PLEASE help me understand brooding

[Titania]

I have a small flock and this is my first spring with chickens. Previously, I had only 2 egg layers: a mill fleur d'uccles and a spangled spitzhauben. My 7 months old wyandotte is not laying and neither are my 5 month old french black copper marans and sussex. Sad, I know. Even more sad, a fellow okie had his mille fleur flock wiped out by coons and so, because I felt badly, I sold him my mille fleur girl. I was left with one egg layer.
BUT, she has gone broody? I think? She sits on the nest ALL DAY LONG even if I go and pick her up and throw her out. She makes her way back. What do I do?
Also, she has not laid a single egg since i sold the mille fleur girl. Do hens stop laying when they go broody? How do I stop this? I didn't even think Spitzhaubens were supposed to go broody!!
Now I am maintaining 4 non-laying hens. Please help! I'd love your advice! Thank you in advance!

 

[spiritdance]

Yup, she's broody. Guess no one told her her breed isn't supposed to do that

. There are a number of ways to "break" a broody, from putting ice cubes under them to putting them in a wire cage without nesting for a few days ... do a search on here and you should find plenty of info. I will say, though, that I've never had much success breaking the broody urge for long. Mine usually go broody again within a few weeks at most. I usually either let them hatch some fertile eggs or slip some chicks under them. Once they raise a bunch, they usually go back to laying for at least a couple months before they go broody again.

 

[Titania]

so much for getting eggs from my backyard chickens, huh?
thanks spiritdance! appreciate the advice!

 

[Titania]

alright. that was NOT successful.

She is doing this hissing-dinosaur-with-gills-from-jurassic-park thing whenever anyone or anything gets near. So, I go and slip my 2 week old chicks under her. (They were so sweet. I had to get pictures of them nestled under her wing.) But she did not like THEM and pecked at them and did her dinosaur thing whenever any of them moved around.

Is it possible she's egg bound and not broody? She acts major, MAJOR pms-y and she was always my friendliest, funnest girl. So, she doesn't want the chicks and she doesn't want to LAY any eggs. What does she want? What do I do?

 

[Pinky]

Does she look like this in her nest?

 

[Titania]

i guess so. hard to tell from the pic. But, she has her feathers all fluffed out and her neck, face & crown feathers are especially all fluffed out whenever anyone gets close.

I've locked her out of the coop for now. She's fine as long as I don't let her get anywhere near that nest box!

 

[Hottchick]

I'm in the same boat you are. My cuckoo Marans girl Bella has been in the nest the past three days. Every time anyone looks at her she makes this horrible screechy sound and fluffs up all of her feathers. We throw her out constantly but she comes right back. I tried taking the golf balls out of the nest, covering her favorite nest with a towel (she just picked another one). Poor baby is trying to hatch nothing. I don't even have a rooster.

I figure as long as she eats and drinks, I'll just have to ride it out for now. I don't want to have to cage her.

 

[andalusn]

They either go into hiding (if they could) and set on the pile of eggs they have been hording and you see them 3 weeks later... or they park themselves in a nest box on an egg or two and look like you could not blast them off the nest. I either let them do their job if the eggs are fertile ( I have a roo) or give them specific eggs to hatch and take the mutts away. If you don't have eggs then you can usually pick them up off of craigs list or a friend with hens/roo. Let her sit and hatch them out. If your down to one egg a day maybe what have you got to loose?

 

[Titania]

well, I kicked her out of the coop for 2 days with no access to the coop or nesting box. It seems to have worked.
I only have a small backyard flock of 4 hens and she was my only laying hen so her not laying is a big deal to me! We'll deal. Nature answers to no man, I guess. But, so far, so good and things seem like they'll be going back to normal. thanks everyone!!

 

[wsdareme]

Yes, she is broody. My Ameraucana hen has a new name "The Velociraptor". Get anywhere near her and you risk losing your fingers. She growls, hisses, opens her beak, puffs up like a tom turkey, and bites HARD. I finally gave up shooing her off the empty nest she was "incubating" and put her in a small hutch inside the big coop, on her own nest, with food and water, and stuck 10 fertile eggs under her from my Marans and EEs. She sets low and spread out and does NOT want to be messed with. Leather gloves are a requirement, even when I give her a daily treat of BOSS. She bites me, but is quite content to eat the BOSS when I back away.

Maybe I'll make a sign to hang on the hutch, "Jurasic Park".

I have heard that it works a lot better to sneak the chicks in at night when she's sleeping.