How do you stop chickens from brooding?

[morpheus21]

Hi,
we have to hens that are brroding at the moment is sit in the nest boxes thinking they are incubating eggs. How can we get them to stop this? They are bantams but dont know what breed they are.

thanx

 

[Pinkie]

Take their eggs away? Or are they sitting on nothing?

 

[africancichlidau]

Feed 'em to something.

 

[cwarren72]

shut them out of their boxes during the day.

 

[sxereturn]

Dunk them in water. Seriously.

 

[Fuscus]

Stuck a large python in with them
Bantams have a reputation of being very broody and will rarely leave their eggs. They are favoured to brood endangered birds eggs and have even stuck to the job after having the nest placed in a box, the box placed on a person, the person climbs a mountain and subsitutes the eggs and climb down again over a period of a couple of days.

 

[Greebo]

When my g/f broods I usually just buy her something nice.

 

[Bryony]

EAT THEM
they do go well on the spit

 

[instar]

Morph, A new rooster added to the chook house will upset brooding(for a short time) other than that, chain a dog up outside Lol. used to see many a broody hen, stopped short by foxes too. Why do you want to stop it anyway? just remove eggs daily.

 

[Bryony]

who is up for an omlette

 

[instar]

Bacon 'N' Eggs ! :twisted: (im secretly a verocious predator on beasties, a hideous.......(Shock Horror!) "CARNIVORE!" [Cue "Phsyco" shower scene, sound effects) :twisted: :lol:

 

[Bryony]

oh no!!!! i must be a carnivore i don't eat veggies or fruit!!!!!!
oh no what do i do ?!?!?!?!!??!?!?!?!?1

i know............................... EAT MORE MEAT

 

[Ella]

We used to have a broody bantam...

 

[instar]

LOL, well I do eat Ommlettes with lightly fried onions......Drool! but I consider eggs a by-product, and fair game! If im smarter than the hen, goody for me.

 

[morpheus21]

Thanks all for the replies. Reason I want to stop them is that I thought they layed less or stopped laying while they were brooding.

 

[instar]

The individual hen will stop laying, untill the eggs are hatched, i beleive, but if you remove the eggs everyday you will suppress the broody behaviour. Thats not to say that while its normal practice everywhere, The poor old hen loses part of its natural behaviour. Bit like the chooks in "Chicken Run" Lol

If you get a few more hens and let them "Free-range" a bit, I think you'll find they will lay like the clappers!(lots)

 

[earthmother]

When we had broody bantams we would sometimes get a day old chick or 2 from the local Elders store. Of a night when the chicken is sleeping (they sorta go into a trance) we would take out the eggs and replace them with a chick. In the morning the silly thing thought she'd hatched it. And the brooding was over.

Once we could only buy a leghorn chick and it followed that bantam around calling it mamma till the day it was dinner. lol

Or you could hang an axe up in the chicken coup. :twisted:

Em