Chickaboo Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 I am after some advice please. Daphne has gone very broody, for 3wks now she has been sitting on the nest night and day, not even getting up to eat or drink. I've been leaving her and then early evening getting her up and putting her by the food - she then quickly eats and drinks loads, before rushing back onto the nest again. This weekend I thought enough was enough, because she is starting to get a bit thin, so I took her off the nest and shut her out of the eglu - she spent the next few hours whining at the eglu door, untill I let her back in. What should I do? Will it just stop by itself. I'm mainly concerned because she isn't eating, and its just so sad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 hi have you tried a cold soggy wet car sponge underneith her?? the only other thing i can surggest is a dunck in some water 2/3 times a day, its supposd to cool them down! she should be comming out of it around now as they sit on eggs for roughly 21 days ......................so ive been told! hope this helps xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickaboo Posted June 25, 2007 Author Share Posted June 25, 2007 Oh my goodness!! That seems a bit harsh The weather we have had at the moment, I just need to put her outside for 30 seconds, to have the same efect! I think i'll see if she snaps out of it. Thanks for your advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronze Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 A lot of people do the freezer pack in the nest box thing. Or could try a broody cage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 The freezer pack worked for my broody.......and Booting her unceremoniously out of the Eglu and slamming the door when everyone else had laid their egg. Took about 3 days to cure her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Oh my goodness!! That seems a bit harsh The weather we have had at the moment, I just need to put her outside for 30 seconds, to have the same efect! I think i'll see if she snaps out of it. Thanks for your advice. i did do this last year but it was during the heat wave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindy Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Hi Chickaboo, I've copied this from a post I left a few weeks back - hope it helps. Our Speckled Star - Stella - went broody a while ago. I read all the useful information in the broody section of Chicken Clinic on this forum and decided to let her sit it out. We did shut her out of the Eglu every day once Blanche had laid, but Stella's solution to this was simply to sit down on the bark/Hemcore layer and pretend that was her nest. Basically, we found that just keeping her away from the nesting box wasn't enough to stop the broodiness but we hoped that once the normal incubation period of 3 weeks was over she would just snap out of it. Not a bit of it! The 4 week mark came and went with no sign of a change. All this time we'd been doing the things you're supposed to do during the broody phase, i.e. forcibly (and boy, do I mean that!) removing Stella from the run several times a day to get her to eat, drink and walk about a bit. But I was worried that this period of relatively low dietary/fluid intake and little exercise was going on beyond the normal 3 weeks that chickens are physiologically programmed to cope with and that it couldn't be healthy for her. So... I emailed the very helpful breeder from whom we'd got the chickens and she advised us to put Stella into a broody cage right away. I'd read about this on the forum but wasn't sure of how to get one and certainly didn't feel competent to make one! The breeder suggested using a dog or cat carrying cage (the type with a wire/mesh floor) but what we ended up using was a bird cage with a plastic lower half and a wire upper half. We turned it upside down and set it on a couple of bricks so that the air and breezes could circulate around Stella's nether regions through the wire and the plastic "lid" acted to protect her from above from rain and sun. It wasn't a pretty sight, I admit, and Stella was not chuffed. But she stopped being broody within 2 days and started laying again a week later. Of course, it's possible that she was ready to stop being broody anyway, I've no way of knowing. I hope I don't sound like a brute, but if she or Blanche showed signs of broodiness again I'd definitely use the cage right away rather than waiting to see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
