Selfsufficientish.com

Hi MMM,

regarding the cat box, Speckles has been perfectly happy in the cat box (for some reason I thought she would, like, die or something in there). I took the front door thing off it and have tied it to the side of the run as it has a little drinking bowl attached to it, which is now her drinking bowl. Not sure what the cat would make of all this. She hates the chickens. But then, she hates her cat box too!!

PS - I threw red mite powder all over the cat box first, then just filled it up with straw for her.

Thanks Grubbysoles. I think I will wait until I've taken the cat to the vet tomorrow and then if we don't have to take the cat back I'll put the hen in it. Maybe that will be better than a cardboard box today and then cat carrier tomorrow. Or then again maybe it will piss her off so much being moved around to different nests she'll stop being broody!

The broody has decided to move into the other nest box and my layer didn't lay yesterday, so today I will see whether the layer goes into 'her' nest box or in with the broody.......think I know the answer. I don't think I'll ever really understand how a chicken's brain works.

The cat box is working a treat - I just put the broody in there and shut the door mid morning, the other one goes in the nest box and lays her egg, I open the door of the cat box and the broody goes outside and does her biz then goes back into a nest box. Until the next morning then I do it again. Result - nice eggs with no claw or beak marks in them. Thanks for your advice guys!

Oh damn.
My silkie has gone broody in the last week. Refusing to leave the nest box, pecking everyone, making angry noises if you dare to offer her corn whilst she is nesting..

I think I will take some advice from this link and clear out the hen house of comfy spots.. The other banty might get upset but she has been permenantly kicked out of the nesting box and uses piles of dirt/stolen newspaper that she tucks behind my plant pots to nest in anyway..

Hope I can break the broody, have been getting 1-2 eggs a day from two bantys and would really feel the loss if one stops laying!!!

Harumph my hen is still broody and it's 5 to 5 1/2 weeks now. She is coming out of it slowly but this is the longest ever. Basically she spends more of her life not laying than laying. And I miss her normal personality.

Oh bum, I guess I will just have to wait it out then. She has turned into a little brat. The OH is worried that she is loosing weight and so has been enduring the pecking to handfeed her corn... silly bugger!

I do that too but don't worry about the weight, they do get out of condition when they are broody and it is normal.

Mine is coming out of it and this morning was out and about acting pretty normal and making her normal happy sounds which I've missed so much (don't they change into the hen from hell when they are broody?!!! Like split personalities! )

Sooooo couple more weeks and hopefully she'll be laying again and the other one can now lay her eggs without them being crushed by the great fluffed up broody one.

I did think that it was inevitable that she loose weight if she is refusing to leave the nest box but she is the OH's pet so she gets spoiled.

Glad to hear your chick is snapping out of the broodyness, shows there is hope!!

MMM - good to hear your hen is going back to normal. We're not having so much luck with Speckles. Oh Broody One had been sat on the eggs for 5 weeks so we decided to be ruthless and try to snap her out of it. A couple of weeks ago I foolishly let her out into the garden to run around with the other 3 hens, who she has been separated from, and they promptly ganged up and started trying to kill her! Nice. I was fighting them off her with a broomstick. God only knows what my neighbours must think of me.

Anyway, last night we dragged the old chicken house over to the new one, so that the runs are parallel and they'll be able to see each other. We took Speckles out of her beloved cat box, moved the other 3 into the new, bigger house (nest boxes are now built in there), and flung Speckles back in the old house, sans eggs.

Lots of squawking, and today they are all pottering around in their new runs looking at each other and making strange noises. The plan is to keep Speckles in view of the others, but without them being able to kill her, until she goes back to normal and they can all move back in together.

Bloody chickens!

That seems a bit unusual, do you think it is because she has been separated from the others for a while? Usualy when my broody comes outside she is so big and puffed up and growly/shrieky/scary she is the one picking on the others! She's completely back to normal now thank god and back on the perch last night but it was about 5 1/2 weeks total. Now have to wait a couple more weeks to get eggs from her.

grubbysoles wrote:Bloody chickens!

Oh I agree with that!

My chook finally seems to have come out of it! She came bundling out of the house when I came home from work today and is now happily bwaking around the garden.

Thank goodness for that!

Goodo, it's a pain when they are broody if you don't want them to be!

Tell me about it, we have had to buy eggs recently! I think what finally changed her mind was me explaining what happens to chickens who don't pull their weight!

Yes, that would do it! My hen is also back to normal now. We got sick of being nice and just took the eggs away in the middle of the night, and put her the old chicken house. We put the other hens in the new chicken house, and positioned the old one next to the new one, so they could all see each other but not get to each other. Left them like that for a few days, let them play in the garden together, then chucked Speckles back in with the others. She's settled back in now and has just started laying again. We're back to tiny little eggs, like when she was point of lay!