Wednesday, June 16, 2010

broody hen


Pennelope has been broody for almost 2 weeks now. This weekend I put her in this wire crate to try to get her to "snap out" of it. I only left her in there 2 days...I hate to crate any of the chickens, unless they are sick. We put her back in the hen house Sunday night...the crating didn't help. She is still camping out in an egg box. This morning I put a bag of frozen peas underneath her, hoping that if I can bring down her body temperature, she'll start acting normal again...instead of moody. I go out there every few hours and physically lift her out of the box...she thinks I'm suck a bitch when I do this, but if I don't, she won't eat or drink. If the peas don't help, I'm going to put her back in the crate directly on the wire and raise the crate 3 feet above the ground and put a pan of ice underneath the crate for a few days...she'll be so uncomfortable...she'll snap out of it then! This could go on all summer long, if I don't attempt to get her back to normal. Our summers are too hot to let her stay broody all summer. Any suggestions?

2 comments:

kristie said...

Looks like its Penelopes turn on the chopping block. Tell Dad to start sharping those knives...

Rita said...

I agree with Kris:-) You have much more patience than me!!