[bloomer]

one of my marans born last july has spent the last 2 days in the nest box and i can't shift her, normally she stays well away from me and doesn't like to be touched, when i have gone to collect her she has been fluffing herself up putting her tail up hissing and pecking at me, i eventually got a good grip on her and removed the eggs (hers her sisters and the rhode island reds, she had carefully removed the cream legbars and the light sussex eggs)


i assume this is her being broody (never had one before) is there an easy way to discourage the behavious, we don't have a cockerel and i don't want to hatch currently till i know if i need to move house or not...


hints and suggestions welcome

[sokel]

Wish one of mine would go broody, I am wanting to hatch some call duck eggs but someone has borrowed my incubator

[Rosemary]

Get some eggs under her, bloomer 

[mentalmilly]

I had a wellsummer, last years hatch, go broody 3 weeks ago and kept taking her eggs away and taking her off the nest and putting her outside. This lasted 4 days.   This stopped her but l think if she was really serious this would not have worked.  My regular broodies are not this easily put off if not impossible to change.  You could always get her some eggs from somewhere, chicks are gorgeous.

[chrismahon]

The only method that works is a cage suspended in the air so that their underside gets cooled Bloomer. We have a fox trap with fine weld mesh put on the bottom so they can walk on it. It is placed on supports in a run with food and water (and the broody). Three days and nights is the longest any have managed. But we are getting a bit soft and now just put plant pots in the nest boxes at night and take the broody out every time we pass during the day. With that method the longest one has gone is two MONTHS.

[Marches Farmer]

A small dog cage is ideal - put her in it, under cover, in a light place but in a breeze.  Give her food and water but not whole grains (which will stay in her crop longer and deter her from getting up to eat.).  The breeze will cool her down and being out in the "open" should quell her desire to be tucked up somewhere warm and dark.  It could take a few days but once you see her standing up and moving around she's likely to be OK to be let out.

[Steph Hen]

Last year I put mine in a small run on grass with no house, just bit of wood over one end for if it rained. Food and water, took 2-3 days to put her off.
Regularly removing from the nest box, even if you put her a bit away from house doesn't really work, it can take many weeks. During which time, you've lost loads of eggs being laid by that hen, they tend to loose condition, and I've read are at increased risk of red mite. Mine always choose the most popular nest box to cluck in which upsets the other hens a bit as well. If you don't want a broody I think it is better to nip it in the bud rather than leave them. ...or get eggs and get loads of tiny lovely chicks! 

[plumseverywhere]

Its a lovely experience for the kids to see eggs hatch from under a broody... go-on Bloomer...go-on!!

[bloomer]

ok i'll put an add in the market place and see if i can find anything i want locally...


she's been sitting 3 days or so, how long do i have to get eggs under her and what's the best way to introduce the eggs?

[Stereo]

It is great to see a hen raising chicks. I have 2 broodys at the mo and am just waiting for a local breeder to supply me with a dozen eggs. I build 4 broody houses last year with built on runs. It's also a lot less work if the hen is doing all the brooding and the runs are light so we can move them to fresh grass every day which means no cleaning out other than changing straw in the box. You can give them access to grass straight away as the hen will make sure they don't get cold etc.

I'm hoping to raise a lot of chicks under broodys this year. We are looking at them as a blessing now. The only issue is that once the chicks are about 5 weeks, the hen will usually abandon them, which is fine as they don't need heat but you can end up with a lot of different aged batches of chicks.

Mentalmilly, you mention your welsummer. Ours go broody occasionally but never seem to stick at it, something they are known for. I don't think I would sit one on eggs unless I had a spare incubator to take over from her. A determined Marans may be a harder nut to crack.

[plumseverywhere]

ok i'll put an add in the market place and see if i can find anything i want locally...


she's been sitting 3 days or so, how long do i have to get eggs under her and what's the best way to introduce the eggs?

well, with our pekin bantam we just popped them under her. She wasnt' a hissy, grumpy broody at all so it was very easy. Do it at night time, asap. She'll sit till they hatch around 21 days (but because it was cold here ours took 24 days    )

[Mammyshaz]

Very jealous of you Bloomer   

We have decided to ignore the fact we want to move house this year and have all agreed on hatching some marans  I wouldn't need to worry about potential house buyer visitors  smelling the indoor chick cage if I had a broody outside 

Go on, you know you want to, and little broody is up for it 

[bloomer]

my other issue is i need to build a broody coop as she is terrorising the other chooks and keeping them out of the house, she is feisty to say the least!!!

[Stereo]

There are folks selling them on ebay for not much. I just made a box out of plywood with a sloping, hinging ply roof with onduline on top. Then ran some roof batten from this to make a run and covered with cheap weld mesh and an opening door on the end. Took me an afternoon to knock 1 up. Doesn't need to be fancy.

[plumseverywhere]

Definitely useful to have a second coop Bloomer. We use ours for IF we introduce new  chickens to the flock, its a quarantine area. Right now though it has broody girl and her single chick (only one hatched out of 4) after that, the 4 that are under a heat lamp will go in there.   So in other words, wouldnt' hurt to have one, even a rabbit hutch or something really simple knocked together will do the job.