OK I am really confused about this broody thing

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I went back and read a bunch of threads and I remain confused. If I keep taking the eggs - she'll get the idea or I need to "break" the broodiness.

I have found both recommendations which is true?

I don't want to let a hatch happen until spring so I am taking the eggs. A half hour or sa after I take them she hops down. But, the next day she seems to collect them all again and try again.

Yesterday one hen got ON TOP of the broody and laid her egg! Is that an offering? Do the other hens give her their eggs or is she moving them all into one nest on her own??

Can someone tell me or send me a link to a whole broody page or cycle?

 

[Chickenaddict]

They lay in the nest she is in therefor adding to her collection. Some broodies give up after awhile but some are stubborn and even trying to break them doesn't work. I have one hen that has been broody for 3 months. I keep taking her eggs and it doesn't phase her one bit. I have tried to break her by putting her in a cage with no bedding and just as soon as i think she has snapped out of it i put her back in with the flock and within a day or 2 shes back to being broody. I had 7 broodies this winter but i broke a few of them and now im down to 4, 3 have eggs under them but the one who has been broody the longest doesn't. I fear that as soon as i let her set on some eggs she will give up her broody habit

 

[jab91864]

I've given up trying to break up broodies, they have a mind of their own. If I have a gal that spends weeks sitting on nothing sometimes I will give her some golf balls and when they don't hatch she gives up...but by then they have sat over a month!! I have some gals that seem to want to be broody all the time. They take brief breaks but bam they are back to living in a box again. They are more freeloader than anything else...lol

Hens love to lay eggs in each others nest boxes and they will add to a collection of incubating eggs.... If I decide to let a broody keep eggs and she is in with the flock I mark the eggs she is on and remove daily any new eggs from that nest.

My most successful broodies have always been the ones who hid a nest away from everyone and went solo. I lost a couple chicks last year to hens who actually tore them to shreds when the mom couldn't fend them off. It was a sad lesson learned for me !!! I will never let a hen , no matter how bossy she is on the pecking order, have a clutch of eggs in the main coop.

Sorry just a rant no link....lol

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

No that a risk that's important! So if she goes broody and I am willing to let her have her chicks, then I should move her after it is clear she has a group of eggs she wants to hatch?

Should I move her and her eggs to the mudroom?? Won't that make integration harder once the babies are born??

 

[Chickenaddict]

She would need a place to raise her babies away from the rest of the flock, too many times the babies get shredded by other hens if she is put back in the flock. A large dog crate would be enough room for her and her chicks for a few weeks but then they would need more space to grow, after about a month or so you could try to integrate them back into the flock but i would closely monitor them to make sure they aren't getting beat up

 

[HorseFeathers]

I think it depends on how determined your broody is. Olympia has been broody twice; the trick is to put the hen alone on a wire floor (Lympy went in a dog crate) so that air circulates underneath them and makes their bellies cold.

If you want to let her hatch, I can't help you- yet. This spring if Lympy goes broody again she'll find some nice fertile eggs slipped underneath her

 

[Xtina]

If all the hens have a few chicks of their own, does that cut down on the aggression, or does it make it worse? Sorry that I know so little about it...

I'm just thinking back to my aunt in Greece. I haven't been there in 10 years, but I remember she used to incubate eggs and then after the chicks had been in the incubator for long enough, she would put them out and some mother would adopt them. At least, I think that's how it went. I didn't care about chickens at that age and I never asked her about her flock management techniques. All I remember is chicks in the incubator, and chicks under mothers' wings outside.