Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[SimpleJenn]

Welp.

I get home late from a choral rehearsal (Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, go vaguely-Welsh composers!!) way down yonder in Brevard NC, and the girls were locked in the run, not yet ready for the coop. Lil and Buffy were together, looking worried, and I couldn’t find Trudy until I heard a strange growling from the Nestera coop. She’d spent two hours laying this morning, and sure enough, she was in a nest box.

I removed the lid to see if she was ok, and when I felt underneath her, she bit me! Lil and Buffy were hovering outside the coop door, apparently reluctant to go in. But Trudy left the nest box, so I went inside to wait for full darkness.

When I went back 20 minutes later, she was back on the nest, growling, and Lil and Buffy were huddled at the far ends of the perches (we’re talking less than 30” away) staring at her. I locked them up and left them.

They are six months old tomorrow. The new pullets come Tuesday.

This is what I get for asking about broodies! Noooooooooooooooooooo


Edit: freakin’ iPhone autocorrupt

I have another 5 month old silkie mix going broody! She's all the boy's favorite girl so if she does commit I will let her have a break. I told her she doesn't have to crouch for everyone who asks
They can't resist her gorgeous beard

 

[Shadrach]

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Love Tower of Power! They've been around forever.

 

[Perris]

@Perris, have you ever tried to block access to the nest boxes in a Nestera?

Yes, earlier this year when I had overlapping broodies in neighbouring nests in the same coop, and one clutch hatched a week before the other was due. I cut a metal grill to fit, poop trays kept it in place at the bottom, tied with string through/round the vent holes at the top, cut-out where the roost goes through.

Worked well to keep that broody in and the new chicks from next door out, then relatively easy to undo and give the sitting broody a way back in after lifting her off and out for daily constitutional. Also maximum ventilation.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

She's trying to keep Buffy out of the nest boxes, and all hell is breaking loose. I dragged her off the nest and plunked her on the ground. Buffy popped that egg out in four minutes.

 

[Perris]

sounds like Buffy had been holding it in for a long time!

Edited to add, looking at that photo, she's broody all right! Fully inflated indignation.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Now the question, do I give Periwinkle a couple eggs out of the incubator and make a second nest in the broody/hospital coop? Or just let her sit it out in the nest and get stomped on whenever another wants to lay an egg?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

sounds like Buffy had been holding it in for a long time!

Edited to add, looking at that photo, she's broody all right! Fully inflated indignation.

If you can imagine a solidly-built Buff Orpington standing with her legs crossed, that's about where she was...

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Now the question, do I give Periwinkle a couple eggs out of the incubator and make a second nest in the broody/hospital coop? Or just let her sit it out in the nest and get stomped on whenever another wants to lay an egg?

Is there a way to set up a partial barrier around her nest? (There’s another one available, right?)

 

[BDutch]

I know everyone says that, but do you have experience of that? It doesn't seem to be true with Tassels.

I certainly have. For my chickens this is very true.
As soon as they spend a whole night on a nest its harder to stop them. Most broodies give up quick if:

• the eggs/fake eggs disappear from the nest asap
• she isn’t allowed to sleep on the nest
• take the broody off the nest a few times a day

Handy: I can close the little coop with their favourite nest-boxes. So they cant go back to their favourite spot to sit.
There is always another nestbox available. But sometimes the other chickens lay an egg under the roosts (in the poop) if the little coop is closed.

I never used a dog crate to break a broody.

It usually takes 2, maybe 3 days to break a broody if I reacted quick. It takes a week or so if I let her go broody for a few days before breaking protocol.

I don’t like the idea to let a broody sit on eggs. Before the week passed I probably have 2 or 3 broodies. This happened often when we came home after a spring or summer vacation.