Broody

We have been dealing with broody hens. It seems like several have been broody over the past couple of months and it is somewhat maddening. As of today there are three hens that have gone broody - for sure. There may be one more, but she has been blending in and hiding her symptoms pretty well.

Since they pretty much quit laying and have been hoarding all of the eggs in their vicinity I've been wanting to find a way to get them to STOP brooding and get over it all. Also, without Thor there is no chance of them actually getting eggs that are fertilized.

This week we got lucky and Justin Rhodes posted a video on how to break a broody hen:

We don't have a kennel, but we do have the old brooder...aaaahhhh - ironical right?

So before releasing the non-broody girls from the chicken mobile this morning we had to catch the three that spent the night under the egg cart. Tom was able to catch #1 pretty easily...before she could figure out what was going on, she was deposited in her old house from waaaay back when she was just a chickie. 

The other two proved to be a little more challenging. After a few minutes of chasing them around the pen, we let them calm down. Then one more time of the two of us chasing them around, this time Tom had the fishing net. That was a no-go. Okay fine, we'll just go along with our morning and we'll get them yet. 

Fast forward a few minutes and they had gone into the big nesting box and settled in for a day of just taking up space. Or so they thought. 

After I told Tom that they were settled in we promptly went over and he was able to grab one of the girls and I got the other and off to the brooder box they went - to be broody. 

They are set up with some water and some food. Hopefully we won't have to keep them in there terribly long - a couple of days maybe three at the most. I hope. We had to weight down the top with a plank and some pieces of firewood to make sure than they will stay in there. I hope they will still be in there when we get home later. It would be something if they weren't...

Look at their hackles...they are not happy!

Hopefully they will decide that being broody is not worth it and snap out of it. It would be nice if they would just realize that they won't be mommas anytime soon, not without a rooster anyway. 

Farm Life is the Best Life...

Even in the frustrating moments.