Unsecure chicken perches

[coco]

My broody hen Fay is sitting on eggs but hasn't eaten or pooped today. I am turfing her off the eggs twice a day for about ten minutes. Can she be off the eggs for longer than this. She justs sits in the run doing her impression of a pancake.

[PeckyBeak]

Hi Coco, I know what a worry it is, Fiz now has her 7 chicks but she would not eat or drink normally. They go back into a wild and trance like state. i would lift her off the eggs and talk to her to try to coax her out of the trance gently pushing her from behind. Sometimes I had to lift her out. She would then run out and poop/ dust bathe. The eglu was on the patio and before she came out I would hose some water to make a puddle and she would sip from that. I also put some seed soaked in water near the puddle. She also had cooked peas and sweetcorn. I found that she would eat from my hand while on the eggs through the pop door. Her main source of liquid was chopped grapes which she had several times a day and from the soaked seed and veg. She was also partial each day to scrambled eggs, to which I added some Nutri-drops. The water I soaked the seeds in had a small pinch of Avipro in aswell. It was very time consuming as she would only eat certain things at certain times and it was a case of trying each one to tempt her, basically it is a case of keeping her going with anything that you can, for the short while. Hope this helps and good luck with the chicks!

[coco]

Thanks Peckybeak. She had a potter this morning and a scratch round for food and did the most enormous two days worth of broody poo. Yuk.

I suppose she knows what she is doing.