Broody Bloomer

Last week, Bloomer started acting... funny. She hunkered down in the corner of the coop, didn't get up for two days, and didn't fly up to the roost at night. She seemed depressed. At first I thought she was sick, was she too weak to get up on the roost? Then I realized she wasn't depressed, she was broody!

Bloomer on her nest of imaginary eggs. She would puff up and growl when I moved her off the nest.

A hen becomes broody when she wants to hatch a clutch of eggs. Many laying hens have this trait bred out of them, and will never go broody. Bloomer is a Cochin, a breed known for broodiness. When a hen or a pullet gets struck with the urge for motherhood, they sit on their nest to hatch out their eggs. Only in Bloomer's case she had several things working against her:

1. We don't have a rooster, so there are no fertile eggs.
2. Fall weather is cold. Not ideal conditions for raising chicks even if there are broody eggs.
3. She's suppose to be earning her keep by laying eggs (and broody chickens don't lay eggs).

Having read four books about chickens last year before purchasing the current flock, and consulting websites like BackyardChickens.com and The Chicken Chick, I knew what I had to do...

Bloomer was going into solitary for a couple of days.

Every article about broody chickens I read had the same theme: the best way to break a broody is to isolate the offender in a wire bottom cage with access to food and water. The goal is to make the chicken uncomfortable so she will snap out of broodiness.

We didn't have a wire-bottom cage that would work for Bloomer, but I did have my garden cart that is constructed out of a metal mesh-like frame and has a plastic liner which is removable (it is a great tool to have around the yard). The plastic liner can also be flipped over and used as a roof for the cart, making it the perfect make-shift chicken cage.

Bloomer spent two nights in solitary in an unused horse stall next to the coop. She was returned to the flock last Tuesday night and is back to being a chicken who's happy not to be tied down with children chicks.  However, many hens will continue to go through phases of broodiness, which may be a good excuse for me to add a few more chickens to the flock. Perhaps an order of hatching eggs or finding a rooster will be on the docket for next spring...