Question Brooding over nothing!

[Killerbunny]

Even Sister who goes every year hasn't gone broody this year but the turkeys are down for their second go round!

[Stellap]

Thanks much for all the help ... one of the hens has now stopped ... phew!

[Skinny rooster]

This is definitely year of the broodie! Nine out of my ten hens raised chicks are most had two batches. Four are trying for round three and the tenth wants round one, I said NOOOOOOOoooo!
I'm not sure what the problem with a cage is, that is the best, you're not punishing her in jail lol. I have a rabbit cage suspended from the ceiling, I place the hen in for three days and nights and voila, a normal hen again. You put food and water in for her. It's the cool air she feels on her stomach that shuts off the brooding feeling.
I think fighting with her for weeks is more stressful. Some hens you need to leave in an extra day or two. One of my neighbours had standard Cochins that started in April and are still trying to hatch empty nests, that's not healthy for them.

[Shnookie]

So now I have almost a dozen eggs collected and no broody hens. I'm not sure if I will try to hatch them in the incubator or give up for this year.

[windwalkingwolf]

I just had three MORE go down; one on round two, two on round one; including an ugly, four year old, one-eyed hatchery australorp who has never given any broody indications before. Another girl has just hatched round two, a dozen hens are still toting around chicks, and four more hens are starting to make the "I want babies" noise, including one elderly Giant hen and one very large meat chicken. The turkeys on the other hand, have been derelict. Only one wanted to lay eggs and set a nest, a chicken decided to join her, and now that turkey (having raised three chicken chicks) is following all the new moms and chicks around, pining after the babies. Almost every hen here has been bananas since May.
Hubby wants me to hatch every egg that falls out of a meat chickens' bum, on the off chance some of the babies are double breasted or fast growing. SO, as long as hens are going broody, and CRX are cooperating with eggs, I'm letting them do what they want. Kind of makes me wonder though, if we aren't in for a doozy of a winter...kind of like how stressed plants will put out more seeds before a long cold one. Maybe the hens know something we don't, and are anxious to reproduce?

[Killerbunny]

Nice surprise this evening. Went to check on the 2 broody turkey girls and little heads popped out from under to say Hi! 2 under #40 who lost her chick at hatch first time and one under Kathleen. A couple of days early,

[Shnookie]

What a strange year. I collected eggs and had a bad hatch. One chick, which is a pullet. :) I try to find some chicks locally to go with her, and find none. I e-mail an Ameraucana breeder twice to see if she has Ameraucanas for sale, and answer a Kijiji ad with Ameraucanas for sale. No reply from the breeder. I get a reply from the person with the ad, but then nothing. So I collect 12 more of my Ameraucana eggs. My hen that was broody for a long time, is not now, and I decide not to run the incubator for only a few eggs. The same day I decide this I get an e-mail from the person who had the ad. She still has chicks for sale, but had gone on vacation. Seems odd to put an ad on the internet then leave it there and go on holidays for a couple weeks. Anyway we talk, and for the first time I am going to buy chickens. I am not sure how I will quarantine them. I only have one building to use. There will be 12 blue and splash Ameraucana chicks hatched June 26th, and 4 Ameraucana chicks, 2 blue and 2 splash that were hatched about June 6. I will be meeting her in Saskatoon to pick them up. The funny thing is her breeding stock has birds that came from the breeder I tried to contact, and birds that came from a breeder I was going to get hatching eggs from next year. I have seen a couple pictures, but not the actual birds. I hope they are nice. Price is quite reasonable so that helps.