Uh, oh...No, Sunny, not NOW!!!

[speckledhen]

All day, on and off, my Buff Orp Sunny has been on the nest. She never laid an egg today, though. Tonight, after dark, we went out to see if she was still on it and she was. Dang, Sunny, this is NOT a good time for broody!!!

She went broody about a month after she started laying and when we couldn't break her up (no rooster then), she almost killed herself. I mean, really killed herself. We had to implement emergency measures to keep her alive! The second year, she went broody, we gave her a couple of Barred Rock eggs, which she hatched successfully, and came through with flying colors. She also adopted the 25 chicks in the pen next to her that we had hatched a couple weeks before hers did.
This year, she didn't go broody at all. Poufy headed Olivia did and Glenda, my Blue Orp/Buff Brahma cross, did, but not Sunny. Thought maybe she had enough of it, raising 27 chicks the previous year. Well, just cross your fingers that she isn't broody (or ill, but she seems fine). I really am not in the mood for babies over the winter.

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Goodness, Cyn! Sounds like you have a mess on your hands if that little hen is broody! Good Luck with her.

 

[hcammack]

Quote:
Hey move her inside ! also I have seen Marlinchasers Pancake succesfully hatch a batch of 10 chicks in his unheated coop in subzero night time temperatures. I guess I would give her some eggs if she is really needing to sit. Is she friendly enough to let you handle the chicks she has? if so you could let her do all the brooding for you and they could come out not to flighty.

Henry

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
We have a jail for birds that do things like that at inappropriate times Seriously, so far 2 days in jail cured it.

 

[mtnhomechick]

Cyn,

Just curious........how does a chicken almost kill herself?


Mary

 

[speckledhen]

Mary, Sunny quit eating and drinking and became very dehydrated. We would remove her from her nest every day and see that she took a drink, pooped, and ate something, but toward Day 21, she apparently quit doing that, though we thought she was. She at first acted like she couldn't walk and her head was twitching and turning to the side. I consulted a good guy from the old BYC who told me to syringe water in her mouth AND squeeze a vitamin E capsule into her mouth every day. Within two days, she has snapped out of it and was back to her normal sweet self. She was broody 22 or so days, even with putting her in a open air bottom cage, putting ice cubes under her, etc. She was determined to sit the entire time on nothing.

EDITED TO ADD:
Henry, I forgot to say that Sunny is a sweet broody, at least with us. She did let us handle her chicks just fine. So did Olivia and Glenda. I've been blessed with sweet broodies so far.

 

[mtnhomechick]

OK thanks Cyn.........now I will know what to look for and possibly expect if it happens to me.

I had a broody wlh which I thought was strange and I couldn't break her of it so I finally gave her to a woman with a Roo. I didn't think that breed went broody much. Hope she has a good life.

 

[gritsar]

Cyn, I seriously want your hens to start e-mailing my hens.
With the way my girls literally run away from their eggs and the nests, how am I ever gonna get "accidental" chicks in the spring???

 

[hcammack]

Hey is Sunny actually broody or did she just sleep in the nest for a night? what have you decided to do?

Henry

 

[speckledhen]

If Sunny is going broody, she is working up to it slowly, like she did the last time. She spent one night on the nest, but none since. Last time, it took her a month of going back and forth before she went full-on broody.