OMG what should I do?

[ArizonaNessa]

I have a little bantam that is broody right now and there are no roos and no fertile eggs. She got nasty with me and ended up sitting on a poop ball protecting it for all she was worth for three days til I finally just threw her out of the nest. I cleaned everything while she stood at my feet squawking like the little chicken hawk in the old foghorn leghorn cartoons. I know she will get over it eventually. I just keep kicking her out every day and collecting the eggs.

I have heard that you can put the broody hen in a cage with a wire bottom so she can't make a warm spot but I just let mine be. They catch on eventually. A few months back there was someone here on BYC talking about how their broody was trying to hatch a pecan. Sometimes they just are not the brightest but I still love them.

 

[cactus-hen]

I have a hen that will never break from broodiness. The first time I tried she nearly died from starvation, six weeks sitting in a wire cage. I finally gave in and gave her 10 eggs to hatch. She goes broody three times a year. She doesn't lay many eggs but she is the BEST mother I have ever seen. She once raised 23 chicks. Nine she hatched and 14 from a new incubator. She is a small, white ? that I got from a feed store. She chooses where she will nest. I can't mover her. She will just abandon that nest and go back to the one she chose. I date the eggs and remove any new ones. At about 12 days, I staple plastic poultry netting over the front of the nest box so other hens can't disturb her. She gets tossed out of the box in the morning and evening to poop, eat and drink. Once the chicks have hatched I can move them all to the broody pen.

 

[Brindlebtch]

I had a Brabanter go broody and got her some nice eggs and the same thing happened, she came off after 15 days. Broke my heart.