Still broody after cold water

[teach1rusl]

I waited until the weekend to work on my broody girl. I closed the door to the coop so she couldn't get in there during the day. Of course this meant I had to be at the others' beck and call, listening for their egg cackling so that I could let the other girls in when it was their time to lay. My broody girl spent a lot of time pacing back and forth in front of the closed pop door, looking and sounding confused and pitiful. She would try to sneak in when I'd go to let another hen inside to lay. At night, when I opened the door to let them in, she'd head straight to the nest box. I'd let her sit for about 30 minutes, until it was dark, and then I'd go place her on the roost. I did the same thing on Sunday.
I had my dog crate ready w/food and water, because I didn't think it would work, and Monday was drawing near. But low and behold, Monday morning she was out and about with the rest of the girls!! And she was out when I got home that day (monday). You see why I waited until the weekend...

 

[will hunt for food]

Well, this is where I am at today. I decided to give the wire cage another go yesterday afternoon. This time, I put it on the ground and resting on a couple of 4x4's. With this set-up, my Black Star can see and be near her room mates. So far so good. She was a little agitated, but did not beat herself silly. When I let all the birds out for the last 2 hours of daylight yesterday evening, I let her go too. She stayed with the flock for most of the time, but went into the coop first before dark. She found the nest boxes blocked, and went to her roost.

This morning, after removing the covers to the nest boxes, I opened the pop door to let the birds in the run. She went to a nest box first thing. I immediately took her back to the cage in the run. I went home at lunch to see what was going on, and she seemed OK. I have a feeling this is going to work out by the weekend................

 

[SurprisingWoman]

Bright seems to be working through her issues at her own speed. I have a small tractor so I can open it completely and have it be breezy and sunny and that is what I have been doing after giving the other girls a couple of hours to get business done.

Bright doesn't like the nesting box with the door open and the curtain up so she has been sitting on the roost in the coop. She does go out and socialize with the other girls throughout the day. As long as she isn't hurting herself and seems to be making progress I will let her figure things out on her own.

Interesting how things are progressing.

 

[will hunt for food]

SurprisingWoman, well my best layer spent another day in confinement yesterday. I let the flock out (including her) to free range a couple hours before dark, and she stuck with the flock. At roost time, she was one of the last birds to enter the coop. Instead of hitting the nest box again, she flew up to her perch. This morning, all is good. She did not go into a box, and is milling around with the rest of her cohorts. 2.5 days of confinement may have solved the problem. I used a 30"x30" rabbit cage from tractor supply ($29.99). I put it on 4x4's so it was off the ground with no bedding.

That said, I recognize this as my problem (not a chicken problem), and want to manage my flock as I see fit. I realize she is doing what needs to be done as her DNA intended. I manage wildlife on my hunting club lease the same way- with goals (my goals). My garden is managed as a forest is managed too. As much as I enjoy having chickens as pets (yes, they all have names and my kids love them), I want my eggs!!

I hope your gal is coming along. Thanks for starting this thread. I did not mean to hijack it, but wanted to share my experience. I have Story's Guide to Raising Chickens, and I did not see mention of the water treatment. They do discuss isolating the broody hen in a cage, and breaking her within 3 days. They also said that the quicker she is broken, the lag time between laying again is shortened. I was on vacation, and had a neighbor take care of my flock, so this went on for over a week. next time, I will take action immediately.

 

[OaklandChickens]

I go through pretty much exactly the same process as whff ended up with, and it breaks up my broody girl in 3-4 days (as opposed to the 2 months she went when we were only doing mild intervention). Soons as she starts showing broody symptoms she goes into her jail. She really doesn't seem to mind the crate once she's accepted her fate. Maybe all the extra treats help some! And our coop is tiny so I put the crate in the basement at night, which is nice and dark and protected - she was alarmed the first time I moved her in there, but I just sat with her until the light was gone and she started going into her nighttime trance state. Never any problem since.

 

[SurprisingWoman]

Bright is completely over being broody. She has been hanging with the rest of the girls and she doesn't puff up and do her cluck, cluck, cluck thing anymore.

If she gets broody on a regular basis I will probably have to look into other methods but this time I got lucky.

I started locking her in a finch cage in the morning. It was sitting on the grass and if she had to stay in there for long I would move it around to different places so she could scratch around.

In the afternoon, after the girls had laid their eggs, I would close the coop and let her out with the others. Keeping the coop open and sunny was not working for my Black Minorca so I had to find another way. It wasn't fair to the four that weren't broody.

It didn't take too long and they are pets so I didn't want to restrain her too much. She's a sweetie.

 

[Buugette]

I have a silkie who I can't seem to break. I haven't tried taking her from the coop, but I have blocked the nest box, closed the door when the girls were in the main yard... and she does goes out into the pen in the mornings. I'm not home during the day so I'm not sure what she does. But every night she is in that nest box. I started, due to the heat in our area, hosing down the girls with a shower mist. I hose down their coop roof, their run, and the grass in the yard when they are going to be in the main yard. Figured they would also get some water that way and cool their undersides. I have also hosed (very gently) down her underbelly which she seemed to enjoy since it was so hot.

Still no eggs and she hogs the nest box threatening anyone who happens to be pacing outside needing to lay an egg. (Its actually funny to watch when one of my hens wants in the nest box).

I will try to seperate her this weekend... maybe I will take her with me to my mom's on saturday... that will totally keep her out of the nest box. (my chickens are pets and various ones travel with me to my mom's all the time)

Thanks for the ideas...

Diana

 

[will hunt for food]

I am now a big believer of seperating the broody bird and putting her in a wire cage with no bedding. The sooner it's done, the better.

 

[SurprisingWoman]

Bright laid her first egg after being broody today.

It was calm, peaceful and worked well. All girls are different but this worked for us.

Thanks for all the action on this thread.

I love how people all come together on BYC.

xoxo

 

[will hunt for food]

Well, I thought this was pretty funny.

I caught Sheila (the broody I broke recently) in the nest box this morning. Rats! She is broody again! I push her out and go tend to 3 two-day old Welsumers I just got yesterday. They are really good lookin gals, kinda striped like a chipmunk.

I go back to the coop, and she is in there again. Darn it! I kick her out and start thinking about buying another wire cage because my Wesumers are in the cage I locked up my broody in.

I go and check the nest boxes one more time, and there she is BUT she left me one of her beautiful large brown eggs that I have not seen in about 3 weeks. Thank you Sheila, and I am sorry for doubting you. All is well..............<grin>