[lucyv]

My lovely Buff Orpington, Bunty has been in a broody state now since the beginning of February.  I have resisted the cold water treatment as its been so cold and icy, I have tried solitary confinement in the Dog cage, shutting her out of the hen house, shutting her out of the run but each time she returns to the nest box, sits and puffs up.  I have three other hens who are laying normally and seem to "worry" about her if she is taken out from their run or house.

Not sure if its related but there has also been an amount of feather pecking, both Bunty and my Rhode Island Red, Margot have been victims of this - especially the Rhodie who is virtually bald on her back of her head and neck.  I'm not sure if its all related but.....

So what do I do?  Bunty is eating but has lost weight and some condition.  Do I wait for a milder day and take a plunge?  How much longer can this last - we are moving into week 6???

Thanks

[ANHBUC]

I think this post should have been in The Hen House section, hopefully one of the mods will move it for you.

You can get breeding food for broodies or if she has stopped laying you can give her growers pellets to build her up.  They usually sit for around 3 weeks when hatching eggs so you might have to let it run its course.

[Eileen M]

When one of ours went broody, because she was being pecked terribly by one of our others, I lined our old metal dog crate at the bottom with a small square wire mesh sheet, put water & layers pellets in there for her & left her in all day.  I placed the crate on one of our mini greenhouse shelves so she could get the air under her bottom which takes them off of being broody.  I returned her to the main house after dark each evening. It only took a couple of days & she was back to laying again.  Hope this helps, I know it all seems quite stressful but once you get it under control it should be over quite quickly.  The other option is to purchase fertile eggs, if you want to go down the hatching route.

Eileen