straying bantam

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hedgehogsdad

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Hi,

I'm relatively new to keeping chickens and have a couple of hybrids along with a pair of Hamburg bantams. One of the bantams has started to stray, not coming back to the house at the end of the day (they free-range), but often shows during the day to get some food. A friend has suggested that she may be broody and have started sitting on eggs not laid in their nest boxes. What do you think, does this sound right and if so, how do I stop her from straying?

All suggestions welcome as I'm worried that she may fall foul of a fox if I don't get her locked away at night
 
You friend may be right Hedgehogsdad. She could have found somewhere more secure to lay than your nest boxes. Need to put a curtain at the front of them. We use Wilkos car mats slit 15mm wide up to about 50 mm from the edge, so it looks like a frill. Never had a hen find somewhere more secure to lay. Yes it's likely a fox or cat will get her. They just have to sit at the base of the tree and wait until first light. Suggest you keep her locked in a run for a few days.
 
thanks for the quick response. are the car mats rubber? sounds really interesting... any ideas how to find where she is sitting, i'm worried that if she carries on laying there she won't want to come back?
 
I don't think Hambugh bantams go broody too much, the L/F certainly don't. The returning during the day suggests broody somewhere but where does she sleep at night ? Check round the area looking for places she might have a nest, in clumps of weeds, nettles, anywhere there's a bit of cover. When she appears for food, you can try to follow her but take your eyes off her and she will be gone ! That's if she is broody.
 
Thanks for the responses and we've found her. She's sitting, looking very broody, in what i hope is a safe place in a hedge near her house. I can see two eggs and she's sitting on what i am guessing will be more eggs. Should we move the eggs and lock her away, taking account of the advice posted in the first reply (which sounded sensible), or will she grow out of it? Her "nest" is fairly secure and is behind a sheep fence so she could stay there, but i'd prefer to be able to shut her away if it's the right thing? Thanks is advance.
 
I'd throw the eggs away and try to get her off broody and back to normal as she will be safer in the coop at night as you say.
 
I agree with Chuck - you don't mention a cockerel so if the eggs are infertile there's no point in letting her continue broody, with risks to her safety and indeed her health if it goes on for weeks. Many hens go broody in their own nestboxes so you did well to find her hideaway!
 
I agree with Chuck and Marigold. Make your nest box secure and keep her in secure. Then start on the broody breaking otherwise she will go straight back out and start again. Bin the hedgerow eggs. When she goes back to normal laying hoefully it will be in the nest boxes.
 
Thanks all, I'll sort the eggs out tomorrow and keep her in for the weekend - assuming i can catch her!!!

I'll keep you all posted ....
 
I thought I'd add something of a postscript to this story. Having found the eggs and sorting the bantam's broodiness, neither really ever became reliable layers, at least not in their house!!! I recently moved them to a bigger coop, a converted children's playhouse, which they settled in, but didn't lay in. Last weekend, I made some "curtains" from black polythene cut into strips and hey presto, they are back laying where they should be. Thanks hugely for the idea, it appears to have done the trick.... :-)17
 
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