VERY Broody Silkie

[m2wandc]

I have a very broody silkie...she sits and waits for all the hens to lay their eggs, then she rolls them all together and sits on them until I come to collect them (I collect daily) because she's sitting on someone's eggs she has stopped laying eggs herself.

How can I get her to lay again?

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

You can break them. Put her in a wire cage, that is lifted up off the ground for a week or two. Being on the wire isnt a comfy spot to go broody and the wire allows for constant air circulation on her stomach.

 

[m2wandc]

will she start laying again?

will she go broody again as soon as she's back in with the other girls?

 

[m2wandc]

does anyone know how long until she might start laying again?

and what are the chances she'll just go broody all over again once she's back with the flock?

PLEASE let me know asap...I have convinced my husband it is great having our own eggs, but now that we are dwindling in laying hens he is telling me to get rid of them all...I need to get her back to laying and the young ones hopefully will also start sooN!

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

Keep her in the cage with no nesting material or eggs (try to give her no sight to either of them, as well). Only food and water should be in there with her. Generally, the rule is that you should put former-broodies back in with their flock when they've laid an egg in their cage but I find it much more simple to wait about a week or two, egg or no, because sometimes I have hens who never lay their first egg (after being broken) in the cage. For those difficult ones, I would have a wait another week or two for them to start up again. For others, they begin as soon as they are broken.

If done correctly, and if your hen is not stubborn, no, she should not go back to brooding again after she is broken. But with Silkies, don't be surprised if you have to break her more that once in a season. They're very determined mommies.

Broody breeds like Silkies aren't too dependable for eggs. Motherhood is more in their genes and comes naturally to them. If your goal is to obtain alot of hatching eggs, stick with the breeds that were more bred for it.

I have a Silkie who is a terrible layer.

 

[m2wandc]

She was laying 1 egg a day until we were on vacation for a long weekend and she laid 3 eggs and decided to sit on them...we let her hatch them out (1 of the 3 made it and is part of our flock now)

Now she has decided that the other hen's eggs are hers and she collects them from various locations and sits on them, I collect them daily and when I take her off the eggs, she runs up to the rooster, mates and then gives herself a dust bath and eats then runs around like a recently freed preschooler off time out.

But this past week she hasn't laid an egg herself...so I'll put her in the crate and see if that helps...

Thanks!

 

[OaklandChickens]

I have a bantam cochin that appears to be a serial brooder - but it only takes a few days and nights in her special broody-breaking cage to get over it. We let her out to run around at least once a day, for as long as she doesn't start obsessing over getting back into the coop, then back in she goes. The 3rd or 4th morning we let her out to test her and she just acts "normal", case closed. Her eggs start up again in about a week. Her pattern so far, which I'm hoping changes as the weather turns into fall, is to go broody again in about a month. She's also one year old, so I'm hoping maybe she won't be so broody as she ages??? I think there's quite a bit of variety among chickens who tend to brood - how often, what it takes to break them, etc. - so you'll have to wait and see. And work on getting the husband to see their charms regardless of laying output!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

I have a Silkie who is a year old and has never laid an egg. She went broody two days ago and I was trying to break her of it, knowing how hot it was going to get this week. HOWEVER, today I received eggs in the mail and got 5 more than my bator will handle...SILKIE TO THE RESCUE! I put her to work right away!! What fortuitous timing!

 

[m2wandc]

we ended up having a change of plans for our broody girl...

I had this thought...maybe she could help me raise 'meat birds' so I didn't get too attached to them...so as an experiment to see if she would, I bought one baby (egg layer) chick at the feed store (3 days old) and stuffed it under her...she didn't seem to mind at all...need to go check on them today to see what happened over night, but as of yesterday afternoon she was content to mother that baby chick...and if she can raise it (it would be her second chick, she raised one of her own eggs/chicks once) then she could take on a few meat birds and I wouldn't get attached to them and my hubby can do the deed...I can handle the plucking/butchering part, it's just the actual culling part I'm not sure I can do? But I do know the less involved in their care when they are fluffy fuzzy butts the better.

Soooo Mrs Mama Broody is now working hard as duty calls...as a mama

(I hope..will update later today)

Happy 4th of July to those in the states