Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[Gertie]

My silver Sussex hybrid hen is puffing up her feathers & cawing. She did this last year just before going broody for months! I'm guessing she's gearing up to this again. She isn't sitting in the nest box yet.

 

Is there anything I can do at this stage to make sure she doesn't go broody? Should I put her in a dog crate in the garage with ventilation & food/water? Would I do that now or wait to see if she is definitely broody?

 

Thanks very much!

[Cheeky Chooky]

I just let our girls get on with it, turfing them out every now and then for food, drink and a quick dust bath

[redsunset]

I am doing the same as Cheeky Chooky as I have one right now. Make sure she spends a bit of the day out feeding and let it run it's course. I am new to chook keeping( one year) and this is my third broody.

[Gertie]

Lots of broodies about then! I did just have to leave her last year. I work all day, so I would turf her out in the eveni g for a drink & food. She was broody at least 2 months.

 

I suppose I could always get some eggs to incubate. That could be fun!

[Lewis]

Decide if you want to let her incubate some eggs (think about what you'll do with the chicks, esp the cockerels, separate housing until they're 18 weeks old) or not.

 

If you are, move her at night to a separate broody coop and leave her there for a few days to check she's broody before setting eggs

 

If not, I'd pop her in a broody crate and snap her out of it.

Isn't great to leave her to get on with it, as you say she'll only sit there for 2 months!

In that time she's likely to lose a lot of condition, stop laying (and put others off) as well as attract red mite!

[Gertie]

Thank you Lewis for the info. I have been watching her & she isn't continuously on the nest. She allows herself to be distracted. I've let them out to free range & she has been out & about. Last year she was just an immovable mass in the nest box.

 

I have a dog cage & a garage so we'll see how that goes. I don't think I'm ready to hatch yet!

[AlisonH]

I read somewhere about one of the reasons they go broody is because they get too warm underneath. A friend of mine has had hers go broody and it always sleeps in the nest area. Mine went broody last year and was doing the same. Advice was to throw them up in the air to let them cool down underneath which is the same as keeping them in an open floored cage - I caught mine early, did the throwing thing as often as possible and she seemed to go off the idea!

[Egluntyne]

I'd snap her put of it if you don't intend her to hatch chicks. A broody hen is a magnet for red mite, and if the broodiness is serving no purpose, it isn't in her best interests to be left.

[amys garden]

I've got a Sussex too... She's huge and matronly.

I noticed yeasterday she was showing broody symptoms AGAIN

(Last year shed only been with me for a month or so before broodiness set in!

I can't really run out and get a dog crate, but I've read you can dunk thier bottoms in cold water?

Has any one tried the bucket technique

(I'd be happy to let her hatch Chicks but I don't really want more girls at the moment and I definitely can't keep a Roo

[Purplemaniacs]

Ivory was my Sussex hybrid and she liked to go broody at regular intervals. I used a dog crate. I bought one of ebay, it is very useful as I also use it in the utility if I have a poorly chook.

 

How about advertise on your local freeserve.

 

I have never used the bucket of water technique but given the noise and aggresiveness of Ivory when she was broody I don't think I would have liked trying to hold her in a bucket of water

 

Chrissie

[amys garden]

Thanks Crissie!

Freecycle is a really good idea, I'll try it

Flo seems to have calmed down a little now ,

I've left the "window open on there coop and she calmed down allot

Maybe just enough for me to find a dog crate.

[Hayleybug]

ive been trying the crate approach and it just hasnt worked! the only time it worked was in january when it was nice a chilly out, the last two times ive left her in there for over a week and just had to let her back out- i didnt want to keep restricting her if it wasnt working because she was starting to remind me of battery hens!

if anyone has tried the cold water method id be interested to hear about it, as im going to have to put her back in the cage soon but really dont think it will work...

[Angela & Ken]

Hello. I have 4 broody hens (!!) which include 2 bantams. I bought some fertilised eggs off Ebay but today was their 25th day with the eggs underneath them so we hatched them and found nothing but yolk inside. Very disappointed for our girls. They've been sitting there for nearly 2 weeks before we got the eggs as well. It was like a disease - one went broody, out of the 8, then the others followed. I then had to separate the remaining 4 as I could see them going the same way.

 

Anyway, on another thread I asked about what I should do and someone said to dunk them in cold water. We did this today, a few times each. However, one of the bantams seemed to go into shock. I was so upset. I had to sit with her for 2 hours, wrapped on my knee. She was shaking and falling asleep. I thought I'd killed her. She seems fine now. However, all the broodies are back in their nesting box. We tried keeping them out of it all day but they're back in there.

 

I wouldn't dunk them again, ever. I thought it was really horrid to see them like that - not so much the bigger girls but the 2 bantams - it was horrid.

 

Now I don't know what to do. Good luck with yours!

[merlina]

I am coping with my first broody hen.

 

I have been dunking her in cold water (in a large plant tub, like an oversized bucket). It's been nice weather so I thought I'd try it. Wasn't sure how long I should hold her in the water.

 

She was indignant about the rather wet turn of events of her weekend, but didn't seem otherwise harmed by it

 

After the 'bath' she did wander off and do chickeny things rather than dashing straight back to the nesting box, although an hour or two later we had to repeat the process - guess she warmed back up?

[snaps]

Last year I used the dunking in a bucket method but only on warmish days. I had to repeat it a few times and I think you have to be around so you can catch them immediately before they settle back on the nest and dunk them again but it did work. I used to keep a bucket of water close at hand. Our Magpie was outraged - she's a volatile one - but our Cuckoo Maran was quite calm about it and neither had any ill effects.

 

Having heard that dunking can give them a chill (unless it's really warm ) I've started using an ice pack on the suggestion of a chicken owning friend. My Magpie seems to go broody practically every time she lays an egg at the moment but an ice pack on the nest box gets her out again in under an hour and she returns to normal (until the next time).

 

Of course it's a nuisance when you have more than one hen and they all want to lay and yesterday I was trying to urge one in to lay, having chased out the broody one out so I could put the ice pack in.

 

No-one said it was easy!

[Angela & Ken]

Snaps, thanks, I will try the ice pack! I've had them out of the nesting box and I've been blowing on their undercarriages today, but it's not enough. I think they quite liked it!

[Sarattie]

I feel your frustrations I have a broody dotte whoe is permenantly broody, no matter tpwhat I try. I lock her out of the hous most of the day but she will snuggle up anywhere to "nest" and now the Pekin has followed suit....

Haven't tried a dog crate, seems cruel don't really understand how this works.... Am thinking about closing the nest box off at night time as well as the day now...

 

With 3 hens laying 1 each a day, I'm now down to 1 egg a day.... Frustrating

Seems nerending, has been going on a fair few months now. Possibly since Xmas

Grrrrrr

[snaps]

It is frustrating. I got our first two hens nine years ago and never had a sign of broodiness from, over this time, two Isa Browns, two Light Sussexes, one Bluebelle and one Black Rock. Then, last summer we bought a Magpie for our Cuckoo Maran. The Magpie went broody several times and the CM copied her - not sure she would have thought of it on her own!

 

It does seem as if they're doing it deliberately to annoy - especially as Magpies are hybrids and not supposed to go broody at all!

[Gertie]

I'm going to try the ice pack wrapped in a towel as my hen is still being broody. Isolating her hasn't worked so far. I'm dousing evrything in poultry shield and diatom to try to make sure red mite don't visit.

[snaps]

I'd be very interested to hear if the ice pack works, Angela & Ken and Gertie.

 

I don't know if it makes much difference but I just wrapped my ice pack in a secure plastic bag - just so it's as uncomfortable, slippery and cold as possible! Mean or what?

[sage]

Suki came out the sin bin last night after 3 day & 3 nights . Straight up the ladder on the nest .

She sat on an icepack for 3 hour by this time the icepack was quite warm. I put her back in the sin bin last nigth. I will try again with the ice pack this evening when I get in from work. This morning Cinderella has joined her in the sin bin I now have 2 grumpy hissing girls

 

Sage

[Gertie]

Oh dear Sage, that's not very encouraging then! I'm lucky at least, my girl isn't grumpy, just like a pancake! Well my ice packs are frozen now after yesterday's purchase, so here we go. I have 2 so I can keep rotating them. Last year I just left Iris to it as nothing worked. She did 2 months. I made sure she had water, food, stretched legs every day, & the whole coop was covered in diatom regularly. I just couldn't get her out of it.

[sparkysmum]

Not going to win any votes but I have to say that if you want to discontinue broodiness in hens you HAVE to do the broody cage . It simply isn't kind to them to allow them to keep ticking over with this low level broodiness which is all that happens when you allow them to "get on with it" for a couple of months. As others have said, they WILL lose condition, they WILL attract red mite and they are also losing time being chickens. I know 3 days and nights in a cage seems unpleasant but its short and sharp and much much better for them than being left in a state of semi broodiness for months.Ax

[Gertie]

Yes, no votes from me!! Thank you for the information.

 

Clearly my hens welfare is of great importance to me, or I wouldn't read or post on here. All my attempts last year could not disuade her from her broodiness, whatever I tried. Thankfully she did not lose condition noticeably, or get red mite.

 

The broody cage has not worked so far for my hen. Would you recommend consecutive attempts in the broody cage when it fails, in that case?

[Janepie33]

I have 2 broody Sussex hybrids in the cube nesting box. A bit of a squeeze when any of the remaining 4 want to lay.

 

Having read this thread, I think I will have to be cruel to be kind and transfer them to a different coop - something adapted from our old shed! - without any bedding and see how that works.

 

My only concern would be integrating the broodies back into the flock once they have returned to normal, as one of my other girls is quite a bully given the chance.