should i just stand there and HOLD her on the nest!?!

[Sunny Side Up]

A lot has to do with the voices only they can hear in their heads.

With some broody hens you could strap them to a rocket, shoot them to the moon, and right after they crash-landed in a crater they'd get right off and start incubating some moon rocks (right after taking a nice moon-dust bath). But other hens are more easily discouraged.

The others have given excellent advice. All I can think to add is to give them fake eggs, or just a couple real eggs, or both, to settle on before swapping them for the eggs you want them to hatch. My broodies are bantams, so I don't mind sacrificing a few banty eggs to see for certain if they'll settle in a new location. After 1-2 days (maybe longer for those hens of yours) I figure it's safe to swap in the standard-sized eggs I want them to hatch.

Otherwise, you've found yet another great use for duct tape.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Why don't you give her a set of well marked eggs, let her brood where she wants, and isolate the roo? Stick him in the broody pen or something. Check under her everyday and take out the new eggs. If she gets back on the wrong nest, put the eggs under her where she is, even if they got cold.

I have several hens who won't be relocated, this is what I do with them. I do lose some eggs during incubation, they can get broken by other hens. But I still get some chicks this way, and it's better than fighting a losing battle whith a hen who will not be moved. She has good instincts, as CindyS pointed out. You can't change that. I have other hens who don't know where the eggs are, and will get back on the wrong nest, even an empty nest, and let the eggs get cold. I stick them back on the eggs, even if I think it's hopeless. And you know what? A lot of them hatch anyway!

 

[dancingbear]

BTW, what's with feeding only scratch? I have broodies all over the place, and I feed them the same as the rest of the flock. Layer mash mixed with distiller's grain, to raise the protein level, and a snack of whole corn and black oil sunflower seeds every day.

Scratch isn't very good, nutritionally, not nearly enough protein. It's just a snack, and entertainment.

 

[walkswithdog]

I get a special nine grain scratch with vitamins etc, that I really like but that's different, it's 19% protein, add that to free range and mine are pretty much fed, except for some starter for the teenies. And even the teenies prefer to have at the nine grain. What the heck, they're free range, they can figure out what they need.

Survival in a flock, poultry yard and on free range is a "skill", the slow, the dumb, the unwary, the too bold, those with no sense - they don't make it. But that's not wrong, that's the way it's supposed to work.

Over protection only weakens the group in the long run. You can try to raise every last chick to adulthood, despair over every loss or see it as nature intended.

Only by dealing with roosters and pushy hens, by learning to defend herself and her chicks is she ever going to get it right.

If she cannot successfully brood, you'll KNOW to pull her eggs and incubate them yourself or give them to a more assertive and settled broody. Or you can decide not to incubate her eggs because she's a ditz.

I'd suggest making the choices that head toward a stronger more capable group.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Scratch isn't very good, nutritionally, not nearly enough protein. It's just a snack, and entertainment.

yep! i know.. its supposed to be an old farmers trick specific to the older banty breeds... its supposed to make them brood. but of course it didnt work at all!!! not sure who that 'old farmer' is.. probably some guy that farms from a recliner
;-)

MAN she is driving me nuts!!!! so i'm just taking up the eggs and ignorning her. yesderday when my banty got up one of my leghorns went and sat on her nest... all..... day... long.

for heavens sakes ladies make up your minds!

i think all my chickies are crazy right now - we are having very very weird weather for this time of year which may be making it worse. i was just really hoping for one more broody this summer. i had one late in october last year so maybe thats when things will change.



now where's the "duck"tape....​

 

[Ducklove334]

some of our hens after laying an egg stay on the nest for HOURS, had one once sit on a single egg for TWO days!, just staring into space like "durr duur duurrrrrr *insert guffaw here*", then on that second day, she gets up, for FIVE minutes, then goes right back to the nest, settles back down, and lays another egg!, then goes off like "*insert hysterical guffawing here*", back out into the pen

chickens are wierd

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

how funny! this is exactly the dialogue i was giving her:

"durr duur duurrrrrr *insert guffaw here*",

chickens are weird.... for heavens sakes!​

 

[feather leg farms]

If she is with othe chickens remove her ASAP. Broody hens like to be alone. My showgirl hen has her egg and my blue hens egg. She rolled them under her when i gave it back. I took it from her to see if she would continue to lay since they lay until they get a dozen eggs. The blue hen just went broody so I gave dolly the showgirl the eggs since she quit laying and that means true broody.

 

[walkswithdog]

LOL we had a chickens are weird and the smartness of chickens on another thread and this conversation with my rooster came to mind. Had to repost:

Last I checked Roos weren't readers or very good at the whole ethical, moral or evolution resource material. I tried having a discussion with George the Partridge Rock and he was just flat uninterested.

It went something like:
"George breeding your sisters is just wrong."

He said, "Oh look Cornnnn."

"No really George, incest is a big taboo among us smarter bipeds".

He stared at me. "Are your glasses edible?"

"Look, George, we're a lot smarter than you, listen to me."

His sister walks by, "Hubba Hubba woman, where you been all my life - watch this ROOSTER STRUT!!!

" That's your sister idiot.

"Watch the rooster DANCE" ::: stomp, stompity wing spread:::

It doesn't work. They don't listen and for at least five or six generations inbreeding doesn't affect birds like it does us.
-----------------

As to broodies like to be alone... Some do, some don't, many of mine team up and go broody together. Some go to a separate area. I try not to give them rules to live by that they didn't read.

When they want to be alone I arrange it for them. Otherwise most of mine don't mind brooding in the coops with the 15 other hens and pullets.

 

[dancingbear]

Ohio FG, I'm confused. I though she was broody, just not where you wanted. Is she not even broody? If she's not, you can't make her be broody. It'll happen or it won't.

Extra corn can increase body temp, and that may (or may not) trigger the hormones to shift into broody mode. But unless you have access to a special blend of scratch like walkswithdog, (we don't even have anything like that around here) they really need the regular hen ration for the main portion of the diet. I give mine extra protein. They do well on it. And like I said, I have broodies all over the place.

I toss out a little whole corn mixed with black oil sunflower seed every day, it's a treat, though, not the main diet. The layer mash I feed has a lot of corn in it, so does the distiller's grain I add to up the protein. Maybe that's part of why I have so many broodies.

It's very unusual for a leghorn to brood, but it does happen. You might want to hatch some of her eggs, to preserve the trait, if you want broody leghorns in the future.