What should I do with her?

[Cocotte]

One of my bantam cochins decided a few days ago that she wants to sit on the golf balls in the nest box for hours at a time. I took the golf balls away, and yesterday she disappeared! I thought all four of my chickens were gone, but then three came back. But not Sprinkles. I was so worried that they had got out of the yard and something had eaten her and caused the other three to run home scared, but it turns out she had spend the whole day crammed underneath a bush really really well hidden. So I gave her the golf balls back, and this morning she was sitting on them again in the nest box all fluffed up, and she was making this sweet little cluck-cluck noise I've never heard before. The other girls were hanging out in there with her too (Sprinkles and her sister are about 6 months old, and I've got 2 three-month old ameraucanas as well and those two like to follow the older girls around and copy them), but when I opened the pop door they came out after a minute but Sprinkles stayed in on her golf balls.

So I was just looking on craigslist a few minutes ago, and someone has an ad for fertile bantam cochin eggs. What do you think, should I get her a few and see what happens? If I get her some eggs to sit on, I assume she'll stop laying and just sit on them until they hatch won't she? She won't change her mind and quit after a few days? And if Sprinkles is sitting on eggs and not laying, will her sister stop laying too?

 

[Cocotte]

Should I let her keep sitting on the golf balls, or take them away?

 

[Chick CJ]

All you can do is try. Since this is her first time being broody you won't know if she is good at it until you give her a go at it. In my experience bantams make the best broodies. I have four bantams and four regular hens and I am forever fighting broodieness in the bantams while not one of my full size girls has ever gone broody! I would put her in a dog crate, seperate her from the others, sit her on some eggs, have some food and water colse by so she can eat and drink but not on the nest, and see how it goes! As far as the other girls go, I do tend to get broodies together. If it happens, you can always break the others in a wire cage.

CJ

 

[Indiana hens]

We band our consistant sitters. This doesn't mean they won't leave the eggs just that they have successfully hatched in the past. If it does not cost much for eggs I say Hatch away!

 

[Happy Chooks]

She's broody. Either get her some fertile eggs to hatch, or slip a few day old chicks under her if you want more chickens.