Quite Simply, Chook Chat

[Verinda]

My broody hen is so devoted to sitting on her egg she won't move out of the nest box, I can't get her to eat or drink, should I literally drag her out of the box? She gets really upset if I go anywhere near her but I'm getting a bit worried now and don't know what to do.

Any advice would be very welcome.

[Verinda]

I have recently started dragging her out of the nest box to try and get her to eat and drink, she doesn't like that much, she struts about screeching, pecks a bit then goes back in.

Is this just normal? Any help welcome.

[Snadger]

I have recently started dragging her out of the nest box to try and get her to eat and drink, she doesn't like that much, she struts about screeching, pecks a bit then goes back in.

Is this just normal? Any help welcome.

You could try puting her in a dog cage somewhere in the run during the day so she can't get back into the nestbox.. Wear gloves when you pick her up though!

[Scarlet]

Yes, cage her. You need her in a wire bottomed cage lifted off the floor by a couple of house bricks. Wedge a perch across the bottom. Put some water and feed in there. The airflow underneath her will cool get off and hopefully get her out of the broody stage. It sounds cruel but she has been broody for some time and it can make her ill if she isn't getting out to eat/drink often enough. She is also a sitting duck for red mite.

[Verinda]

I've been checking and worrying about mites, I am really tired of the whole broody thing now.

Thank you both, I will get a cage organised. She's in such a state all the time, completely neurotic about everything!

[Nicos]

Cor...we've been quiet on here for a while haven't we?

I'm really chuffed this morning
Cissie, our hatchling from 2016 , has just laid her first egg!45g
She's a copper Marans.

We bought 4 pedigree Marans eggs( incredibly dark brown) to stick under our broody bantie.
€5 each!
Only 2 hatched...the other two weren't fertile!
One boy, one gal.
The boy we're keeping as a back up cockerel seeing as Paxo has died...he gets on OK so far with his dominant adoptive daddy

So....hopefully this lass is going to be good for amazingly dark brown eggs for the next few years!

[Nicos]

Yippee...2nd egg from Cissie
One each for breakfast tomorrow morning!

[Darwin.]

This seems a good place to ask. My new chicken Susan is about a year old but doesn't lay, she's a Brahma. She did lay a few but was put on a diet of bread and spuds since last summer so stopped.

I got her on Friday, she's on a diet of layers pellets with the odd egg shell broken up into it. She'll get the odd little bit of spinach, kale or cabbage and all the fresh clean water she can drink. There's also what ever pickings she gets from the small patch of grass she's on.

I'd imagine she'll start laying again but does anyone have any idea how long that should take now that she has a good diet?

[Nicos]

This says up to 28 weeks of age before they start laying!
https://urbanoveralls.net/2014/07/09...gentle-giants/

Having said that, she's already laid, so I imagine she'll start again pretty soon.
She does look quite immature looking at her comb ...but then again, I don't know anything about that breed....

You just want an egg don't you?

[Darwin.]

Yep, I want my first egg. I can't call myself a chicken farmer until one chicken produces one free range egg for me.

[Nicos]

Actually, my guess is that she is younger than you think.
Most chooks hatch over the summer period.
My young lass has laid her first 2eggs this week..if your's laid in the autumn, then she was possibly a late spring/early summer hatching?

[Nicos]

I hope you have worked out the ideal way to cook it so everyone gets a taste?
Scrambled seems a waste...dippy soldiers on the other hand......

[Darwin.]

My brother got her last spring at a fair as a chick so I just rounded it up to about a year old. She looks pretty big so I figured she might be even older.

[mrsbusy]

hi All. Have not seen this thread before - great idea.
I would like to warn you that I am getting 4 p.o.l. on Thursday - Australorps. It took me a while to find someone who keeps them and is willing to let me have a few - and having found one was put in touch with another.
So I have been busy today scrubbing out the second best hen house and run.
I am looking for some Australian ladies names - we have come up with Sheila and Kylie. Any suggestions please? Quirky would be great!!

[mrsbusy]

testing out attachment

hi just having a trial run with the attachment option.
Picture of my 3 ex batts.
The first one is a Ranger hybrid and we have had her about 2 years - originally one of 8.
The 2 behind are Hubbard hybrids - these are really meat birds but do lay very large eggs - they came from a farm in Devon where they were producing fertile eggs to be grown on for the table. They have very short legs and the toes are 'curly'. They have a very nice nature but are not very agile and I had to make the long ladder for them as they could not manage the short and rather stupid ladder that comes with the Eglu cube - altho the Rangers had no problem with it but they are much more agile.