My "maybe Nankin" rescue has gone broody!!

[JenellYB]

And man, is she trying to lock down tight!! This is my little "maybe Nankin" banty we rescued from dogs, posted about under "what breed/gender is this?"
For three days and nights, I coudn't catch her off the nest, or shoo her off it, 4 days since I'd collected an egg, which she had been laying daily. There is evidence she's eating and drinking water, but never when can catch her, even checking often...bedding is not being scratched around, and waterer staying much cleaner than usual becasue she's not scratching anything into it. Each day, find one, and only one, great big poop, my gosh, looks like a dog turd!
The box she has is deep, maybe 8", and just big enough that when she hunkers down into it, she pretty much fiils it length and width.
This evening, determined I had to get her off, to see what eggs were there,and of course, with her being a sinlge girl, they wouldn't be fertile. She was making little to no sounds, no clucking or even growling, BUT, hackles and feathers fluffed and demeanor and look said, DON'T YOU DARE! And her head/beak can lash out toward my hand fast as a rattlesnake, with serious intent! Man, she has turned into a ferocious beast!
I finally managed to literally PRY her out of the box this evening using a couple big wide dog brushes, it still wasn't easy...and she's smart enough to know immediately it wasn't the dog brushes 'attacking' her, it was MY hands, and kept going for my hands. But I finally got her out, grabbed the one egg that was there....She was still angrily ranting when I turned out the lights on her a bit ago after I got the egg.
Now what? Try to keep her 'broke"? Remove the nest box? Try to find someone nearby with a few banty eggs about the size of hers to give her? Gee, wish I had some fertile Nankin eggs handy right now!

 

[Pinky]

You can put any eggs under her as long as you have room for the other breeds of chickens. She sounds like she would make a good mother hen!

 

[JenellYB]

Problem Pinky....she's the only chicken I have....We rescued her from dog last November, I keep her in a bird cage indoors by a window. that's her in my profile picture. I know a couple people that have big chickens, but not bantams, that I might get banty size fertile eggs from.I've been thinking about trying to get more if I can find ones like her,I think she is a Nankin, she's been a great egg layer. Her eggs are almost half the size of a large egg. two of them in a cup equal almostone large egg in volumne,soquite large for her size.She's tiny, as standing in my picture, top of a coke can comes about tothe top of her 'shoulder'.

You can put any eggs under her as long as you have room for the other breeds of chickens. She sounds like she would make a good mother hen!

 

[Pinky]

Cute little chicken, if you can find eggs from her breed, I would go for it.
Sometimes I wish my chickens were bantams, lol

 

[JenellYB]

Lol,I haven't been able to find anyone even in the state of Texas with anything like a Nankin, except Ideal's chicks. Wish I could. I guess best thing for now is try to break her? Should I remove the nest box entirely? and hope i can find some later before she does this again? I don't even know how long it takes to break her,get her over this. I raised many large,heavy dual breed chickens years ago, but they seldom went broody, and when it happened, it came on slow and they were easy to discourage before they really get 'set tight'. She did this like overnight! I didn't see it coming at all! One day, I get an egg,she's acting normal, next day she'd glued into the box, and has been for 3 days, until I did this this evening.

 

[JenellYB]

Well, "Chicken Little" and I got over that crazy broody idea, and she's back to her egg a day cycle for me... I LOVE this chicken!!

 

[Maggie C]

Congratulations. Aren't chickens the most amazing little animals?

 

[JenellYB]

I just wish I could find out for SURE what kind she really is, I'd love to have more like her, and not being sure, what I chose to get may not be like her at all...her good sized egg for her size, and really good egg prodction, is important to why I want more like her/

 

[sourland]

If you like the Nankin 'type', why not buy a Nankin rooster, and mate him to your hen? Capitalize on her good traits - there is a strong possibility that she would pass them on to her daughters.

 

[JenellYB]

That is a thought. I've considered that, too. But I'm still up against I haven't even found a Nankin breeder in Texas to try to get one from. I don't know that for this purpose, and my limited income, I could justify buying and paying a lot for shipping such a rooster, I don't know what shipping a chicken costs, but if its comparable to shipping other animals, it pretty expensive if not talking about serious breeders and breeding stock. Someone here in the forums did offer to give me a rooster, even anoter hen so she has a 'sister;, but they were a long way across country, and I'm sure shipping would be very costly. Not trying to be 'cheap', but the reality is, cost IS an object for me, I am older, disabled, on a small income, with a vehicle older and with more miles on it than anyone can imagine still driving, lol. Even someone in SE Louisianna would be possibly accessable to me.
Its also possible that if I could find another breed of very tiny bantam, in her size range, that is also good in the egg laying department, I might do just as well, for my own purposes and use, a rooster I could get locally and reasonably, that might work for me too. But, and here's the big 'but'....from what I've been able to learn researching the tiny bantams, the Nankin does seem to be the stand out for having decent egg production. Some of the tiny bantams from what i read, have tiny eggs and lay very few of them...and while I'm not expert on chicken genetics, seems I have seen/heard that some important eggs laying traits and qualities are actually pssed down through the rooster instead of the hen. I've raised lots of 'regular' chickens for meat and eggs years ago, never had bantams though. I like her size, can keep them safe in cages in a secure building I have, from our terrible predator problem here.
This is my first bantam and right now my only chicken..I came by her by chance as a rescue. We know where she came from, but both all her flock mates were killed by dogs, and the people that had them are really 'unsavory' sorts, lol, speak little English to boot, and are very unfriendly people....when my daughter asked the man what kind she was, he said he didn't know, they were his wife's project, she doesn't speak any english, and beyond that his atittude was kind of its none of your business....I mean, ther ARE strange people..also obviously the man is into fighting cocks and pitbulls.
I am trying to get my daughter to work up the nerve to try to ask them again what she is, lol. They live a block or so from her.

If you like the Nankin 'type', why not buy a Nankin rooster, and mate him to your hen? Capitalize on her good traits - there is a strong possibility that she would pass them on to her daughters.