Hens In The Hood

Have you ever heard of a Broody Hen? I had, but was never clear what it was or why. We now know.
We have always gotten the eggs every day to ensure the girls weren't laying on them at night. I guess we never really thought about it, other than that's what you do.
We recently left for 2 weeks and had someone house sit. I didn't think about telling her to get the eggs every day, as that's something we just do. (MY BAD!) Ok, more specifically my hubby as he's retired and home.
We got back Tuesday and found 16 eggs...which means they hadn't been collected 3-5 days. I realized one of the hens was acting different but didn't really think anything about it, as we had just driven 32 hours home, over 2.25 days. We were tired.
I realized Thursday she was still in the nesting box, got her out and collected the eggs. She was much more vocal than normal and a fought me a bit. I then started researching and found she is Broody.
Because the eggs had not been collected, her instincts kicked in and told her she has to sit in the nesting box until they hatch. They will not hatch, we don't have a rooster to fertilize them. Also, we've been checking multiple times a day and collecting any eggs we find.
I have been taking her out of the box to ensure she is eating and drinking. I found out when a hen is broody, she will ignore herself as her focus is on hatching the eggs. This is familiar as we had cockatiels, a male and female, that hatched 4 clutches. In that case, the daddy would take the mommy food or sit on the eggs letting her eat and drink. In the hens case, that doesn't happen.
After more research, we determined we had to separate her from the nesting box. Putting her into sunlight and removing the warmth she creates for the eggs is supposed to help break that broody frame of mind.
I found a small dog crate, as it suggested if we don't have a broody breaker box, and we tried that. Dan thought it was too small, so we took this black portable kennel, set it up and put one of the partitions on top so she couldn't jump out or something swoop in. (He made these partitions to keep the hens on part of the yard originally so we could let them have their part of the yard, but it's ended up using it to keep them away from the pup....who is birdie with them....NO BUENO! We want her to hunt, just not my girls)
We have always gotten the eggs every day to ensure the girls weren't laying on them at night. I guess we never really thought about it, other than that's what you do.
We recently left for 2 weeks and had someone house sit. I didn't think about telling her to get the eggs every day, as that's something we just do. (MY BAD!) Ok, more specifically my hubby as he's retired and home.
We got back Tuesday and found 16 eggs...which means they hadn't been collected 3-5 days. I realized one of the hens was acting different but didn't really think anything about it, as we had just driven 32 hours home, over 2.25 days. We were tired.
I realized Thursday she was still in the nesting box, got her out and collected the eggs. She was much more vocal than normal and a fought me a bit. I then started researching and found she is Broody.
Because the eggs had not been collected, her instincts kicked in and told her she has to sit in the nesting box until they hatch. They will not hatch, we don't have a rooster to fertilize them. Also, we've been checking multiple times a day and collecting any eggs we find.
I have been taking her out of the box to ensure she is eating and drinking. I found out when a hen is broody, she will ignore herself as her focus is on hatching the eggs. This is familiar as we had cockatiels, a male and female, that hatched 4 clutches. In that case, the daddy would take the mommy food or sit on the eggs letting her eat and drink. In the hens case, that doesn't happen.
After more research, we determined we had to separate her from the nesting box. Putting her into sunlight and removing the warmth she creates for the eggs is supposed to help break that broody frame of mind.
I found a small dog crate, as it suggested if we don't have a broody breaker box, and we tried that. Dan thought it was too small, so we took this black portable kennel, set it up and put one of the partitions on top so she couldn't jump out or something swoop in. (He made these partitions to keep the hens on part of the yard originally so we could let them have their part of the yard, but it's ended up using it to keep them away from the pup....who is birdie with them....NO BUENO! We want her to hunt....just not my girls!)
Today is the first day she will be in there for a long period of time...unless it rains. We will see if this works and how long it will take. I know it may seem unkind, but letting her neglect herself is much worse in my mind, when there is no end to it. (Hens will sit on eggs until hatched....even if they never hatch....at some point they may finally break out of it, but I'm not taking that chance)

Stay tuned for updates!

It's Saturday. I tried to sleep in a bit, but after getting woke up twice by the pup I figured I better get up and going when one of the girls (hens) sat outside our sliding glass door "calling" for me.

So I did. Got up, ran down, fed the hens and made coffee. Dogs fed, cat fed, lizards basking lights turned on (yes....it is a LITERAL animal house...and I would have it no other way!).

Then she started it up again. It was Chicken Nugget. It wasn't for more food....she wanted to cuddle. This chicken is amazing!!! When we got the girls last year, our two oldest granddaughters and our oldest were living here, so they got immersed into "Chickenery". (Yes, I know not a real word, but apparently making up words and saying they are words is how it works now-a-days🤦‍♀️😁😂). We each got to name one of them and our oldest granddaughter named hers Chicken Nugget.

Chicken Nugget loves to be held and cuddled. She will squat down, spread her wings out just a bit and wait to be picked up. Like a cat, she will let you know when she is done. Wednesday, we cuddled for about 15-20 minutes. LOVED IT!!! Somehow, it is so therapeutic!!!

This morning, she wanted to cuddle....so I picked her up and we cuddled while I got on my laptop to look for some things. And yes, we were inside....I wasn't prepared to sit outside just yet, it was cold! She got curious, watched pictures scroll by on my screen, started "talking" quietly a bit...but just sat. Then it was time to go back out with her flock.

I know people think I'm crazy, that animals are just animals and most are dumb. I totally disagree. 100%. If we all took the time to really pay attention to them, to watch how they do things in the animal world, learned what their body language is telling us, learned what they tell or show us.....geez, I believe this world would be such a better place! If that makes me crazy, weird, etc....so be it! I will wear that badge proudly because I know if I EVER lose my connection with animals, I am lost!

Animals always have and always will somehow soothe a soul just by being around them, holding them, playing with them. I feel absolutely blessed by understanding animals the way I do...it's always been this way and I know it will always be.

The picture below is Chicken Nugget cuddling with our oldest granddaughter last fall.