PLEASE WE Need help / advise for broody Orpington

[Ol Grey Mare]

It's still awesome - breaking broodiness is not nearly as awful or traumatic as you might think it is - nor is having a hen go broody on you a horrible thing. You have a happy, healthy hen doing what comes naturally, that is a good thing.

 

[bevis]

Heres a picture

 

[bevis]

It's still awesome - breaking broodiness is not nearly as awful or traumatic as you might think it is - nor is having a hen go broody on you a horrible thing. You have a happy, healthy hen doing what comes naturally, that is a good thing.

Ol Grey Mare,
Just to ask the question again, can a 6 to 8 week rooster, fertilize my other hens ?
That would be a deal breaker for me on getting fertilized eggs from the farmer.
Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but we are newbies.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Again

A rooster will not make the hens go broody and there is noticeable difference between a fertile egg and an infertile one, so the only reason not to have a rooster is "the law in your area", the noise(although some chickens can easily make as much noise but not at the unsocial hours that roosters sometimes do) and the extra mouth to feed. I have roosters run with my egg production hens and in fact I keep all my chickens together, broodies, chicks, adolescents, point of lay and layers and cockerels. It's much easier to my mind, than keeping them separate or trying to reintegrate them later.

The red sex links should be fine but, unfortunately, you have other breeds there which are also prone to broodiness and people often find that once one hen goes broody, others follow suit, so you will most likely need to steel yourself and "break the broodiness" sooner or later. Some hens will raise 3 clutches of chicks each year, so indulging their maternal instinct especially for someone else's gain, could become a very expensive business... I had 14 chicks in my first brood, 8 in my second and 9 in my third.....so I am speaking from experience here, although so far I have kept them! I started the year with a trio. I now have over 40 chickens of varying ages and breeds..... it's very easy to become overrun!

Yes, 8 eggs is about right for a clutch. My first broody accumulated 14 of her own eggs in a secret nest and hatched all 14 and she is quite a small hen, but I have restricted them to 10 or less since then. I got 8/9 and 9/10 but it depends on the fertility of the cockerel and how many hens he runs with and how good the broody is as to the percentage hatch.

What are your plans for your red sex links when their productivity diminishes? Presumably, if they are pets you will keep them but if you have regular egg orders, you will need to replace their productivity in which case, it might be nice to have some home reared pullets coming through, but then of you are already at housing capacity, you would need to do some additional construction. Lots of things to consider. There is more to this chicken keeping lark than at first meets the eye! In fact some quite serious moral dilemmas!
Good luck with them.

Barbara

 

[rebrascora]

No, I would say, definitely not as regards a 6-8 wk old cockerel being sexually mature. It really doesn't make a difference to the hens or eggs though. What is your concern re the rooster mating your hens?

 

[aart]

Breaking her is not cruel and will be much less problematic than your other choices.

My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a few bricks right in the coop and I would feed her some watered down crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day 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.

 

[bevis]

Well, after all the input and doing some reading on breaking broodies, it seems that "my" answer is going to have to be breaking the broody stuff as it happens.
we are at an stage of full capacity on housing. we have a hen house thats 8' tall x 8' wide x 10' long. their outside run is about 2 times that size. it seems about right
for 20 chickens. i know people cram many more into that size area but i choose to let them have some space. considering that this WILL NOT be the only time i will have to deal with the broodiness from this particular chicken or some of the others, can't have roosters per zoning, don't want to be overrun with chickens, don't want the expense of raising chicks that i can't keep, refuse to cull them, i just need to break the broodiness because its apparent its going to be a future problem. after they stop laying, they will remain our pets. thats why we started this to start with, pets, not a monetary thing for the eggs. while its nice to have the eggs, first and foremost they are our pets.

 

[bevis]

we have a big fenced back yard and i wish i could let them run around outside but here in florida we have hawks circling around overhead everyday and we also have bald eagles here. I'm VERY afraid that if i let them into the backyard, they will get snatched up by predators .