Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: redlandschooks on June 08, 2013, 21:33
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Our Speckledy hen "Bob" has gone broody! :ohmy: After several attempts to stop her, involving dunking and shutting her out for the whole day, she still is going straight for the nest box at nighttime. Is there any chance of her stopping soon or are we too late? Also will her broodiness have an effect on the other hens? we have two Light sussex hybrids, an ISA brown and another speckedly so we were surprised when she did go broody given her hybrid nature.
If anyone has heard of different methods, any help would be much appreciated. :)
Thanks,
Ralph
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Hello and welcome to the site redlandschooks. :D
Plenty of information on HERE (http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=71657.0) which should help. :)
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Thank you for the link. Looks like I'll have to go and get a cage for her!
Having done the cage method or the dunking, how will we know when she has stopped being broody? I heard about her comb changing colour, but her's has always been small and pink, so I don't know....
Thanks again,
Ralph
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You could probably do a makeshift one with a cardboard box and some mesh. There are usually loads for sale on gumtree if you are wanting to buy one.
If she normally perches on a night when not broody and starts doing that again she is no longer broody.
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one of my girls is broody at the moment too, put her in a bucket of water yesterday and she sat quite content for a good few minutes :unsure: have left her in the outside run today so she cannot get to the nesting box, she has fresh water and pellets available, it's really putting the other girls off and egg production is definitely down >:(
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Be careful if the weather is not nice and warm you will need to dry her off so she doesn't get a chill. ;)
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Snowdrop is broody at the moment (she is a pekin bantam so I should have expected it!).
She's being such a cheeky madam!!! I suggested getting some eggs for her to sit on but I was told nequivocally "no" :(
Hannah :)
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Broody hens are so funny
they squark and fluff up at you ..... how dare we move them off those lovely warm eggs
I separate mine for approx. 3 days with no access to comfort :nowink:
they even go in the shed at night with no soft hay etc etc ( aren't I wicked !!! ) but it seems to do the trick in about 3 days
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Think I might try that, put her in the shed overnight :)
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A note of caution- make sure your shed and door are secure as foxes can wriggle through gaps and dislodge rotten boards.
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well my broody girl is getting the cold water dunking in the morning, just on her bottom and underneath and then having no access to the coop all day long, she is in the outside run, she can see the other girls and has access to food and water - just not the nesting box ;) decided not to leave her in the potting shed overnight just in case she ate all my seedlings, don't think she could actually get up to the shelving but you never know :ohmy: :lol:
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It's my turn for a broody girl :wacko:
tis obviously the broody season LOL
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You can all pass them up to me, I have loads of eggs they could happily sit on. :lol:
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I've had a Pekin thats been broody for about 5 weeks now!! Any chance of her stopping soon? I tried the dunking in cold water this morning, and with the other Pekin that began being broody a couple of days ago. I shut them out of the house and run all day and will only let them in at bedtime. I've tried the dog crate theory but it just doesn't work with these ones!! Not tried the dunking before so fingers crossed it will work :blush:
she's not a good layer at the best of times and this broodiness is beyond a joke now.
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Five weeks is a long time to be broody. Is she eating and drinking enough as they can really lose condition over that length of time.
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We've two bantams (sisters) that go broody together and stay that way for weeks. One year I tried dunking, but after several days it wasn't working and I decided it was just cruel, so now they have a big box in their own area, but they go back in at night to be with the others.
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Hi ANHBUC.
I don't let her sit all the time, but yes she has lost some condition but what can I do???. I put her out and shut her out of the hen house, so she is eating and drinking. Mostly she wanders about just waiting for an opportunity to get back in as soon as I open up if one of the others wants to lay!
This is the same hen that I posted about earlier in the year. When she was just wandering following the other two and not eating much. She appeared to be in a trance half the time and laid eggs on the grass with no shell, then she did pick up and began to lay properly in the nest box and after about 3/4 weeks she then went broody and still is.
Now one of the others ( a Pekin) has also gone broody with her >:(
Poor Lotty the Wyandotte is having to wander about on her own looking a bit lost.
Sadly I have to say this chicken keeping isn't all its cracked up to be :wacko: Pardon the pun!!
And I am sick to death of rats!!!!!!!! I don't leave food down at night. I am very careful where I throw corn or treats for them. In fact I have begun to put everything into bowls for them and lift them all up when I go to shut them in for the night.
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I usually lift my broody off her eggs, put her on my arm then I put my arm up and down so she flaps her wings to balance. This gets her out of the trance so she eats, drinks and does a huge poo. You could do this a few times a day to see if it helps snap her out of it. Do let us know if it works or not. :)
Don't have any signs of rats here but you would be best to trap and dispose of them as they carry horrid diseases.
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Oh don't worry we do our best to eliminate the rats but it seems to be a never ending problem. they are digging runs and tunnels all near to the hen house, which we moved away from near our house because of them. We've moved their house to the end of the garden and put it on paving slabs so at least rats cannot get into there. We had put their house near our back door as it was all paved so knew it was secure but it was awful having to look out of the back door sometimes a nd see a big brown rodent ferreting about!!! :ohmy:
Unfortunately on Thursday, one of our dogs managed to get her nose under some wire mesh, that was preventing the dogs getting to some rat killer bait, downa bit of a tunnel that the rat had made, and I caught her eating a block of it!!!
Managed to get her away from most of the block, then rushed her to the vets, with the bait box, who gave her an injection to make her vomit up everything out of her stomach. As I was so quick at getting her to the vet it hadn't had time to get ingested so she brough up all that she'd swallowed which was about 1/4 of the block. thank goodness its blue coloured so we saw it easily. She then had to have a big injection of vit. K to ensure her blood clots and she is on vit. K tablets for the next 3 weeks with a possible blood test to see if it is clotting ok :wacko: Belt and braces!!! :blush:
I really didn't need that happening to her. she is 14 years old and I am not losing her to rat poison!!!
I'm thinking if I can find a very good free range home,I will let somebody have them for free. Any takers??
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Sorry you are having so much trouble with the rats. You would be better with a trap that kills without bait.
If you really want to rehome them you can put them in the Poultry Swap Shop. Just list what birds they are, their ages and what you would like to swap for if anything at all. :)