The Broody Hen Dilemna

 

     This little gal really wants to hatch out babies. She is stealing all the other hen's eggs and laying on them. She doesn't want to come out of the nesting box even to eat or drink. Today I picked her up and made her come out but she wouldn't go out in the yard with the rest of the flock. She just laid down. I am pretty sure I heard her grumbling, "I don't want to go outside!"
     This is a classic broody hen. I have been reading a lot of blogs and forums about this type of behavior. Some feel you should just give her some eggs and let her hatch them out, others feel you should remove her from the flock and make sure she doesn't have access to any eggs. It's too late in the season for plan A, because it is almost winter and I am not going to try to make sure young chicks survive in the brutally cold winter we are suppose to get. Plan B, my guess, would fail as well since I have seen this hen trying to hatch out gravel on our driveway.
    For now, the plan is to try to make sure she is eating and drinking and to sneak all her eggs before she gets too used to them. In the spring, we will probably separate her and let her hatch out some chicks.