Broody problem

[roitelet]

I have a hen who is broody so I moved her into a house on her own and she would not settle. So I put her back in the run with the others and she immediately went back in the nest box and refused to move. Should I;-

1 try again
2 let her sit on some eggs where she is
3 give up and put her in the 'sin bin'

Thanks in advance

[its hilly]

I would put some pot eggs (so they cant get broken in the broody coop) under her in the nest box then tomorrow night when she's asleep pick her up with the eggs and put her in the seperate coop. And ignore her if she wont settle, she may give up and sit again after a couple of days.
But site the coop out of sight and if possible earshot of the others, and shade it a bit.

[Nicos]

choice 2 ...go for it gal!!!

[chris]

You could always stick a cardboard box in for the others to lay in

[petal]

or put her within a cardboard box in the place she has chosen... otherwise she will take the eggs as they are freshly laid and put them under her and the whole thing becomes a disaster with different hatch rates and therefore the majority not having a chance to thatch.
What time did you move her- was it dusk? They are more likely to settle then. How long had she been broody?.

[roitelet]

or put her within a cardboard box in the place she has chosen... otherwise she will take the eggs as they are freshly laid and put them under her and the whole thing becomes a disaster with different hatch rates and therefore the majority not having a chance to thatch.
What time did you move her- was it dusk? They are more likely to settle then. How long had she been broody?.

I think that I will leave her where she is and mark the eggs I want to hatch so I can take out the newly laid ones. She has been broody for about 4 days. There is another nest box but the hens seem to lay in the box where the broody is. Once the chicks have hatched I will move her and the chicks to another house. Do you think this will work?

[Hilary B]

I'd move her to a broody pen when it gets dark, give her some 'fake' eggs for a while and allow at least 3 days to stop complaining about being moved. Once she gets used to the new location, add the eggs you want hatched.
Others prefer other approaches.
I always reckoned that a broody sitting in the main nestbox was a right PITA.

[petal]

i agree, she has to be removed, its quite simple- if you don't have a pen- take 2 large cardboard boxes and create a pen- I will take a pic of our emergency one today- In the dark, she will sit on eggs- voila!!!!If you leave her where she is- PITA.

[RichmondHens]

Agree with Hilary and Petal.

[roitelet]

I've just moved her to a broody pen so we will see if it works this time. She has ping pong balls to sit on as I don't have any pot eggs but in the main house she was sitting on nothing!! Apart fom being a pest if I leave her in the main house I am concerned that the Brahama cock will trample on chicks as she is a Cayenne (Bantam) so the chicks will be small and he is huge.

[roitelet]

Well I put her back in the broody coop at dusk last night and left her shut in until quite late this morning. Out she came with no sign of broodyness. The nest box she likes is removable from the main house so when it stops raining I will put it in the broody coop and see if that works. If not it's option 3, sin bin!!!!!

[RichmondHens]

It sounds like she is lazy rather than properly broody. When they are truly broody you can do anything with them and they pretty much stay put. Sometimes they do need to sit for much longer though before being moved to a coop, they have to be in true "stupor mode". You could leave her for another week and try again, or just put her in the sin bin.

[roitelet]

End of the saga. I let the hen do her own thing and she chose to go back with the flock and, guess what, she decided she wasn't broody! Perhaps the thought of sitting still on her own for three weeks put her off the idea.