Pissy Pants (broody) is in a cage..now what??

[Minniechickmama]

I wasn't implying that you were being mean, just that I didn't think a broom was a necessary thing to use. Grabbing them at night is always much easier, as was said.
To me, a broody hen is like a teenage girl with PMS, they are rude and unpredictable! Your seemingly sweet girl goes totally spaz on you when you try to make her do the thing she does not want to do.

The ice on the chest makes perfect sense. The reason they say to put them on a wire floor is so they don't get that warm, cozy feeling they do on a nest. Put the ice on them and I am sure the cold will make them NOT cozy. Even without the hormonal explanation.

My big rooster actually attacked me last month when I had to reach in from outside, past the nest boxes to retrieve eggs from my broody red hen, who them screamed bloody murder, bringing the roo (who is about 12 or 13 pounds) in to protect her. He hit my hand with his feet so hard I thought he broke my hand! I couldn't move it for about 2 hours. I can't blame him, my gloved hand probably looked like a predator to him. Besides, even though he has been a butthead all spring, he is my favorite roo.

But broodies a total b****es sometimes.

I even grab the girls right off the nest and toss them a little ways away from it to take the eggs. They come back sometimes, but I just keep tossing them away. Once the eggs are gone, they knock it off and go back out to peck around. That Silkie was the worst one though. I have a black mutt (can't even call her an EE because she lays a brown egg

), she screams bloody murder if I even look at her while she is on a nest.

I just had a thought, instead of "life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are gonna get." It should be "Life is like a flock of chickens...."

I hope the cage works for break your girl.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
I actually took your post with much humour. MUCH humour.

I certainly wasn't implying that you hurt your girls.

I did imply that you went to too much trouble, and that I thought it was humourous. I honestly did not know if you were serious, either.

In any case, you made ME laugh, and I hope you have an easier go of it with your girls now.

 

[BooBear]

You are not a lone broody breaker. I broke 2 already and am now working on breaking Alice out of the broody spell.
As soon as May hit my girls having been attempting broodiness.

 

[stilldeb]

I currently have two broodies - one Silky and one Sebright - and they've all been raised with much love and attention and I just go and pick them up off their nest several times a day, hug them and talk to them, tell them that sorry, no, we won't be hatching anything right now, and put them in the run so they will eat and drink and stretch their legs before they go back to their nest. The Sebright is annoying the other hens in her pen, though, as she squawks at them when they come in to lay their eggs and they sometimes end up just dumping them in a corner rather than venturing to the adjoining nesting box! I was going to just let nature take its course, but might try the ice idea tomorrow and see what happens.

deb g
KY

 

[wsdareme]

I just had an Ameraucana pullet go broody (she isn't even a year old yet). I didn't think that breed was particularly broody, and I didn't even realize at first that was what was happening. I just knew that she sure got mean all of a sudden! I gladly put her in a small hutch inside the big coop, with her own nest, feed, and water. Threw 10 eggs under her and she is brooding away! I've only seen her off the nest once, and today I removed a pile of poop the size of a small egg, so she is certainly doing her momma thing! We have named her "The Velociraptor". She growls like a tiger, puffs up like a turkey, and bites like, well, a velociraptor!

I was too chicken (pun intended) to try to break her of being broody. I didn't want to lose a hand. She even attacked me when I was trying to hold the rooster during one of my "rooster submission sessions".