Chicken pecking

[Florrie]

My two chucks have gone broody. What do I do? They were both laying every day then suddenly stopped and spent all day on the nest box. No eggs now for 2 weeks. Help. I have had them from 17weeks old and they're now 27 weeks old.

[xScrunchee]

I have just had one of my hens go broody.

There are quite a few things that you can do to try and stop them.

You can put ice packs in the nest box which will take their body temperature down helping them to come out of their broodiness. (Although you have to replace them quite often as they keep defrosting!)

You can shut them out of the Eglu during the day and put a large plant pot or football in the nest at night to stop them (This worked for my hen) or some people dunk their hens into cold water a few times a day (again to lower their body temperature).

 

Other people use a broody cage which has a mesh floor so that the air can circulate all around them which, once again lowers the body temperature. They have to remain in the cage for 24 hours a day with food and water (of course) for about 1 week I think.

 

I was lucky to catch Bobbie quite early and she was only broody for a few days. Once she had no access to the Eglu during the day or the nest at night she soon gave up.

I used ice packs in the nest in the mornings so that my other two could still lay but Bobbie wouldn't get too comfy!

 

Chickens eh??

 

Good luck

[Lindy]

Hi,

 

Just to add that I've successfully used a broody cage twice and on both occasions it worked within 48 hours - don't know if my experience was typical, though!

[Nicola H]

I would also recommend the anti-broody cage if you want a quick fix, I have used this a few times on my very broody hen and she snaps out of it within 48 hours. It does seem a bit cruel at first but I haven't found any of the other methods as effective............Good luck I hope you manage to snap them out of it.

[beach chick]

I think we have this problem with Chardonnay... had to physically remove her from the nest today, where she was sitting on 4 nice eggs. unfortunately dropped 1 egg on top of the porthole, which was a shame.

anyway, having removed her she has now gone off to sulk under a bush.

 

the problem is knowing whether they have all laid, or if she's in there trying to lay - there were 3 eggs at about 10.30, she was in there when we went out at 11.15, still there at 1.00 at which point I decided she should be out. so there were 4 eggs then - all lovely and warm, so a chicken obviously generates a fair amount of heat!