Omlet cube and run

[Hayleybug]

hi all, it's been a while since i last posted as i've been rather busy and enjoying the sunshine with the chooks! Here is a lovely picture of the two well behaved chooks having a dustbath in my rose bed:

 

unfortunately the 3rd chicken Clementine (or as we now refer to her, 'the naughty one') has now been broody for 2.5 weeks. this is her 2nd stint, the first ever was in jan or feb when it was colder, so the anti-broody cage i set up worked a treat after 3 days and 3 nights she totally returned to normal. Here is an amusing pic of her trying to brood the flower pot i put in the nest box:

i now use a cloche which is better for preventing access to the nestbox, but the other girls are laying so i cant leave it in all the time.

 

my problem really is that Clementine has now had 3 stints of 72 hours in the anti-broody cage but with no luck. the warmer weather seems to be holding her temperature up. Im reluctant to leave her in the cage for longer as it seems that she is being prevented from enjoying free ranging (when i let her out she will free range until close to bedtime when she returns to trying to shove her head through the ventilation holes in the eglu).

 

any experienced people tell me what they would do?? would you leave her in the cage regardless until she snaps out of it? if the time it takes to hatch eggs is a set time will she just snap out of it anyway when she passes that time? unfortunately she is my best layer out of the three but it looks like she is going to be prone to this

 

any advice would be great, thanks.

[laurmurf]

Have you got the broody cage quite high up? Hanging from a tree? That often works.

I'd leave her in there 'til she breaks, for as long as necessary. Persistent broodiness can lead to real loss of condition.

[Hayleybug]

no unfortunately i havent got any trees in the garden and the cage is under the eglu table up on bricks. i do have tarps on two sides of the WIR to block excessive rain and wind, do you think i may be preventing enough air blowing around her warm bits? should i perhaps raise it a bit higher and remove the tarp on the nearest side?

[Egghead68]

She may be naughty but she is extremely beautiful.

[snaps]

My Magpie, in spite of being a hybrid and so not supposed to get up to these tricks, went broody three times last summer and our Cuckoo Maran, once or twice too. We used the dunking in cold water method (to lower the temperature of the hen) which worked although it took more than one dunking.

 

But the weather is too cold still for this, I think, as they might get a chill. And I know some people are against dunking anyway, even in the summer - although, I must say, ours didn't seem to mind and there were no ill effects.

 

Another trick, which I haven't tried, is to put a gel ice pack under the broody hen. I shall be trying this if either go broody again. I plan to have two ice packs and just keep swapping them over and see what happens and if it doesn't work and if it's warm enough I shall use dunking again.

[atsw]

I have three Pekins which all go broody each year. I get 6-12 eggs, then they turn. Like you, I have a cage which is inside the WIR raised up on a small stack of bricks. Air flow under the cage seems to be the key to snapping mine out of their habit. It usually takes 3 days. Caramel and Honey were both confined the quarters last weekend. I let them both out yesterday afternoon and Caramel stayed out Free Ranging with the others and was up and about as usual this morning. Honey was OK for an hour or so after being let out, but had returned to the nest box before bedtime, so she is back in the cage for another 3 days! I do find that as daytime temperatures rise it can take up to six days for the broodiness to wear off. Honey is also younger than my other two (Caramel hatched out Honey), so I think the urge is stronger in her.

 

Andrew

[mimi5]

Ah yes the joys of broody hens!!! I have 3 broody at the mo!!! So I broke out the anti-broody cage...but it is only big enough for one at a time!!!!Just let madam No1Penny out this morning...she seems cured I got SO fed up with Milly & Molly last year I let them hatch!! Not doing that this year though

[Hayleybug]

thanks everyone for your replies, i feel much better now about her being in the cage for a bit longer! dont they make a strange 'woof woof' noise when theyre broody?? this is a good way to be able to tell if she has snapped out of it i guess!

 

and thankyou egghead68 she is v beautiful but i think she knows it

 

i have rolled the tarp up on one side so it is letting more air flow across the back of the WIR where she is sited, and I am going to search out the freezer blocks because that sounds like a GENIUS idea! OH doesnt fancy using them in the cool bag again after she's pooed all over them, even if i have told him they would be wrapped in a plastic bag

 

she isnt as pale this time as she was last, i think it is because i am better set up as i didnt have a cage ready, i think she is eating and drinking a lot more this time.

 

Mimi- i totally freaked out the other day as Peggy-Sue had gone in the nestbox and was rearranging bits of aubiose around her, i had no idea what i would do with 2 broody hens!!!!

 

i do hope this doesnt turn into a bi-monthly event though, its quite a worry really when they arent eating properly. also i dont want to my parents to have to deal with it all when we go on holiday at the end of may- she is VERY good at aiming a peck through the bars as you fill up the food!!