She's going broody again - any point in trying to break it?

[greginshasta]

We have a maran who went broody last year. No roo, thus no fertile eggs, but there she sat for over a month. Then 5 months passed before she started laying again, which was just a couple months ago.

I know there are posts that discuss strategies to try to break them from broodiness, but I also recognized from her determination last year that such is a challenging task.

This year I happen to know where I can get fertile eggs. Do I just bite the bullet and let her have some eggs to sit on? If so, how many?

The gal who has fertile eggs suggested that we totally seperate her from the others, even if that means caging her in. This suggestion was raised because her hen who was not protected from the other hens eventually only hatched one chick, and the chick was pecked to death by the other girls. But I also remember last year watching our broody hens occasionally run out to the yard for a dust bath or some pecking at the lawn, so trapping her in a cage would restrict that. What to do?

 

[debilorrah]

Do you know anyone with fertile eggs you can give her. She will get over it much faster if she hatches chicks.

 

[greginshasta]

yep, I mentioned that in the OP. I'm honestly more interested in her lovely dark brown eggs than for her to sit on her butt for another month, but I guess nature is nature, and she's a stubborn little twit.

 

[Portia]

You can always put eggs under her for a week, then get a chick or two and put it under her. I've found that hens can't count, so she shouldn't be stunned by the rapid 'hatch' of the eggs.

I keep my hens and chicks with the rest, but mine free range. Right now I have 4 broodies, 2 with (full incubation term) chicks that just hatched yesterday & today.

Good luck

 

[greginshasta]

That's funny. We actually have silkies coming in the next few days. Will she crush the little peeps? And will that bust her out of broodiness?

 

[chickenlittle32]

I have a Silkie that has gone broody continuously for 3 clutches. (the first 2 clutches, we took the chicks away so that we can spoil them) We learned our lesson, and let her keep the chicks this time. Her chicks are about 2 weeks old...and she is showing broodiness signs again....

 

[greginshasta]

Our Maran is our heaviest hen. I just have this vision of putting little silkie chicks under her, then hoping they are not crushed.

 

[Judy]

In your position I'd give the fertile eggs a try. I let my broody set and hatch last year in the coop. Worked out fine for me; the others actually helped raise the chick. (Hadn't found this forum then and did not know some isolate theirs.)

I don't think there is any way to know how it will work out without trying. They have been breeding broodiness out of chickens for so long that people have all sorts of different experiences, I think.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
I don't think she will crush them if she is a good mama; she could crush her own if she's not, or kill it, or ignore it.... No way to tell that ahead of time, though. It's up to you whether to try it.

 

[Miss Kitty]

I broke my cochin hen today of broodyness. I took advice from here on this board. I put her in a dog cage sitting it on afew bricks up off the ground. This forced her to sit on wires and it kept her belly cool. She hated it. Nothing to lay on no paper no straw nothing to help her brood. I did this in the a.m. for hours then let her out by taking her out front (she is free range), putting her with the other two hens. Of course she would go back to the cage, I closed the door on the cage. I controlled how much cage time she had. After doing this afew days she is cured!! Today she spent the whole day out front with the others never going back to brood. She has not laid any eggs during this time. I will see if tomorrow she lays normal.
The cage is the way to go. It won't let them brood. Hope this helps.