Persistent (but successful) broody

[AltonaAcres]

I have a duccle/polish hen who has hatched 20 chicks in 3 months (2 separate batches). This is way too many chicks for me to feed/maintain, so I was wondering if there is any way to stop her. A little background: my chickens live in almost an acre of fenced in land. The land is bordered by tall grass and thorny Russian Olive trees. Both times this hen went broody, I did not know where she was hiding until I finally saw her emerging/returning from her nest to eat occasionally towards the end of the incubation period. There is no way to remove the eggs from her nest bc the first time, she brooded under my 10 x 10 shed, and the second, I still don't know where she hid (other than that it was in the tall grass). She is very flighty, so I can't catch her when she comes out for food. She also is very bad when I try to contain her in a pen, (except when she has young chicks). She needs to have freedom. In addition, my other girls with lay eggs under her, and then I won't have eggs for weeks. I am kind of stuck! I really don't need a fresh batch of chicks every other month like she plans to give me. She is such a great mom, and I will definitely give her a few eggs to hatch when I need more chicks, but for now, it's too much. I am overjoyed with her gorgeous chicks, don't get me wrong, but my flock is too big to begin with. Any ideas?

 

[aart]

Give her to someone who does want more chicks?
That's what I did with my serial broody last late summer,
as of this June she never went broody again.

There are other solutions but they include confinement of flock,
which I'm guessing you are not interested in.

 

[AltonaAcres]

i would hate to get rid of her what are the confinement options?

 

[aart]

i would hate to get rid of her what are the confinement options?

Free range birds sometimes need to be 'trained'(or re-trained) to lay in the coop nests, especially new layers. Leaving them locked in the coop for a week or so can help 'home' them to lay in the coop nests. Fake eggs/golf balls in the nests can help 'show' them were to lay. They can be confined to coop and maybe run 24/7 for a few days to a week, provided you have adequate space and ventilation, or confine them at least until mid to late afternoon. You help them create a new habit and they will usually stick with it. ..at least for a good while, then repeat as necessary.

Get them all used to laying in the coop,
and then if your girl goes broody again put her in a breaker crate.

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken