She's got that look . . .

[fiberart57]

My Australorpe has decided that she wants to be a mommy and has that steely-eyed determined look on her face. I, on the other hand, have decided that she isn't and since I supply food and goodies, I call the shots.

I've read up on breaking up a broody: Kick her off the nest, collect the eggs often, put her in the cage, etc. I've done the kick her off the nest and the other chickens are helping, because since she's at the bottom of the pecking order, I think the others are chasing her out of the community nest box.

However, she seems bound and determined to hatch. She's pulling out her feathers for the nest box and I find her on some eggs every other day since last Wednesday. She roosts with the others at night so I know that she starts on the roost. I've chased her out of the box and she goes pretty easily, so I'm hopeful to continue this and will ask my neighbor to help since he has chickens and is home more than I am.

However, if I do have to get a cage and put her in one to break this, there are some questions about this.
First, how big should the cage be?
Will I need to keep her in there 24/7 for a few days?
What do do with her in the cage? I have a playhouse coop and a backyard. The house itself isn't very big; 24 square feet, and while the run is covered, I would hate to have her outside in this weather.
Do I let her out for a few hours to run around?
How much monitoring does she need? With commute and work, I'm gone about 10 hours during the day and I hate to rely on the neighbor too much.

I had a great family who wanted to buy the girls and I decided I loved them too much to part with them. And now they repay me with more hassles. Oh, well, that's the life of a pet owner, right?

Mary

 

[azygous]

From what I understand, it's the warm dampness of the nest that is attracting her. You have to deprive her of that. Simply putting her in a cage won't get it done. It needs to be a bare wire bottom so that dry air can circulate under her. Her time in the cage may be a couple days or four or five. If it doesn't take in a couple, then return her to the cage until she's broken.

Last time I had a broody, I yanked her off the nest and locked her out of the coop all day. But then I had to keep letting the others in and out all day to lay. It just took two days and she lost interest.

Before that, not knowing what I was dealing with, I had a broody starving herself on an empty nest for over a month before I got smart and kicked her off and locked her out.