Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[BirdBrain]

AAAAAACK!!!!! I have a broody and I don't want one right now. How do I break her? I thought about putting her in the garage in an isolation pen with a wire bottom but that poses problems with getting her reacclamated to outside temps. DH said if she ended up living in the garage the rest of the winter it would be in the freezer as he didn't want birds in his garage any more. I'm thinking it is too cold to isolate her and too cold and cramped in the coop for chicks, so am coming to you guys for ideas.

 

[Wolfwoman]

I have two right now. I'm using them to my advantage. I take them out of the nest 3x a day and they go and get food, water and then poop (not necessarily in that order). I take the nice warm and NOT FROZEN eggs away and all is good

 

[BirdBrain]

She steals the golf balls from the other nests and doesn't let anyone else in the nest.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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We caved and let our broody have eggs. She is in the dog kennel inside.
As soon as the babies come, they will be moved to the crawlspace room we used last winter.

She has been begging to sit on eggs for two months.
I did everything I could and it all failed.
It was either give her eggs, or send her to camp.
I would have preffered camp, but I deferred to DHs request of egg sitting.

 

[Wolfwoman]

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My other birds just go in with her...lol Then she sits on their eggs and keeps em warm til I get em. I like it, before they went broody I was having frozen/cracked eggs.

Take the golf balls out? I don't use anything in my boxes...

 

[MrsDeb]

I'm not sure where I learned this but if you take a zip lock baggy of ice cubs and lay them under her it'll break her from trying to sit. It worked with one of my hens this last fall...I just had to keep on top of it because she would change nests.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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I did this with a hen last summer.
I almost killed her.

She just set on the ice like it was eggs I had given her.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Quote:
My other birds just go in with her...lol Then she sits on their eggs and keeps em warm til I get em. I like it, before they went broody I was having frozen/cracked eggs.

Take the golf balls out? I don't use anything in my boxes...

I love seeing the packed nestboxes. Butts sticking out at all angles

Its amazing they get the eggs to land in the boxes!

 

[BirdBrain]

Well, there is hope. DD keeps giving her the boot when she finds her in the boxes. When she closed them up tonight she said the hen went up to roost with the others. I thought I'd see if she stayed there or snuck back to the boxes, so I just went out to check on them before heading to bed. She was still on the roost, but I had two other divas luxuriating in the boxes. They got an all expenses paid trip up to the roosts. I hope she will think better of being broody until March or so.

How early around here can they hatch out a clutch and keep the babies reliably warm? I'm thinking I'll have to set up some hoop houses or some such thing for my Spring and Summer broodies.

Oh, I can't wait til Spring. I have 25 chicks (Delawares, White Chanteclers and some heavy assorteds) coming in May from Sandhill and some Welsh Harlequin ducks and surprise geese coming from Holderreads in April or May. DH is just shaking his head.

 

[Wolfwoman]

I have chicks now

Two brooders in the house and thinking of one more hatch before Donna wants the bator back