New hens not going into Eglu Go Up

[cavysqueak]

I'll try to cut a long story short ...

 

Mimi went broody & spent 2 almost full days on the nest before we were able to remove her. For the next almost 4 weeks we've put her in a seperate run, with no access to a nestbox for the morning while the other girls are laying. Then in the afternoon we've let them all out to FR in the garden, but closed the coop door so again there was no access to the nest for Mimi. Then we let them all into the coop together at bedtime. So this hasn't worked and Mimi is quite happy to now 'nest' in the coop, rather than specifically the nest box (this could be because we put ice packs in the nest in case she was tempted). We even tried the 'dunking' in cold water every couple of hours for 2 days to no effect.

 

So we've eventually managed to get a broody cage together and we put her in that yesterday. She is even in this overnight (we put the cage inside the Omlet run to make sure she's fox proof at night) so she can't heat up again from the close proximity of the other girls. Obviously she has had access to food & water, including the treats throughout all of this time, but I'm concerned that she doesn't have access to a dustbath whilst in the broody cage.

 

Any ideas on how long we should keep her in the broody cage? Are there signs we should be looking out for? She has begun to show a bigger interest in her green treats and even her pellets again, but we need to make sure that she has snapped out of this before we go on holiday for a few days at the end of Aug.

 

Thank you for any advice.

[Purplemaniacs]

I tend to leave mine in for three days and nights.

 

Chrissie

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I agree, 3 days and nights .

[cavysqueak]

It worked! Thank you, three days was the key. We eventually have our lovely, soft hen back (instead of that nasty pecking hen!). Thank you for your help.

[gongladosh]

it depends on the hen really - we have a bantam who, when broody, needs to stay in 'hen jail' for the best part of a week to get her out of it!

[Purplemaniacs]

It worked! Thank you, three days was the key. We eventually have our lovely, soft hen back (instead of that nasty pecking hen!). Thank you for your help.

Glad it worked, three days used to sort Ivory out she was wicked when she was broody

 

Chrissie