What to do About Olivia?

[7 Biddies]

My little splash BLRW bantam, Olivia, laid her first egg about 7 - 10 days ago, and she's already broody. Twice now, I've removed her and her egg from the nest, but she quickly returns and lays another egg; sometimes laying twice in one day. I don't want to stop her, because I know it's a natural drive for her, even though she's never even *seen* a rooster much less mated. Her eggs are 100% sterile.

So, my question is:

1) should I leave her alone with all of her eggs?
2) should I take her eggs from her as she lays them?
3) should I let her keep one, marking it so I'll know that's the one she's "hatching"?


I figure she'll eventually get over it, especially when nothing happens.

 

[Malibu99]

From what I've heard, the broodies will brood for months waiting to hatch the egg. You could just leave her with one egg, just make sure she gets off the nest. Or you can block off the nesting box so she can't get in, if you decide to break her of her broodiness.

 

[3 NH reds]

From what I can tell broody birds don't give up. I have a broody who sat on eggs over the 21 days and would not toss them out. I bought 12 fertile eggs off of craigs list to replace the non fertile mail order eggs and she is still on them with 2 more weeks to go.If you let her go broody she will stop laying new ones. If you don't want this get a nest box where the egg rolls down a small ramp away from her where she can't get it.

 

[7 Biddies]

From what I can tell broody birds don't give up. I have a broody who sat on eggs over the 21 days and would not toss them out. I bought 12 fertile eggs off of craigs list to replace the non fertile mail order eggs and she is still on them with 2 more weeks to go.If you let her go broody she will stop laying new ones. If you don't want this get a nest box where the egg rolls down a small ramp away from her where she can't get it.

My nest boxes aren't in a situation where I can do that. So, do I keep stealing her eggs?

 

[devora]

Sounds like you need to break her. (Put her in Broody Prison where she can't get comfy for a few days.)

If you only want her for eggs and as a pet letting her stay broody isn't always ideal.

 

[Baby Chick]

What I do is take a golf, or ping pong ball & put it under her when you get the next egg. BTW MY NAME IS OLIVIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

My cochin is broody A LOT. I feel bad breaking her so I just let her do her thing. (I believe you can break them by putting them in a wire bottom cage so they can not nest - there are threads on here about it.)

All of my other hens will go lay in her box and she collects all the eggs. I take them from her at the end of the day. She gets upset with me and grumbles but I just leave her one fake egg. (I have a stone one that I got at a fair a lot time ago but I have also seen wooden ones and a golf ball might work). I used to leave one real egg that I marked so I knew which one it was but she has broken a few and it was a huge mess so I stick with the fake one now.

 

[7 Biddies]

Thanks for all the advice. I tried putting her outside in their tractor but, since I work and only have weekends off, I couldn't be consistent about it. So, I gave up. Instead, when I get home in the evening, I take her out of the nest box and put her in the run so she can eat and drink. For the first 2 - 3 days, I closed the pop door so she couldn't get back in right away. But, now I set her down in the run and she goes right for the food, eating hungrily. She eats, drinks, scratches, poops, and pecks for about 30 minutes, then returns to the nest.

It's getting close to 3 weeks, so I hope she gets back to normal soon. In the meantime, I think she's happier and healthier this way. I really don't like to mess with Mother Nature too much, but didn't want her to starve, either. So, I'm content with this solution. If I get one less egg per day, it really doesn't matter. It's just me and I can't eat them all *now*! So, I end up just giving fewer away.