Broody broody silkie

[Thewolvesarerunningagain]

Hi
I have four lovely silkie hens who I love dearly. Had them just over a year now and they are such characters and kept as pets. However one of girls (who goes by the name of Cersei) has become very very broody indeed. We've tried removing her from the nesting area during the day (the girls have an eglu), removing eggs quickly, leaving egg in place so that she realises it won't hatch (she didn't). The only piece of advice we've had that we've not tried yet is to let her hatch an egg. We could, in theory, buy a fertile egg or two for her (no nearby males available) but this raises the question of what to do with the chicks if she is successful and they are males. My neighbours will NOT thank me for a cockerel nearby! Does anyone have any experience with this? the other girls have stopped laying altogether in solidarity with her 'Occupy Nest' action and I am worried for my lass. Thank you in advance!

You could let her hatch a clutch of auto sexing chicks and then just dispatch the newly hatched males.

Thanks @Whyohwhyohwhy123 . You’re right of course I just have a case of dire squeamishness. Im really hoping for a different solution! Would letting her hatch a clutch work for her brooding though? She’s a stoic little lass for sure

When one of my chickens went broody I bought four 1 day old hatchlings from a chicken breeder who allowed us to return the males. Had to return the one male we ended up with last weekend.

Lots of people told me to have a roast chicken with him, but funnily enough not one of them wanted to do the actual deed....

However that is not sustainable on going so next time she goes broody I'm going to have to break the brood as I can't have more chickens as I will have too many then. So will watch this thread with interest!

I popped the hatchlings under her at night and snuck the eggs out. The moment she heard a cheep her aggression skyrocketed and I got pecked sneaking the eggs out....

Thanks Kookaburra. I’ll look into that as an option. At most we could have two more hens with our current set up I guess. Aggressive? Oh no!!our cats are scared enough of the hens already 😀

It’s possible to break the broodiness. There’s some unkind and downright cruel suggestions on the internet but you can do it kindly. I’ve had quite a few broodies including one that went broody 3 times a year!

Leaving an egg under them doesn’t work. They don’t understand that they’ll never hatch and they’ll just stay there. It’s much kinder to bring them out of it.

You need to cool her breast down and keep her away from anywhere she could use as a nest. If you have a wire cage and can put perches in it that’s ideal. Put her in the broody cage with food and water but no bedding at all. This will cool her down. No cuddles either! You can bring her out for supervised exercise and pecking round the lawn etc but don’t let her near the coop or she’ll go straight for the nest box.
This has always worked for us after a few days. They suddenly come to their senses as if they’re come out of a trance, and go back to normal behaviour. You need to be strong and not let her back too soon, or you have to start all over again.

One or the other of my silkies/pekins/serama are permanently broody. I've got three broody at the moment. I've given up trying to break them and just chuck them off the nest once or twice a day to go and eat and drink. I did buy fertile eggs and let them hatch a chick (got three eggs only one hatched) who turned out to be a male so we kept him. It didn't stop them going broody again afterwards!!!!

I’ve tried a lot and it doesn’t work. We currently have 1 chicken laying eggs and 5 sitting on top of one another to hatch it (never going to happen, it’s unfertilised). Silkies are a very broody type. They’ll get out of it eventually. In the meantime, remove her a couple of times a day to get food and water.

When you say let her have chicks to break the brooding then I’m not sure what you’re hoping to achieve. If you want more chickens it’s a lovely way to do it. We’ve done it a few times. But as you say there’s the cockerel problem. But if you want her not to be broody then she’d go from sitting on the nest to looking after her chicks - she’ll look after them for ~ 6 weeks or so.
plus you’ll need a separate broody coop for her to raise them and if you’re going to do that you could just get a separate box or coop to put her in until she gets over it.
you can get a separate nesting box (biscuit tin with straw is fine as long as it’s somewhere dry) for her or the others to go in, but in my (admittedly limited) experience the only reason why the others have stopped laying eggs is that they’re broody themselves! Are they doing the broody cluck?

oh - be very vigilant for mites including red mite at the moment. As it’s hot it’s insect breeding heaven and broody chickens are sitting targets.