Last week I reported that I had a broody chicken. Yep, she’s still broody. She spends all day everyday sitting in the nesting box. She still growls at me when I try to move her so she can eat, drink or poop. It’s for her own good, but she just doesn’t understand.
So instead of torturing her (and me) by moving her everyday to get to the other chicken’s eggs, I put three plastic golf balls in her nesting box and left her to sit on them. I’m happy to report that it appears to be working! Today I went to get the eggs from the nesting box and they were in the OTHER nesting box and Marmalade was happily sitting on her three eggs golf balls. She thinks she’s getting away with something and I’m actually getting away with the eggs – seems like a win-win to me.
After this whole spectacle is over I might rename her – I’m think I’ll call her birdie, bogey or putt putt. 🙂
Should I feel bad for deceiving my chicken? I felt a lot worse grabbing the eggs out from under her.
I love reading your chicken posts and seeing pictures. Alas, I live in a condo and I don’t think the association would appreciate chickens on my patio or the chihuahuas lol. But please keep posting stories for those of us that can dream of gardens and chickens.
Of course! I’ll keep posting about chickens and I really appreciate you reading my blog! I hope one day you can have a garden and chickens, too – if that’s what you want. 🙂
unfortunatly, the golf balls are encouraging her to continue setting on the nest…you want to break the cycle….we just keep taking our broody hen off the nest many times throughout the day, and eventually she gives up and decides to be a chicken again 🙂
Don’t feel bad for taking away the eggs. By giving her the golf balls, it is actually encouraging her to continue sitting. I promise that you are not psychologically damaging your hen by taking her eggs. We have had lots of broody hens and they will literally sit and not eat or go to the bathroom for the whole 21 days it takes to hatch out chicks. I have actually had 5 hens sit on one clutch of eggs and hatch them (although we had to scoop up the babies and put with one mom as soon as hatching started because the other hens will kill the babies). The hens combs will be bright red when they are laying eggs and will go a paler color when they are broody and not laying or molting.
Hahahaha!!!! I thought it was funny that you replaced the eggs with the golf balls. My thought is that as long as she is eating and pooping regularly, then I think it should be okay for her to sit on her “golf balls”. I think she should be back to normal again (no more broody) in about 5-6 weeks if by then she still has not seen any chicks coming out from her “golf balls”. Your post reminds me of my chicken who actually had two chicks at the end of her broody. I miss her so much (she died from an accident a few years ago).
gold balls work like a charm every time. ahh chickens are so entertaining!