Gloria112
In the Brooder
A couple of weeks ago one of my girls - Cagney - started to confine herself to the nesting box, and after doing some homework I realised that she had gone broody. We don't have a cockerel in the flock, but she was determined to incubate all the eggs (I have 7 hens in total and Cagney was gathering all the eggs up and protecting them fiercely). I read on BYC that a "broody breaker" could be used to stop this behaviour, but hated the thought of locking her up, so I made a plan to remove the eggs regularly (with lots of squealing and pecking!). However, 10 days later she was still on the nest and looked to be losing condition and I decided to take the plunge and put her in solitary confinement (see picture below). I'd planned to confine her for two days, as per most of the recommendations on BYC, but she managed to escape after day one and so I kept her in for two more days.
It worked! She is now happily back with the flock. I have no idea how much longer she would have continued to be broody without the BB treatment, but I guess the lesson from all of this is that although putting your girls into a cage on their own might seem harsh, it is actually a lot more distressing for them to be in a state of broodiness that will never lead to producing chicks. I wish I had deployed the BB at the very start, and I am going to confine broody hens immediately in future!
It worked! She is now happily back with the flock. I have no idea how much longer she would have continued to be broody without the BB treatment, but I guess the lesson from all of this is that although putting your girls into a cage on their own might seem harsh, it is actually a lot more distressing for them to be in a state of broodiness that will never lead to producing chicks. I wish I had deployed the BB at the very start, and I am going to confine broody hens immediately in future!
