Chook Dilemma

[Mikey]

Howdy all,

My 3 chooks have been good layers until recently. One has gone broody and is obstructing the nest, one has had a cold and is now a sporadic layer while the third is still top bananas.

I've been thinking about getting a clutch of eggs for the broody, as I'm not there in the day to be able to constantly turf her off the nest. I made a separate coop a while back when one was plucking the feathers off the others, but I don't know what eggs or how many.

I can split off an area in the garden where she will still be in view from the others but can have her own space to hatch some eggs. How long after the eggs have hatched is it before they can all be reunited?

[Glutton4...]

When she's fed up looking after babies, she'll let you know. Last year mine started grabbing the best bits of food for herself, rather than calling the babies over and giving it to them. Then I knew she'd had enough. The babies can be integrated with the flock when they're nearly as big as the adults, so about 3 months, I reckon. That's what I did with mine anyway. However, someone with more experience may come along and tell you different.

[Suechooks]

Don't forget at least some are likely to be boys - decide what you're going to do with them before you hatch anything. I had 6 Araucana eggs under a broody, 5 hatched - ALL boys!

[Mikey]

Which chick breed hatches out where the boys and girls are different colours?

[Suechooks]

Any of the auto-sexing breeds but you're probably thinking of Cream Legbars. They lay blue eggs. I hatched a batch of those and only got one girl from them too + 3 boys. I don't think it's any easier killing tiny new hatched chicks than it is killing older birds though. I've tried to hatch only breeds where I think I can home the cockerels. So far this year I've been lucky but had to cull a few last year.

[RichmondHens]

You don't have to hatch anything. You don't have to keep turfing the broody off, she will get bored after a few weeks and revert to normal. It's whether you want any more/have room for any more which should dictate whether you hatch or not. And as Sue says you do need to think about what you do with the boys. If you are wanting a few more eggs and do have room for maybe one or two more hens, the easiest option is to buy a couple of POLs. No hatching worries and no boys to annoy the neighbours/grow on/despatch etc etc. Anything hatched from now on will not lay until the Spring, so unless you are set up for over-wintering growers (they cost more to feed over winter than in the Spring and Summer as they eat more because they are growing and also trying to retain body heat - little bodies get cold more quickly) then I have to say don't do it. Call me a party pooper and all that but the ideal time for newbie hatching is Easter time.

[baldrick]

Our normally inoffensive cream legbar goes broody and evil with it. She kidnaps everyones eggs, wont let them in and makes scarey noises and attacks me. We put her in the psychiatric coop with "her" eggs and access to food and water until she gets bored with it. Quite often she has a paddy and kicks all the eggs out once she is in the special coop. She likes the idea of being a mum but has no staying power! She is currently running a hate campaign on Princess's eggs but we are using the psychiatric coop for rottie and wellie so she may have to go in a covered dog cage until she behaves!

[Mikey]

My broody is a legbar hybrid. She's a bit dotty, which is only emphasised by her mohican.

How successful is dunking her lower half in a bucket of water?

At the moment I could do with some more eggs, as only 1 is laying regularily, I don't have the room in the coop for another chook though. The eglu classic isn't that big inside. They only all started laying a few weeks ago, one had a cold and stopped, and is only laying 1 every 3 days and one has gone broody and stopped laying altogether. I'm not having much success!!!

[baldrick]

I certainly found seperating her into the psychiatric coop worked. Ive since been told that a/ legbars are not great brooders anyway and b/ a dog cage with perch food water and nowt else somewhere sheltered or with a lid should cool her off enough to snap her out of it. The bloke I bought her from says to hold her and move her in a big circle as if she is on a big wheel will work! However she is as big as I am and vile when she is PMT ish so I dont think I shall bother!

[Suechooks]

Please don't dunk her. It always seems such an extreme and unpleasant solution and probably not that effective anyway. She's governed by her hormones (aren't we all)! Its a natural function and although not that many hybrids go broody those who do are really just being normal chickens.

[Hilary B]

Lots of people use the sin-bin approach (a cage where she can't 'nest', the dog-cage described above would do nicely) and a few dunk, the idea of both approaches being that if she can't get that 'warm underneath' feeling her hormones will take the hint and go back to normal.
Discouraging broodiness (as long as the method isn't actually cruel) is no more unkind than deciding that a bitch will not have puppies without geting her spayed, and probably has a lot less impact on her psychology!

[baldrick]

yes Hilary B. I had major guilt pangs about Spike being broody, but when I saw what she did to the eggs when I moved her (as I would have to have done if she was going to brood chicks), and saw how quick she snapped out of it I realised Id done the right thing.

[Mikey]

I'm not sure what to do, I've tried making her an area to go and sit I've even given her some eggs to sit on, but she's determined to stay in the coop. On the plus side Daisy who is our smallest and only layer at present dropped a beauty yesterday. See if you can spot the odd one out.

[chris]

double yolker?

Are those blue eggs? Which one of yours lays that?

[Mikey]

My Cotswold Legbar, she's the broody at the moment.