A while back we bought two Pekin bantams, now named Poppy and Pippa. You may remember Poppy from the Crook Chook post when she was really sick but pulled through.
Now not being a chook expert, I thought that these two little darlings would behave just like the ISA Brown hen that I already have. Not on your nelly. These two have been pretending to be mums for the last 3 weeks, and now as it is starting to get hotter, I don’t want the girls to cook in the chook house by sitting on the nest all day. Broody, broody, broody! Besides, I only have two nesting boxes and the other girls are really complaining to me about not being able to get a seat at the theatre!
So, I did some reading. I found a really good blog called ‘The Cottage Smallholder‘ written by Fiona who suggests that I should make a broody coop. Well I had such a cage of wire mesh used for Holly when we first got her, so I took out the big pillow and the tray that went under it and put it in the caged chicken run. This is what they look like all locked up.
It is under shade cloth so is fairly cool, much better than the larger run out the back. They will stay in here for a few days and nights until they are so uncomfortable that it will break their broodiness. The other chooks don’t know what to think of the cage. It has confused them to no end. The two little girls were very upset a first because they don’t like sitting down on the wire mesh on the floor and can’t get comfortable like their nesting box. They will get over it, I hope. Here is a short video clip to show you how they are behaving now.
You will have noticed from the clip that they are not very happy Jan!
They have settled down for the evening, and are not too upset now, but miss their nest and perch. Hopefully they will not have to stay in the broody coop for too long. I will let you know how it pans out over the next few days. Maybe I should have just gotten fertile eggs and let them hatch. Apparently they do make great mums.
Well done! This is what life is all about! I wish I could have such talent to raise chickens, maybe in a few years. For a while, I’d better stick with my little greenhouse: it’s giving some enough hard times!!!
Cheers
Fiona’s blog is wonderful. Both Fiona’s and your own are in my daily reads. We don’t face the snow and ice challenges of Fiona every winter, most especially this nasty one. Yes, okay – I don;t face your severe high temps either. Hope your garden is feeding you all well
I regularly have problems with my Bantums being broody too long. They are black and can overheat and unless I stop them they sit on the nest for months.
One tip that seems to work is removing them from the nest; dunking them in a bucket of water; and then exclding them from the nest area (i let them free range). The dunking in a buket sounds mean – but I tried it in desperation and it seemes to work if i do it once day for a few days.