appreciate a bit of advice

[tlck9]

me again...
I'm looking after some chucks for a neighbouring allotment holder. 3 have gone broody, which she knew before she left....

not having had this as a newbie

where do I start...do I turf them out.

I've tried to search for some posts on what to do, but i've hit a wall of lots of threads with the word broody in - is there any good ones

I read somewhere prob on here about picking them up and putting them in cold water. they arent the tamest of birds

(strange really, as the lady said how tame mine are bearing in mind that I've only had them 3 weeks - All I did was corn and pick up, corn and pickup and they dont really mind a cuddle)

Hers, which I really dont think have the same level of interation as mind, are very wary of people and certainly not friendly when I tried to check for eggs

Thanks in advance

[Suechooks]

If she knew they were broody before she went away and was happy to leave them there then just turf them out when you can and remove any eggs.
Broody hens can be quite nasty - usually swearing at you - the language is unbelievable! They just want to be left to sit on their eggs.
Personally I think the cold water treatment is awful and would never do it. The principle is to cool them down as broodies have a higher temp to incubate the eggs. Most people seem to use a sin-bin which makes life less warm and comfortable - a dog crate raised on bricks with plastic base tray removed is the usual option but to do 3 of them might be a bit of a job specially if they're not your hens! It would need to be left in a safe foxproof and weatherproof place as they need to be there day and night for several days or up to a week!
Good luck!

[RichmondHens]

Do as Sue says, just turf them out and take away any eggs. Slightly naughty of your neighbour to leave you with them if you have not had broodies before.

[tlck9]

to be honest I'm surprised she still has them, the nest box door was off when I got there so its lucky they didnt escape and secondly lucky a fox hadnt had them away, although they are fenced, the omlet cube thingy isnt within the high fenced area

Could have been horrible explaining that, even though it was the next day after she'd left them, and nothing I had done, would still be on my conscious

Anyway will turf them out...although one is particualar nasty, one of the others I did manage to get out into the perching area but didnt last long

Just a question though, will they feed themselves/drink etc or it is really a must to get them out of there so they drink/feed

I wouldnt want them dropping off the perch so to speak due to not eating or drinking

[Nicos]

Mine have been locked out of their coop for 3 days and have finally given up being broody. They should start laying in 3-4 days ( such a waste of eggs!!!!)
I leave out a couple of cardboard boxes for the others to lay in and have strangely never found any of the broodies deciding to sit in those instead!
If it's raining and they need to get back into the coop I put chicken wire over the nesting boxes ( they've pulled away cardboard in the desperation to get back into the box!)

None of mine have gone for me when I turf them out but they make an awful squarking and fluff up....if looks could kill though......

[RichmondHens]

As long as they have food and water accessible during the day then they will be ok. Hope foxy doesn't get them though. I was in charge of a holidaying neighbour's geese once, and the fox attacked them during that week - sod's law. Felt awful about it even though there was nothing I could have done.

[tlck9]

Pink buckets do the job

I secured the neighbours hen house (they had left the nest box door on the top!!) so that foxes cant get in now

I turfed out the two chucks that werent as nasty as this particular one, and though perhaps the little lady may be a little thirsty, so grabbed one of the kids pink buckets filled with water to tempt the little pecker out

Well....if you need to get chucks out of their broody state in a rush use a pink bucket. I showed it to them and they absolutely moved like a shot

I'm not so sure they are so used to people as my chucks (even only after 3 weeks of having them mine are coming round) so I scattered a bit of food and tried to tempt them a bit closer

we will see if they get friendly by the time the neighbours return