Broody hen - HELP PLEASE!!!

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Poppy7

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My little Pekin started laying before Christmas and has been giving us approx 6 eggs a week. Last week she decided to go broody (although sat on an empty nest :lol:) despite my attempts to talk her out of it as we have no cockerel....

Anyway as she is so determined I've decided to let her give it a try. I purchased 7 silkie eggs from a local breeder, let them rest for 24 hours and then slowly popped them underneath her in two batches. Maybe a bit hasty as she may decide to give up next week, I thought the £7 I paid for them was worth a try....

She lives with 1 other pekin who is very small and sweet. They are the only chickens we have and they are best friends. Tonight I went in to check on the progress of my broody and to make sure she hadn't given up....she was still sat there on the nest...very sweet to see The other Pekin was snuggled very close to her, almost taking up most of the nest which is not ideal. I felt underneath the non-broody pekin and she was sat on an egg as well :-)07 Now she has not been broody at all but has been frequently checking the nest to make sure her buddy is okay.

Do you think it's fluke that an egg was under her? Surely they can't be job sharing? :lol: I was a bit concerned as I know it's not the best time of year for fertile hatching eggs I want to give it my best shot.

I don't want to split the girls up as they would be distraught and I think doing that would break my pekin's broodiness. Do you think it's okay to let them carry on as they are?

Also they live in an Eglu Go so the nesting area isn't as snug as most coops. Do you think this is okay or should I make a little nesting box and put it inside the house of the Eglu?
 
Ahh, how sweet!
I agree you couldn't separate them, as they're such good friends and the non-broody one would be very lonely and upset. I would imagine two hens would be warmer than one when brooding eggs,especially in winter, and as they're quite tiny birds I can't see why they would be uncomfortable in a nicely-insulated Eglu. Normally, it might be best for a broody to have a little coop and run all to herself, but this is to prevent interference from other hens, especially once the chicks hatch. If it seems likely that her friend wouldn't be a nuisance, why not just leave them and we what happens? I don't actually know what else you could do, in fact, under the circumstances!
Do let us know how they get on. Any chance of a photo?
 
Thanks Marigold :-)17 Those were my thoughts exactly. My little lavender Pekin (the non-broody one) is keener to go out during the day so the chocolate Pekin is on full egg duty during that time. At night though they seem to share!

I have just gone out and taken a photo for you to see. The Eglu is rather snug and the nest area is small but they seem rather comfortable :-D
 

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Also, I forgot to add that her comb is already losing it's colour and I know that happens when they get broody and dedicate all their time to the eggs. How can I keep her as healthy and well as possible?
 
Ahh. Sweet little girls!
Just make sure she does come off the eggs for a few minutes a couple of times a day, not only to eat and drink but to have an enormous, smelly poo! She will save it all up and then let fly. Yes she will lose weight and practically go into a coma as she gets deeper and deeper into brooding, but I expect this will actually help her to save energy. Maybe when you boot her out for some food etc you could shut the Eglu door to encourage her to stay out for a bit. Its natural for the eggs to have brief cooling periods, in fact some incubators nowadays build this in as an extra which improves hatch rates. I would think 10 minutes would be OK, depending on the temperature of course. You might try her with some nice high protein food extras such as mealworms, chopped cooked egg etc, but she will also need some bulky normal food as well of course.
I would also encourage the other one to stay out as much as possible, like she would if her friend wasn't broody. It would be OK to shut the broody inside the Eglu I would think, so long as it wasn't too wet and nasty outside for the other one. She needs a bit of exercise and normal routine if you can encourage this. Have you fixed a clear plastic roof over top of the the Eglu run? I found this helped quite a bit when I was using an Eglu, it kept the hens dry and comfortable in bad weather.
 
Thanks for your help Marigold. Sadly we had to take the eggs away from the hen. Yesterday morning she didn't quite look her self. I picked her up and she was distressed. Her crop was large and squishy....sour crop :(

I'm trying to get her well and am following good advice from the vets. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her
 
Sorry to hear that, I hope she pulls through. Well done for spotting that something was wrong, it can be quite hard when they're just sitting around apparently broody. Do let us know how she gets on.
Do you think it was possible that she wasn't actually broody at all, but was just 'going to bed' because she was feeling under the weather?
 
We have just come home from a walk and she has died :cry: I'm so so sad :cry:

I feel terrible, absolutely terrible for her :cry:

I'm pretty sure she was broody as in the few days before she was eating well, free ranging and very bright. It was literally the last two days that she went down hill.

I feel so awful, what if she was trying to tell me something and I missed it? :cry:

Our other chicken is quite clearly upset and missing the other girl. What should I do? Should we get her a friend or will they live on their own?

What a sad day :cry:
 
So sorry, Poppy, what a shock for you.
Chickens do hide illness until they can't manage any more, because the other hens often sense weakness and will pick on an affected bird. They are very stoic and try to appear normal until really quite ill. Don't blame yourself, you noticed something was wrong with her, you got advice from the vet, and you did all that anybody could, I really don't think you could have saved her. With hindsight, she does look a bit tucked up in the photo, doesn't she, compared with the other one, but not enough to be diagnostic at that stage.
Yes the other girl will miss her, I expect, and it would be good to get her some company (good excuse for getting newbie maybe? ) it's really better, if you have room, to keep a minimum of three, so when one dies you don't have the lonely hen problem. However, with an Eglu, there's not a lot of space in the run if you use it attached to the coop, is there, so maybe you will need to find just one more bantam. You will need to take care about integrating a newbie, as although the survivor will be lonely on her own, nevertheless she will try to bully a newcomer at first, especially if you get a younger pullet who is less confident. If and when you get to that stage, I'm sure people on here can advise you about how to go about the integration, and if you use the Search button there are lots of posts about how to do it.
 
Thanks for the advice Marigold. We did have 3 hens but we lost my Serama a couple of months ago to an impacted crop. I didn't want to introduce just one new bird to the flock so I just kept with the 2, especially as we now have an Eglu and I don't like the idea of keeping 3 chickens in it.

We are going to go out to try and get a new chook tomorrow so I hope we find one.
 
Good luck, I hope you find a nice little girl.
Does your eglu have the extension on the run? I found this helped a lot with mine. And I'm sure they've got grit and oystershell, haven't they - just wondering why two went down with crop problems
 
I'm wondering the same as Marigold. Sour crop when broody isn't something I have ever heard of. Usually they don't eat enough and their crop is empty. This early in the year they need to created a lot of heat for the eggs and perhaps that's the clue. Ate a lot to get her heat up but being inactive and immature the digestive system couldn't process it, so it sat in the crop and rotted? She was under one year old and still not fully developed -broodies incubating should be over a year old, preferably two. Pure speculation on my part of course, but we have had broodies literally burn themselves out.

Good luck with your search.
 
Sadly we don't really have the room in our garden to have the extension attached to the run. As we have children and a dog we don't want the chicken house to take over the garden.

They do have a dish that is always full of oyster shell/grit and access to natural grit from the garden.

The Serama unfortunately gorged on long grass when free ranging.....the vet found a ball of it tightly wound up in her crop. No amount of grit would have broken it down.

I agree that the broody was young so it's probably my fault that she died :cry: . Another thought I had on the sour crop was that she drank some stale water? We have a few places in the garden where rainwater has collected and then sat for a while. You see, when I was massaging her crop to get the fluid out it was relatively empty. I don't know, I just feel so terrible about it and cried so much when I found her.

My last Pekin; the very sweet lavender coloured one seems very healthy. I'm hoping that I've just been unfortunate? I'm not a total novice to chicken keeping having kept them before and showed the with success....Do you think I've just been unlucky? I try and look after them very well...they are regularly wormed with Flubenvet, they are bedded on Aubiose and fresh straw, I bought them the best house I could afford, they are always kept clean and dusted with mite powder, they get fed the best free range pellets and are given a lovely variety of treats including corn, fresh fruit and veg, mealworms and special treat block for chickens. Is there anything else I can do to avoid anymore bad luck? Losing an animal breaks my heart.
 
It just sounds like bad luck to me Poppy7. All the basics are right and you can't stop them drinking bad water from puddles -they all do it. No amount of planning can cover all eventualities, as we found out yesterday. We only went out walking for an hour or so and one cockerel decided to pick that moment, from all the weeks without incident, to break out of his enclosure and attack another cockerel. We came back to a hell of a mess and wait to see if there is any internal damage, having treated the external injuries. I forgot it is that time of year for cockerels -Spring madness!
 
Please don't blame yourself, Poppy - chickens have very different systems to us, they're not very long- lived at the best of times, and they are very bad at telling us what's wrong, soon enough for a human to make any difference. They also get many things wrong with them that are not treatable. At least you didn't have to choose to let her go - she died a natural death when her time had come, quietly and quickly in her own nestbox, in the company of her friend, and was very much loved and well cared for in all respects. Yes, there's always an element of luck in keeping any animal, and its quite possible that she had some low-level health problem for a long time and that your good care helped her to live a longer life than she otherwise might have done.
We always blame ourselves when a much-loved animal dies, don't we - I'm going through this at the moment because my lovely dog died last Tuesday, and although I did everything possible for him, in the end he had aggressive clusters of cancers on his lungs and it was a relief when he relaxed under the anaesthetic and went to sleep.
 
DONT blame yourself - chickens are notorious for causing heartache with you not knowing that they are ill. It takes time to work out the signs of illness as I know through too many deaths of my own pekins :( Your luck will change as mine has and you'll find you get a healthy batch that make all the heartache of losing one worth it for the joy they bring. If you search the forum for "Nancy" and "Mildred", you'll find the trials of 2 of my girls. Alhough I lost Mildred, Nancy is my success story - ended up as a lone bird recently, fought numerous health scares and spent last night on my shoulder in the kitchen eating spagetti strands closely watched by Tricksy and Fifi from the safety of the kitchen doorway :D
 
Sorry for the radio silence guys!!!! Thanks for all your well wishes and great advice.

We managed to find a new girl. Shes a buff Pekin, approx 19 weeks and very sweet. She's been named Dolly (we seem to have a trend going on here....Polly, RIP Mollie and now welcome Dolly :lol: ). After 3 days she and our lavender Pekin Pekin are best of friends.

She seems to sneeze very occasionally (please god don't say she's going to get sick) but is otherwise in full health. Should I be worried? Her poop is normal, no eye or nose discharge and is eating/drinking well).
 
Glad you've found your new girl Poppy. Occasional sneezing isn't something I'd worry about with everything else being OK. Can just be dust from the bedding or from feathers during a moult. We've even had sneezing during high pollen levels and had to conclude they had a touch of hay fever (as I had). Just keep an eye on her and I'm sure she will be fine.
 
check her daily for any discharge or snuffles worse than a basic sneeze. also pick her up (morning or evening when she's calm) to get her used to you. A good idea (I have found) is to put your ear to their back once a week and listen to their breathing. If you do this regularly, you'll be able to tell if breathing changes (ie starts gurgling or wheezing) so helping to identify problems early. It also gives you a chance for a cuddle (my Tricksy's got feathers as soft as a pillow and it's the only chance I get to snuggle up :D )
 
When you move a broody and want her to stay broody, many people recommend keeping her in the dark for a day or so to keep her in the mood. I'd think if you want to break her, the opposite might help.
 
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