Recently Smoke hasn’t been so committed to staying broody. Smoke still goes broody as often but this time and last time she has come out of it after one week exactly.
I have been lifting both the broody girls out of the nest boxes every time I go to check on the girls and I close the nest boxes at the end of the day. Smoke has been perching in the chicken shed at bedtime but Sugar refuses to perch.
At the end of the day I have been lifting both broody girls out of the nest boxes and closing them then I give out some sunflower hearts. Sugar has a few sunflower hearts then runs straight into the chicken shed.
The longest Sugar stays out is to have a dust bath. Sugar now knows the nest boxes will be closed at the end of the day and she speeds her way into the chicken shed. If I try to perch her at dusk she will just keep dropping down again. It has now been six weeks which would be enough time to hatch eggs twice over.
This afternoon I wanted to take some photos of all the flock now that Smoke is staying out in the run. I lifted Sugar from the nest box and placed her out in the run. I then put a dish of chopped tomato on the patio area to see if I could get a photo of all the girls.
Sugar made her way to the patio area and I waited to see if she would go to the dish of tomato. She didn’t but she did stop briefly to peck at a piece of apple on her way back into the nest box.
We are beginning to wonder if Sugar is going to stay like this forever. Smoke has now been broody twice and out of it again in the time that Sugar has remained broody and she is showing no sign of coming out of it.
This is such a strange situation. I wonder how long Sugar is going to continue like this. I hope she isn’t going to stay like this all summer.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Oh dear! Could you try her in the broody cage again for a while? They say 3 days which worked with my other girls but Vi my persistent broody always had to have longer xx
I tried her in the crate when I was separating her and Flame and she was panicking and flying at the bars. I was scared she would hurt herself. The other thing is the cat box but I feel that’s the same as a nest box. I feel that I have to just wait it out xx
Hugely persistent! As you say, she could have hatched twice over. I could have done with that persistence here, as Butterscotch has abandoned her eggs, despite hatching last year ….. strange. They are in the incubator, but I don’t hold out much hope.
Oh what a shame. You could have done with Sugar. I think she could hatch a dinosaur egg!
A very determined little girl.
She certainly is. I have never had such a determined girl before.