is she broody??

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Aileen

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Having never had a bird go broody on me before I am not 100% certain of the signs.....
my baby pekin, she only started laying about 5 weeks ago!! Born Aug /Sep last year has gone all feisty on me... screeching and bullying the other girls a bit as they are laying and practically sitting on top of them and today she hasn't wanted to come out of nesting box even tho its empty. And lastly when I picked her up I felt her warm and remembered something that foxy wrote ages ago when she was going to show a bird about baldy belly=broody..... And she is distictly lacking in feathers down there!!!
 
This sounds interesting Aileen :)

Have you got any fertile eggs to put under her if she is ? You lucky person you :-)03 (That is green/sick with envy)
 
Both our Sussexes seem to have gone broody. The Light Sussex seems v determined so we sorted her a broody coop & eggs but she's only interested in sitting on eggs in her fav nest box in the main hen house :roll: . Was going to dismantle the broody coop only to find our Speckled Sussex in there & she went beserk when eldest son tried to evict her, so we've left her on a small clutch of eggs. Not sure what to do wrt the Light Sussex - the nest box she's super-glued herself to is also the top hens fav nest box & she keeps turfing the Sussex out. We can rig up another broody coop if necessary, but it seems a waste if she refuses to use it.
 
If your Pekin continues to sit in the nestbox, with the screeching etc. you can assume she's brrody.
 
One sign of broodiness you can't miss---the broody poo sign----if she's broody you will know it!!!!!!!!!!Ros
 
You can bet she is broody. They will sit in there even if there are no eggs and when you go to lift them out they moan and grizzle at you. The Wyandottes are more feisty and go to peck you. I know all about it; I have 3 ladies like it at the moment and the number will probably increase in the next couple of weeks as they seem to encourage eachother. :roll:
As Ros says look out for the gigantic poos....................... :shock:
 
she sounds broody to me - stick some eggs you don't mind 'losing' under her before putting eggs you really want her to hatch - just in case she isn't going to sit for long -
 
Yes, you have all the signs of a broody hen there :-) The heat coming from her bald belly together with having a go at you and your other hens possibly with a weird higher pitched noise she makes are the best signs. Good luck if you want to hatch your own eggs!

Our black hen hatched (was born) in August last year and we have two weeks old chicks running around. :D Seven of them out of nine eggs she was sitting on.
 
If you don't want her Aileen send her here for a holiday :D - I've got 9 incys turning and they are all split - and two broodies - need to hatch more chicks and I can't use any of my incys for a week - over 100 chicks due this week.. :-)07 :-)07
 
I have looked out a "maternity wing" for her and stuck a few eggs in but she isn't settling on them... should I just stick her back in run with some eggs? I thought it was best to separate them??
Maybe I am just too late and she's gone off the boil.
Bl**dy hell Dorinda, how the heck do you cope!!!
 
Some don't like moving from 'their' nest & it's best to move them after dark and keep the broody coop darkish for a few days at least. Give a few dummy eggs for a couple of days to get her settled and she will make the nest up to her liking. It is best to separate them.

She shouldn't have gone off broody already or perhaps she wasn't broody in the first place in which case there will be afew red faces here, including mine !
 
nah she's definitely broody, the little beggar had a swipe at me this morning when I wastrying to take out my sussex eggs, she was sat on top of them as well as dummy eggs as well as 3 other pekin eggs...:-)
Will move her tonight
 
We moved our Pekin just 4 days before they were due to hatch. Not ideal but we had to bid for a coop on Ebay. She seemed upset at first but luckily settled back on the eggs. The fact they try to sit on so many eggs at once (even ones you don't want to hatch) is why its best to move her. Otherwise the fertile ones can get pushed out. The hens can also fight over the chicks when they are born. Good luck with the hatch. We now only have one chick as the other was a cockeral and we can't have any more. It was very sad but the chick we have left is soooooooooooooo sweet. Thats something to consider though Aileen when hatching; you just don't know how many will be cockerals.
 
@ clairethebear. At what age do cockralls start fighting then ? I figured they should be OK until mature enough to eat ? Am I wrong ? .... I have 15 eggs due to hatch and candling wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. Vent sexing will be impossible until I'm shown ......
 
Reb, I think that they will probably be ok for that long. You will find that there will be abit of 'fronting' eachother going on from quite young to test who is more dominant. Just see how it goes. It might also depend on the breed though I think you have Favs so the hens (not sure about the cocks) are laid back and calm.
We only killed our male chick as we already have a mature cock with neighbours both sides. The Pekins are too small to eat anyway and the longer you keep them the harder it is to do the deed as it were. But then we are right softies. I do think raising them to eat is a good thing though as at least they have some life and are killed for a reason.
 
I DON'T BELIEVE IT!! One of my newbies has only gone and followed suit, shes got a baldy belly too and it more aggressive than my other little gal... you're right CtheB it is catching.
Well we have got 4 eggs, we got them free, an off the cuff comment to a couple who run a farm park near our caravan and some arrived yesterday! So can but try. I have stuck them under Lily my white pekin but am now in a quandry as to whether to split them and share with Pepper..... :-)19 The questions are neverending!
I am a tad concerned about getting a little boy but I would like to give each of my girls the chance at being a mummy if they go down that route.... feel it's only fair on them and if I need to despatch then I will have to ask the question on here on the most humane way to do so. :-)06
 
Rebelodicus said:
@ clairethebear. At what age do cockralls start fighting then ? I figured they should be OK until mature enough to eat ? Am I wrong ? .... I have 15 eggs due to hatch and candling wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. Vent sexing will be impossible until I'm shown ......
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Don't worry about cocks fighting - the only ones that I have probs with are some of the hardfeather who will quite happily kill males of their own breed from about 6 weeks on - and yet wouldn't touch another male of another breed ever!! you will only have trouble with your males all together when they start to look for ladies - (early next year) - if they have space they won't be any trouble - I had 19 sabelpoot males running together until they were 8 months old and never had the slightest fight :D
 
Thanks for the replies all :-)17

You are so lucky Aileen. I have started looking for a female Buff Orp localy now. Morwellham Quay (Edwardian farm) is only down the road by a mile and a bit as the crow flies and I've been hassling them, but they have mainly light sussex and are "Umming, and errrr ing" a bit. They seem interested though. IIRC Buffs are good broodies also. :-)05
 
Grrrrrrrrrrrr..... I am tying to candle and failing.....
I had to swap out broody 1 for broody 2 as the first one left the eggs a few times and they went a bit cold as a result, so not very optomistic, hence my wanting to know if my little broody 2 is sat on duds..... Any suggestions???
 
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