Very determined broody- New question!

[bluerose]

My Amber-hen has been shuffling and squawking with her wings out and puffed up like a balloon for the past few days- been out and about and laying, but very disturbed by anybody coming near her....

She spent plenty of time in the nest box today and would screech and puff up when I looked at her sideways. This evening I yanked her out of the box and plopped her outside the coop with some fruit while I blocked off the nest boxes. She ogled the cover, then hopped onto the roost when I let her back in... still puffed up like a golden cocoa puff...

She ate some grapes but not strawberries and got some water, but is rather disturbed about everything.

Will just blocking off the nests during the evening and periodically kicking her out during the day keep her from going full-on broody or ?

Thanks...

 

[coopist]

Well, it might. You can try.

But a lot of broodies are too persistent for this strategy and have to be caged on wire or metal flooring. Some won't even "break up" under these conditions. When they're dead set to "set." I usually just give them a handful of eggs and let them raise a few. It's sometimes easier to place chickens than break up a really determined broody.

 

[bluerose]

Kicked her out of the box again this afternoon and blocked it off- it's too hot in there for them anyway. We're having a nasty heat wave, it's in the 90s today...

Didn't even have an egg and was sitting. And plucking feathers. I see a wire bottom in our future (provided this weather stops!!!).

 

[bluerose]

darn hen was broody-ing ON THE ROOST.

She was all hunched up on the roost while her buddies were happily running around eating bugs. And puffed up and screeched at me when I looked at her through the fence, much less when I touched her.

 

[bluerose]

Ok, well, Amber is well and truly broody. Anywhere she can sit, she's brooding away. I blocked the box she's been sitting in and kicked her out again today.

I don't know if the wire-bottom cage trick will work, as she's been spotted brooding on the roost, on the shelf outside the boxes, and in the (very hard) dirt... plus the coop is really too small to have the wire dog crate in as well and Diva will probably peck her through the bars. There's no other real safe place to have her.

So- now that it's pretty obvious she's hankerin for some chicks- if I can get 2 or 3 day-olds and pop them under her, that should make her happy, right? How long should I leave her nesting before I do that? (if... have to convince the parents first...)