autodoor light sensor questions

[dancing cloud]

My lovely Lola, rescued in February, has gone broody on me . I know hybrids are not supposed to go broody and ex-batts don't do that sort of thing, but she's definitely done it .

 

She ran around the garden for a couple of days clucking non-stop, then took to the nestbox and stayed there, shouted at and scratched me when I took her out, and absolutely screams at the others if they so much as looked at HER nestbox . She's also fluffed herself up as much as possible and has her wings spread protectively over her (non-existent) eggs.

 

None of mine have ever gone broody before and, in a way, it's quite sweet that Lola's doing all the things normal chickens do , but the sooner she becomes her usual Lola-self again the better (and quieter ).

[Egluntyne]

Some advice **here** on dealing with broody hens.

[the bradley bunch]

i've had the exact same problem with my ex-bat doris who was rescued 2 months ago. she's ok so long as there are no eggs around but as soon as she spots one that hasn't been collected she sits on it and does the wing spread thing you talked about. now we try and collect them as soon as they're laid and it's avoided any more problem broodiness.

a couple of weeks ago we had to put some plastic eggs in one of the nest boxes because one of our girls lulubelle keeps laying in the main house - doris was on them for 2 hours before i finally moved her off them... she looked so depressed when she left the hen house to join the others in the garden that i felt a pang of guilt and considered getting her a few fertilised eggs to sit on & raise as her own...but luckily i was advised in time that although hybrids can go broody they don't make good mothers and will normally abandon the chicks once they've hatched so instead we just keep on top of the egg collecting (ours cluck when they've laid so we're straight into the nest box!) and doris is happy getting up to mischief in other ways with her sisters and enjoying her new found freedom

 

good luck with lola, follow eglutyne's link and i'm sure she'll be back to exploring and causing chaos with the other girls in no time (as hen's do )!

[dancing cloud]

And they think it's all over! at least I hope so . Thanks for all the good advice on the forum.

 

All last week I put ice packs under the shredded paper in Lola's chosen nestbox - she seemed to rather like them . On Friday night I put her out and closed the cubes off for a couple of hours (much shouting and swearing from Lola) and increased the closure time over the weekend to all day Monday and Tuesday (increasing less fuss from Lola). Yesterday for the first time she came out all by herself and last night she went to sleep in her usual bed, snuggled up on the roosting bars with her best friend Little Chicken (who's very happy to have her friend back in place of the screaming harridan ). This morning Lola seemed to be entirely back to her usual very sweet and gentle self, hanging out with Little Chicken and hovering by the back door in case there may be treats .

 

I'd never seen a broody hen before and hadn't fully appreciated the complete character change that occurs. Fingers crossed it's all over and I wouldn't mind if I never see a broody hen again!