Agressive Chicken!

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Agressive Chicken!

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Guest

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 8:40 am Post subject: Agressive Chicken!

Hi,
I am sure this is not unusual but getting me down a bit. We have 10 chickens and get on Ok with most of them one in particular is very friendly and sits down every time you go near her!
However, we are having problems with one who is constantly sitting on a nest (not necessarily actually on an egg either) and WILL NOT move! She gets so agressive when you try and pick her up that I have taken to wearing gardening gloves to do so!
She is also the one suffering the most with the mites biting her as she is always in the infected houses (see other thread on our attempts to irradicate the blighters!)
Any tips on tameing her???

percypony

Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 146
Location: Hants

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 8:48 am Post subject:
Sorry that we from me above! It seemed to log me out when I went for a cuppa!

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 9:36 am Post subject:
She is broody Best way to tame her is to give her some fertile eggs to sit on in an old rabbit hutch. Then wait 21 days to see what happens!!!

percypony

Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 146
Location: Hants

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 10:04 am Post subject:
Not really an option for us Judith. Although I would love to have some more chickens we don't have the room in the run (they have to be in a run as it is so rural the foxes are there all day every day!) and also if we have males I woudn't want to have to despatch them. I thought maybe there was a way I could tame her!!!

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 10:07 am Post subject:

If you don't want any chicks, then the way to "tame" her is to break the broody cycle. Every time you go to collect the eggs, put on the gardening gloves and chuck her off the nest box. She will complain a LOT and wander around making strange clucking noises, and then will make a dash back to the nest box. Keep chucking her off. After a few days she will get the message.

Once she is no longer broody, she will be her normal cheerful self again.

percypony

Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 146
Location: Hants

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 10:13 am Post subject:
How long does the broody period last??? I have been doing as you suggest for a good couple of weeks now. I don't even know if she is sitting on her own egg each day as she steels everyone elses too!!! Thanks!

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 10:20 am Post subject:
It all depends how determined she is. Mine have never gone on for more than a couple of weeks. You could separate her out and just let her sit in a hutch on her own until she gets bored. Otherwise if she is not getting in the way of the other birds and you aren't too bothered about the eggs, then just carry on as you are. She will stop eventually.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 11:14 am Post subject:
The other way to stop them being broody is to cool them down. Some suggest sticking them in water or other such things. Two of our hens have been broody each of the last few years and I just pick them up and cuddle them, making as much fuss as possible so the get used to me. Mind you I now think they go broody so I pick 'em up.

monkey1973

Joined: 17 Jan 2005
Posts: 683
Location: Bonnie scotland

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 11:17 am Post subject:

To stop a brood you have to get her temperature down. Personally I just persevere with shifting her every day and hoping she will break the brood of her own volition. If you put her in a seperate run and leave her for a night or two in the open then that should do the trick. Another option is to dunk her in a bucket of water which will drop her temp also. I have tried neither but have been assured that they are tried and tested.
Oh, another trick is if you are sure that all hens have laid for the day the you can block off the nest boxes until morning and encourage her to wander about for some time.
I have two brooding at the mo and they are fearsome buggers when they square up to you.

pink bouncy

Joined: 14 May 2005
Posts: 174

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 05 11:27 am Post subject:
I had to turf my broody off the nest every day for four weeks so she would get a drink and poop but I have been hand feeding her since day one so she isn't aggressive towards me at all. If anyone else goes near her though, it's a different matter.

viciouslittlething

Joined: 14 Jun 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Bath, UK

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 12:58 pm Post subject: me too

One of my hens has recently been a nuisance going broody. She sticks to one of our three nest boxes, but sometimes fights errupt when the other girls enter the house, she makes such a noise, we now kick her out at every opprtunity, and she still gets back in and makes a noise almost constantly. I thought i could remedy the problem by putting chinas in the box she uses so she sits on duds, but to break her of the broody cycle is not going too well.

I am relativley new to this too, and would like to wait a while for Chicks, maybe next year nature will take it's course. Will remember to pinch my sisters bunny hutch though, bunny bounced off over the fields leaving her hutch behind!

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