help! is carmen or broody or not??

[angelat]

hi all

o dear, i am wondering if carmen is broody? big speckledy hen around 8 months old, starting picking feathers from her breast and spending loads of time in house, making wierd noises and trilling sounds, puffing herself up, can't get near her. does not want to come out of the house, gets the hump with everyone. she laid an egg today. i have been picking her up two or 3 times a day to take her to the water or offer some corn, then she goes back in. am leaving a small pot of water in the house at night in case she's thirsty, what else can i do and how long does this last?? help me please!!!

[frias]

This sounds exactly like my Spotty was last summer. It lasted just over 3 weeks until she gave up. Some give up before. If you wants chicks you could buy some fertile eggs for Carmen to hatch and hope she stays broody long enough. If you don't want chicks you can try the sin bin but it doesn't always work. She does need to come off the nest to eat, drink and poo (stand back as it will stink!) The biggest problem I found was the worry that my girl lost weight and also her place in the pecking order. It all goes back to normal eventually though.
There's lots of people on here with more experience than me who can probably explain what to do better too.

[Birdie Wife]

Sounds like she is. Odd time of year to be broody though! She'll probably get over it as soon as the weather turns mank again
If not, you have 2 options: 1. break her out of it, or 2. try and raise some chicks. If you want some chicks, you should be aware that she may not sit on the eggs for the full term if the weather turns bad and she decides it not such a great idea after all. Also, if she does sit for the full term and riase chicks, at least half of them will probabky turn out to e cockerels and this is usually not desirable. Work out a realistic plan for what you would do with spare cockerel BEFORE that happens. You should also know that raising chicks is a horrifically addictive experience

[Glutton4...]

Hi angelat, I'm new to this Chook-addiction, but I think one of my white girls is broody. Whenever I lift the nest-box lid she's sat on a clutch of eggs looking smug. I remove the real ones and put the rubber ones in the other side of the nest-box and she goes back outside with the others. This has been happening for the last four or five days. I don't have a Cockerel, so it would be pointless me letting her sit

She makes some really sweet chortling noises too. I shut myself in yesterday to muck them out (without their assistance) and she cooed and chortled at me the whole time! Silly wotsit.

[Suechooks]

One of my ex-batts went broody and your description is exactly how Squeaky was. She took a few weeks to come out of it but I just hand fed her a couple of times a day and hoicked her off the nest in the mornings. She's back to normal now.
Forgot to mention - I found a nest of 11 eggs in the hedge some time after she went broody!

[fitzilian]

one of mine is... think it's the cockeral in the shed who's set her off...

she's stolen all the bedding out of the other two nest boxes and is sat in an empty box... our friends found a secret next with 3 eggs while we were away and took the eggs aawy from her, but she doesnt seem to have twigged!

but she does come out for food (she's a right greedy little thing!)