One older Barred Rock hen (Belinda) is broody, She did this last year and it took quite some time for her to give up being a mother. Hens can suddenly get a strong desire to hatch eggs and will go “broody” where they will sit on eggs and refuse to leave the nest box. They get cranky, peck at you and other birds, fluff up and squawk anytime someone comes near her clutch of eggs (real or imaginary).

The cycle usually lasts 21 days or so (hopefully) but it can be depleting for the hen since she is unwilling to leave the nest. We remove her from the nest daily to get her interested in water and food – but it’s usually a short lived trip and she ends right back in the nest box grumpy as ever.

To complicate matters – our “broken bird” the Road Island Red that broke her leg last year got injured again. She is the bottom of the pecking order and has been holed up safely in the nest box area. Both are taking quite a bit of maintenance.

Bridge had an idea after doing some research. Apparently you can sometimes give a broody hen a few very young chicks (less than a week old) and she may adopt them. We gave it a try. We figured at worse we would have a few new birds and may have to separate them.

It didn’t go well for several days. Belinda pecked at them and flatly refused to be near them and broken bird acted more like a big sister who was annoyed but would tolerate them. However, after a week or so – Belinda started to change her attitude. She now seems to have accepted the chicks and they also seem to be taking to her – maybe it worked.

All of the chicks are alive and well and hang out pretty close to Belinda. We don’t see her aggressively attacking/pecking them and she has left the next box to stay near them. This seems positive at least.