[The Norfolk Turkey]

Weve had our chickens about 10 weeks now and been gettiong on just nicely.

This week one of them has taken to steadfastly sitting and sleeping in the nest box though.

Weve tried sho-ing her off and been really thorough collecting eggs, but she still goes in and setles down regardless. Even tried leaving the house and next box fully open to the elements after clean-out today, but she settled in and hunkered down all the same!

Can we assume she's broody? And if so, what should we do?

Any help much appreciated!!

[Silkie]

Yes I would say she is broody. One of mine has just gone broody so Ive put 6 eggs under her. So hopefully I will have a few more running around soon. Has she stopped laying??

[bantam novice]

If she has gone broody she may well be fluffed and and quite aggressive when you try to move her.  Another thing you might notice is that she may well pluck her chest feathers out.  This is to help with keeping the eggs warm.  She will probably not be laying and may well be putting your other girls off layng.

If she has gone broody you have two alternatives.  You either decide to let her sit on eggs and hatch them.  In this case you will have to decide what to do with the cockerels that hatch out.  It is roughly half and half.   You will have to make sure she gets of the eggs at least twice a day to eat and drink.  Broodies have been known to starve themselves.

The second alternative is to try and get her to stop being broody.  There are several suggested anti-broody measures.  None of them seem 100 percent successful. One of them is to sit her in a dog crate raised on bricks with food and water in reach.  Make sure that the crate is sheltered from the weather.   You can type anti-broody measures in the search box in the top right-hand corner to get more info.

In the meantime good luck and keep us posted 

By the way welcome to the forum, Silkie 

[The Norfolk Turkey]

not sure she has yet silkie, trying to work out whose laying softies and whose not laying at all..... 

[hen maiden]

One of mine "went broody" this week. As we are going away on holiday next week I couldn't take advantage and slip some fertilised eggs under her, big shame. So we decided to "nip it in the bud" We lifted her off and shut the henhouse door, we then had to act as a bouncer when one of the other girls looked like they wanted to go in and lay we let them in. Every time she also managed to slip in we lifted her off and then launched her in the air, my husband calls it "flying lessons". We had read this helps cool them down. After only a day and a half she got over it. So my advice would be to act quickly. It does take a bit of micro managing.

[The Norfolk Turkey]

thanks hen maiden - glad its not just me whos acting bonkers standing in the garden policing access to the nest box! If your names not down your not coming in!!