Grr...more broodies

Oh come on. Don't they know that winter is happening soon? I do not want little babies now. Grr...would love to hear some tried and true, and simple methods of breaking up broodies. I usually do not do this, I let nature be nature, but they are a pain to allow nature to take over in the wintertime. I am not worrying about cold chicks, mammas are good for dealing with that. I am worried about the chicks that mammas decide they don't want to mother anymore and take up to roosting with their pals. Leaving little ones (got a cochin that I have to put back on babies that are 3 weeks old every night, she wants to be with the other hens up on the roost) to fend for themselves. Blah and ich.

Two big fat ol' orpington gals. Decided the same day to take up nesting. Guess I could let them, but just really don't want to. Thoughts. Is it wrong to stop Mamma Nature, or should I just let her fly into winter with the mothers and child? What to do, oh what to do. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Would changing the lighting help at all? I know a lot of hens will slow/stop laying in the winter, largely based on daylight hours. Is there any way you could lock them up in a darkened coop a little early and leave them in a little late? Not exactly a tried and true method, but it might help this time of year?

I have the same problem, these girls will sit and try to hatch anything. I have a silkie that just hatched out a couple black chicks which are not hers.

On a good note i had a hen hatch out 6 lavender D'Uccles

My PChants get very broody to, but I am lucky I just have to move them for a day and they break. Well lucky and unlucky because if I want them to set I can't move them.

Must be this nice weather that is messing with your hens CynthiaM. I know I am sure enjoying it!

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We're having the same issue here. Our olive egger has just gone broody again. Enough already!! It's fall, chickee'sss!!!! A wire bottom cage sounds like a workable idea. I usually just move them and they will break up for a little while - then back at it again. Hoping with shorter days they will slow down on the broodiness.

Cindi, I have 100% success in breaking them by putting them in a large dog crate as well with with a wire bottom and no bedding so THEIR bottoms can cool for a few days - from 3 to 5 days. If your coop is too small for a dog cage, then you can put the cage in the chicken yard so they continue to be familiar with their flock each day while they are in there.

I have tried other tactics, including keeping them outside their yards to forage but they've flown right back in (including my big Wyandottes) and marched right back into their nest boxes.

Good luck.

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Ta da!!! Great thoughts here ladies, thanks for the comments, for those that have found it necessary to break up a broody. Ya. That mamma cochin still roosts at night, leaving those poor little three week olds to fend for themselves and me having to pick her up and plunk her down on these dudes. They're just too young to form enough heat in the baby huddle, sigh. Ain't taking a chance of doing that when it is below zero weather, which can come in November for surely. Gonna break up the broody. she can re-enter that world in the spring, but not now. I have a dog cage identical to the one you pictured, Tara, the same model (like there is only one model, right, smiling). It has the metal insert. Gonna go and find some plastic stuff like you have in the bottom of yours, the rabbit blanket stuff, smiling. Seems good. I don't like the thought of feet on metal either. I know the insert will keep the feet off the metal partitions, but still, don't like the use of metal. Period. I do not want it comfortable for her either, so no hay. and ya, for sure, like the idea of being a little hungry for a day, that will surely rock that gal's socks and initiate giving up on the idea of little ones running around, driving me crazy this time of year. got a nice area I can put her new home in for a few days. The other one gave up after a day, phew, thanks for tips, gonna work 'em. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

And now another one!! Blah. This one has only began to lay and has only laid about 10 eggs, she is just barely at the point of lay and she is mean, really mean, about me disturbing her. Usually, I don't find any of my hens aggressive in this way when broody. I'm going to mark her, as I think she will be an exceptionally wonderful mamma and may be one that will take on like 24 little stinkers to raise, smiling. This one really befuddles me. She has not even had a nice hand a laying a whole lotta eggs. Ten eggs? And she thinks it is the time of year to go broody. Silly girl. I keep reflecting on the hatchery buff orpingtons I had for a couple of years. They have all been gone for some time now, when the nicer line from Ontario took over my chickenyard. Not once in 2 years did ever any of those buff orpington gals entertain the thought of broodiness, they just wanted to lay eggs and eat . Anyways, took that gal off the nest and put her out in the middle of the coop outside. She just stayed huddled and all puffed up for awhile, then went on her merry way to eat bugs with her other four girlfriends who are of the same age, big bowling ball gals. I put a milk carton in the spot where she wanted to lay and brood (go figure, at the end of the roosts, on the poopy floor in a corner). That is where she had been laying those 10 eggs for the past time. Kept trying to teach her to lay in the nest boxes but she would have no part of it. So I just gathered eggs as soon as she had laid them, she had made a nice soft spot in the corner, where there was not too much feces. Bad girl. I fixed her wagon....she couldn't get into the corner and when it was roosting time last night, she was roosting with her fellow girlfriends. Good girl. So one down. Now one to go...gonna put her in a wire bottom cage today and she how she likes that, with no food for the day, lotsa water, but no food. Tomorrow she can eat to her heart's content. Good girl. Have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

I have two buff orpingtons. I love them but don't want any more. They seem to go broody every few months. They lay such beautiful eggs but I don't get many of them before they are broody once again. We have one that is showing signs again puffing up and clucking and being miserable with everyone around her. I took her off the nest yesterday and she was roosting last night but I am not getting my hopes up. We broke her in the summer by putting her in a pen with 12 juveniles for two days. I read somewhere that breaking them only prolongs it and soon they will be broody again. I am into letting them have chicks if possible. There always seems to be a short supply of pullets in the world so I am not worried about having too many. I can't bring myself to put them in a small cage and not feed them. Seems too much like torture to me. I have a fenced off area in the coop with a roost where they can't see the nest boxes. I also give them a roost because I can't understand the logic in not. If they are on the roost at night I think it is a good thing. It has worked for me the very few times I have had to resort to it.

vic's chicks wrote:I have two buff orpingtons. I love them but don't want any more. They seem to go broody every few months. They lay such beautiful eggs but I don't get many of them before they are broody once again. We have one that is showing signs again puffing up and clucking and being miserable with everyone around her. I took her off the nest yesterday and she was roosting last night but I am not getting my hopes up. We broke her in the summer by putting her in a pen with 12 juveniles for two days. I read somewhere that breaking them only prolongs it and soon they will be broody again. I am into letting them have chicks if possible. There always seems to be a short supply of pullets in the world so I am not worried about having too many. I can't bring myself to put them in a small cage and not feed them. Seems too much like torture to me. I have a fenced off area in the coop with a roost where they can't see the nest boxes. I also give them a roost because I can't understand the logic in not. If they are on the roost at night I think it is a good thing. It has worked for me the very few times I have had to resort to it.

Vic's mine go in a big dog cage with no bedding but plenty of food and water and a roost. They seem totally fine. I would never not feed them. You just need to get cool air under them to cool their vent.

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Oh oh, I can hear the dissention about the no food for a day thing. Has anyone ever actually figured out how LITTLE a broody hen eats? I think that they actually go for long periods of time without eating. This to me is a bad thing. But how does one get a broody hen to come out of the trance to actually understand that they NEED to eat. A broody hen is quite the gal, she will be a rack of bones by the time she has finished setting those 21 or more days until she actually begins to eat her brains out and puts full weight on. I actually am not even sure how a broody hen can be healthy. Perhaps she goes into such a state of immobility and trance that she does not need much food to keep her alive. I don't know.

Seriously. I really don't think one day without food will hurt any bird, whatsoever and it is not torture. I don't believe that for a minute and nor do I think it is mean to withhold food for that short time. She probably wouldn't eat much anyways, whilst she sets on the eggs.

We are trying to break pattern here. Pattern is food right? Water is imperative for life, absolutely imperative, and water MUST always be provided for any bird.

Ever fasted? When I was a young person, my parents would fast for a good part of a day, a religious thing. Never hurt us to fast for almost a day, from dinnertime to dinnertime next day. And I will never in a million years believe that it would hurt a broody hen to fast for a day. If that would take her quicker out of the broody wishful state. Being broody, in my opinion, is more harmful, in that they don't eat much, than going a day without food. Trust me. The brooding mamma is not really much interested in eating.

Would love to hear if anyone has ever read any studies on how much or little the setting hen consumes during her period of trance, warming eggs. Anyone?

I am using the method of withholding food for one day. I seriously need to break these gals in a fast order. Winter is coming and they need to put on weight not lose weight for those cold winter nights. To each his own, and this is my own. Don't worry. I am not harming nor torturing my beloved hens Have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

Maybe torture was too strong a word. I am not saying that I won't ever withhold food. I am just saying that if I can do it a softer way it feels more right to me. I have watched my broody hens intensely. when they do get off once a day they head for the food trough and don't stop eating for about twenty minutes and no one dares to get between them and the food. So I don't believe they don't get hungry when they are broody. The first time I had broody's I made the mistake of feeding them on the nest. They never once refused to eat . If I ever run into a hen that won't quit with what I am doing then I will try to withhold a roost and food.but so far I haven't had that problem.

Oh rats....been so swamped with stuff that I have let this one slide. I seriously was going to break up this broody hen, but she is so determined. The other one gave up, but she has been sitting on the nest on air, for about 12 days now. Bother....just something about baby fuzzy butts anyways. She is flattened down like a pancake, barely even gives me a glimpse when I put my hand below her belly to see if any other hen has popped into her nest box to lay an egg. She is in the broody trance. Guess the others daren't go in there, never any eggs. So, this softer side of me is going to let Mother Nature take her course. These buff orpington gals are monstrous in size and take up the entire box, which is a decent size in itself. I have been gathering eggs, just in case I change my mind and am glad I did. I think I can safely put 15 eggs below that great and wonderful belly, in the Jamaican warmth. Those eggs are going below there today, after I get back from a road trip to take my buckeye flock to a friend, who is taking over this, so I can focus on the mottled Java breed....tough decision, but he is close enough that when I have room, I can again work on the buckeyes. He will work to improve too, so it is in good hands. I will take it upon myself to candle the eggs in a bit, so she is not sitting on a dud or two and can have a nice brood of babies in a bit. I have a special place wherein she can raise those babies, right beside the pen that she is in. I just didn't want to bother, but then....why not. Mothers are amazing with how they warm the babes in arms. Mostly cochin eggs are going below her belly with a few buff orpington, will make for some nice sized youngsters come spring. Have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

Well sadly, in 4 years with chickens I have yet to have a successful broody mama. I only have heritage breeds, all of which are known to have at least some broodiness to the breed, and others known for more broodiness. But notta. No broody bird besides one I gave chicks to from an incubator hatch a few days after she went broody. Hahaha I gave her 30 something chicks, she raised them all wonderfully and never went broody again. Guess she knew better!
So I would love to have the prpblem of too many broody mamas!

Jaclyn

Wow. Action time. I gave that gal 16 eggs yesterday and she still could have held more below that beautiful and warm belly, seriously....she just looked at me, and wiggled a little each time I put a couple of eggs below the incubator, smiling, that be mamma incubator. The wiggle that the broody mamma does when she wiggles her body to settle the eggs. Wouldn't it be a fun thing to see how many eggs she actually can cover? Gonna go and feel all those eggs this morning and see if I feel any cool spots. Kind of doubt it, looked to me like they were all just perfectly fit. I might sneak a couple more in today, just for kicks and giggles. Going to do things slightly differently than I have ever done. About a week or so down this road, I am going to actually candle the eggs and remove any that are just not working out, leaving her viable eggs. I never bother to do this, but I think I would prefer her to be sitting on positively hatching babies. Yep. Time will tell the tale.

Jaclyn, I can't remember, did you ever get more cochins to be at your place? Mind fogs up sometimes. Want broodies? My limited experience with breeds that love to mamma are the cochins and orpingtons. Never had a hatchery orpington ever go broody, but the new lines I have certainly take on that role seriously. Perhaps adding a nice hen or two to your flock, known broody material, may help. It really is a cool thing to have mammas take on this very serious job. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

what is it with those orpingtons. Sure enough one of mine is broody again as well. We just broke her broodiness 2 months ago. Why don't they do it when its warm out. I can relate to how it feels to finally make a decision about it. I'm on the fence right now . Do I let her try to hatch a few or alot. or do try to convince her to stop. I usually take the easiest way out and let them set. I think I am just lazy at heart. Its too much work and stress to deal with them.