found roaming and the other rescue included a photo. The pooch looked awfully familiar and I sent it to DW. She got ahold of the family and sure enough they say she wandered off a few weeks ago! They have been desperately looking for her fearing she was lured off by coyotes (they live on a farm).
We sent them the photos to confirm and it is her! They are driving over there to pick her up now!
How amazing is that! That hound is a super sweet girl and probably got on the trail of something and got lost and just kept running.