Flame is broody as well as Sugar

Sugar has now been broody for just over three weeks and is showing no sign of coming out of it. It takes three weeks to hatch eggs so she should have given up by now but the first time she went broody last year she went four weeks before I decided to break her out of it.

Just as I was thinking that I will have to try and break Sugar from her broodiness Flame went broody too.

Sugar usually leaves the chicken shed in the morning and goes to sit in her favourite nest box. I was surprised to find she wasn’t there. Instead she and Flame were together in the corner of the chicken shed.

I took both girls out and blocked the pop hole of the chicken shed in the hope that it would deter Flame, who had laid late the afternoon before, so I knew she didn’t need to lay.

When I checked a few minutes later Flame and Sugar were together in Sugar’s favourite nest box.

I know that this looks very cute but I have past experience of this. What happens next is Flame will mother Sugar and Sugar’s behaviour will revert to being a chick. This could then potentially continue all summer so I can’t let that happen.

I decided that as Flame had only just gone broody I would try to break her first before she was properly in the zone. It seems that she was already instantly in the zone though.

I decided to move Flame to broody jail which is the dog crate in the shed. I put a dish of mash and a dish of water in and a perch. I will get Flame out several times a day for exercise.

This usually takes only two days and two nights. While Flame was in the crate I noticed how much her spurs had grown since I did post about them in the past.

They also point in different directions. It’s lucky that Flame is a placid girl and the spurs don’t pose any problem.

When I said that she was already in the zone it was because it was proved each time I took her out of the crate. I would return her to the run in the hope that she would get some exercise but all she did was race to the nest box while bok boking and sometimes shaking herself and making an angry sound.

I left Flame in the crate over night and closed up the shed. When I opened up in the morning Flame was desperate to get out. I put her in the run and she ran straight to the chicken shed. Every time I take her out she refuses to spend time in the run and makes a bee line for a nest box or the shed.

I can’t close the nest boxes as there are girls needing to lay so I will just have to keep up this regime until Flame comes out of her broody spell. I just hope that it is as quick as it’s been in the past.