To cull or not to cull? - Broody Hen

[Stephanie739]

I would, too! I just love Broody hens. They are hilarious. My Australorp hatched out 4 babies and has even tried to attack the rooster.

My australorp is sitting on 8 eggs now, my first ever broody. I chose breeds for broodiness! I have a buff brahma that seems to be thinking about going broody, and I am doing what I can to encourage it. I like the idea of the flock sustaining itself. The roosters seem to be involved too. Its very interesting to watch. I have a huge blue orpington roo, and yesterday he squeezed himself (picture pieces of him overflowing lol) into a small cat carrier that I put in my coop for nesting. He keeps calling the girls over to it. I know he is trying to tell them, "here is a good place to have my babies!"

 

[warmwater]

Post the state you live in.....somone will want a good broody hen. I have a cochin that goes broody....she does and acts just like yours....I won't hatch out eggs..(get roos then keep them) I give mine wooden eggs from the craft store to sit on. After the 25 days are up..she's done sitting. I heard the wire cage trick works.

I take my girl off the eggs everyday...she feathers up and acts just like yours....her pecking doesn't hurt...and when mine pecks at the other girls next to her on the roost...i make a growling noise and say NO...she stops.

Don't kill her because she is doing what comes natural to her......give her to a good home. My 12 girls range from 4-9 years old....I still get 3-5 eggs a day. I even get 1-2 eggs daily in winter, with no light. I love my birds!

 

[hdowden]

you can send her straight to me!!!!!! i would love to have a broody to save me some money on incubating my own eggs in the bator...i also dont leave the chicks with mom for more than 1 week as i want to be able to handle them so i remove them and the hens either go back to being hens and laying or go straight back to being broody in about a month.

 

[SIMZ]

I have a SLW who goes broody ALL THE TIME. She's over two years old now. The warm weather started a couple months ago and she went broody persistently as soon as it warmed up. Well I said to my husband "if that bird goes broody one more time, that's it, she's stew". I just... feel bad doing it. Am I doing the right thing? She went broody probably five times last year and I almost snapped. She's not only broody, she's a REALLY bad broody! Like bites you, bites other hens, walks around making gremlin noises, you can't break her, she will remain broody for the whole 21 days, eggs or no eggs, no matter how many times you kick her off the nest, cool her down, put her on the roost.... We just got new chicks two months ago so my husband says it's no big deal, we have lots of new girls waiting to join the flock but I still feel... bad. She was in my first flock.

I feel your pain!! We have a Black Copper Marans hen that has been like this since March. She was hatched in October and I'm not sure that she's ever laid an egg. She went from being a chick to being persistently broody. I've broken her broodiness SEVERAL times, only to find her growling at me in a nest box again.

You can cull her if you want stew more than you want a persistently broody hen. If you're comfortable selling her I think you could get some $$ for her as a persistently broody hen as well. I've considered that with mine except she's best friends with her sister (I hatched them here) and they're always together. When "broody" is in her nest box I can find her sister acting normally in the nest box beside her. UGH!!