I had a friend tell me to go see if she's pulling out her chest hairs to know for sure. The question I have, is should I try to break it? Since were coming on winter here? or Should we let her sit? It will be our first time with a broody Think it would be soo neat to have her hatch her own
We had a hen, the last one due to a predator problem, sit on one egg. She set in mid april, on the one egg. She'd growl and peck right off, so we knew. We thought it was her way of getting away from our roo Blue. And HE was so lonely, he'd run to meet us when we got home from work! He'd hang out by the doors, he'd sit with us on the deck,,,,,,,just so lonely. In the meantime, we had gotten 8 other pulletts, introduced everyone slowly, and they were all living together at 6 weeks. Long story short, the one egg hatched. There's a pic on our page. It was a great feeling to see it happen. When "gracie" hatched out, everyone had to come see! Now, it's 6 eggs a day, and back to normal.
I just had a broody that sat for almost 3 weeks on nothing before she finally broke. I read that many people put them in a wire cage for a few days to break them but I just let Elanor sit in the nest box. She was very sweet and never pecked or growled at me. I did pull her out a couple of times a day and put her in the run or freeranged her. She would poop, eat, run around for a while and then right back in. I think its a matter of personal choice. I will put eggs under her in the spring if she is broody again. I didnt do so now as we are going into winter.
I've had them hatch babies in November, and have one on 8 eggs now. I realize this is hardly a Canada winter -- but we do get some cold, to the point of their water freezing and pipes bursting even with a little insulation, and I've seen a mama outdoors with chicks running around in 40 degree weather (of course they go back and forth from mama to running around all day.) Hope someone chimes in who's done this farther north than we are.
