Flock Diary: July 1998

After a few days the hen situation calmed, and Prunella and Sybil were accepted into the flock, but the other hens would still remind them of their positions as 'bottom hens'.

Above left: Prunella {right} and Sybil {left} in the back garden run, 2nd July / Above right: Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma {front}, and White Tara {back} 2nd July 1998

On Saturday 4th July Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma went into the oven nestbox, laid an egg, but refused to come out again. I thought her behaviour a little strange, but left her to her own devices. The next day she hadn't moved from this position, and had clearly made a comfortable nest for herself. Again I thought it strange that she should stay in exactly the same position for a long time. On Monday 6th July Brahma was still in the oven nestbox, and this time I knew that there was a problem. Brahma had gone 'broody'.

A broody hen has been affected by hormones releasing themselves at inappropriate times. The hormones give the hen messages that she has fertile eggs to hatch when in reality she hasn't (a bit like false or sympathetic pregnancies in people). A broody hen sits on her eggs constantly, obeying her instinct (triggered by the hormones) to keep them warm and alive. She sits on them, leaving the nest for very short periods to eat,defecate and drink. She will also defend her nest, sometimes becoming very aggressive and preventing other birds from going into nestboxes to lay their own eggs. Interestingly, a broody hen saves up all her droppings during the day to produce one enormous (and very smelly !) one which she deposits away from the nest. This helps keep the nest clean for the chicks which the broody hen erroneously thinks she is incubating. The normal incubation period of 21 days, but if the eggs are not fertile the hen will continue to sit until her hormone levels return to normal. If the broody instinct is too strong, then the hen will continue sitting, not even leaving the nest to eat and drink, and this is extremely dangerous for her as she could lose too much weight and die.

Broodiness is a common phenomenon in hens bred for show, especially the old-fashioned breeds. It is only a problem when the owner does not want the hen to be broody. Industrial battery hens have had all the broodiness bred out of them - after all, a hen sitting for 21 days, annoying other hens and not laying eggs is not convenient for a businessman who relies on his egg profit. Battery hens which go broody are usually killed. A breed of hen called the 'Silkie' is encouraged to be broody and has been renowned for it's frequent broodiness for centuries. Nowadays they are used to hatch eggs from rare breeds of hen, ducks, endangered species such as Eagles, and even Parrots.

Brahma had been broody for three days now, so I decided to weigh her. I was shocked to discover that her weight had plummeted from over 5lb to a mere 4lb 3oz. Whenever I, or any other hen came near her, she would fluff out her feathers and make a weird low crooning sound, like a chicken trying to growl (difficult without teeth !). This would become louder and higher in pitch the closer I got to her. She didn't peck me, which surprised me, as I thought she would defend her nest that way. I put my hand underneath her to see if she had laid any more eggs,and she shuffled from side to side, pushing my hand closer to her body with her wings and making herself more comfortable in her nest. When I tried to remove my hand, she shuffled again, pulling my hand underneath her again. She was brooding my hand as though it were a clutch of eggs !. I encouraged her out of the nestbox ,but she really did not want to move and squawked at me when I tried to lift her. I put her next to a food bowl to see if she would eat, but she just jumped straight back into the nestbox instead. She needed to eat, so I put her in the Ark with the other hens. An hour later I went to check her, and she was sitting in the nestbox again.

I was getting worried about Brahma because she wasn't eating, so I decided to try some drastic but traditionally effective remedies on her. On Wednesday 8th July I put Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma in the rabbit hutch with no nest and just a thin sprinkling of sawdust on the floor. I thought that she would forget her broodiness with no nest available to sit comfortably in.

Thursday 9th July I let Brahma out of the hutch, and she jumped straight back into the oven nest. So I ejected her and closed the old oven, and she found another nestbox to sit in. Then I had to put Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma in a wire-bottomed cage and hang it up in the shed. This is a traditional remedy for broodiness, as it causes a draught on the hen's underside which makes her realise that she has no eggs or think that they have gone cold and died. But it did not work on Brahma.

I weighed her again to see if she had eaten, but she had dropped again to only 4 lbs 2 oz. She spent the night in the cage again, with small food and water bowls. When I checked her in the morning, she had just knocked the bowls over without taking anything from them, and was brooding the empty bowls. She was not happy when I tried to take them away from her, shuffling and holding them as far under her body as her wings could get them. I was worried about her, and took her to the Vet. The Vet gave Brahma a Progesterone hormone injection, which would hopefully put her hormonal balance back to normal. I was advised to carry on with what I was doing (removing the nest and cooling her underside), but take Brahma out of her normal exciting-to-chicken-environment and make her bored.

So, I put Brahma's cage in the house, in a quiet part of the kitchen. Brahma didn't seem to mind being in the cage, it probably gave her a secure feeling in the strange human environment, but she continued to be broody. Every time I left a bowl of food or water in her cage for longer than 30 minutes, she would knock it over and try to brood it. She would sit on the bottom of the cage stubbornly, refusing to stand. To stop her sitting, I put two perches in the cage so that she would have no option but to stand or perch. This worked to a certain extent, but when perched Brahma would try her best to brood on the actual perches, exhibiting the same shuffling behaviour when I put my hand under her.

Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma continued to be broody, refusing to eat more than one teaspoonful of food at a time, and her weight decreased gradually. Her weight over time is recorded in the graph below, units on the 'y' axis being grammes.

Brahma stayed in the cage in the kitchen, where I could monitor her food and water intake. But she still refused to eat or drink.

On Thursday 16th Brahma was very hungry, and ate and drank of her own accord. I was delighted to see this, and placed her in the Ark with the other hens. She wandered about with them, scratching and pecking, so I decided that she must be cured and left her to it. 30 minutes later I returned to find Brahma sitting in a nestbox. As I removed her she protested loudly and struggled with all her might. She was still broody, so I returned her to the cage in the kitchen once again.

For the next few mornings I placed Brahma's cage in with the other hens, for only half-an-hour at a time. Brahma was kept confined, but I wanted her to see the other birds all scratching about, hopefully so that she would realise that she should follow their example instead of being a silly broody. Occaisionally I would let her out of the cage to see what she'd do, but she ran straight to a nestbox or tried to make her own nest on the ground every time - which resulted in her being put back in the kitchen. Continuing the Vet's distraction techniques, I would bring her into the living room in the evenings to watch television with us.

On Monday 20th July a large dog called Guinness arrived. I had arranged to look after him for a week while his family went on holiday. The dog was a German Shepherd X Border Collie, and barked at Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma whenever he saw her. The hen would just sit and stare back at Guinness, wide eyed and with a totally astounded look on her face! In the afternoon I decided that I would put Brahma in the outside run while I played with the dog in the garden. The other hens were moved around to the Ark, so that the dog would not frighten them. Brahma stayed alert and stood up as straight as she could in order to keep her eye on the dog, watching his every move. She made no attempt to nest, and I was quite satisfied to leave her in the run on her own for the rest of the afternoon.

That evening, I brought the hens to the shed from the Ark late, just after dark - and forgot about Brahma. At midnight I remembered her, and rushed out to get her, thinking that a fox or some other predator may have broken into the run and eaten her. There was no moon and it was very dark, and I had to search for Brahma, who had made herself very small and jammed her body right into one corner of the run. She was cold, distressed and frightened when I found her. I felt so sorry for her and so guilty that I had left her out that I let her sleep with the other hens in the shed that night.

All of a sudden on July 21st, Brahma stopped being broody. I had expected to find Brahma brooding in the nestbox that morning, but instead she was waiting by the shed door to be let out, like the other birds. Poor Brahma must have thought I had abandoned her last night, and left her for the big terrifying dog to hunt out and eat ! The shock had jolted her out of her broody state, and her behaviour had returned to normal, which was a great relief !

To Flock Diary 2001 - January, February and March 2001 / April and May 2001

To Flock Diary 2000 - January 2000 / February, March, April 2000 / May 2000 / June 2000 / Stroud Show 1st July 2000 / July 2000 / August 2000 / Painswick Show 13th August 2000 / September 2000 / October, November & December 2000

To Flock Diary 1999 - January 1999 / February 1999 / March , April 1999 / May , June 1999 / Stroud Show 1999 / July 1999 / August 1999 / September 1999 / October 1999 / November 1999 / December 1999

To Flock Diary 1997 & 1998 - August to December 1997 / January, February and March 1998 / April 1998 / May 1998 / June 1998 / July 1998 / August 1998 / September 1998 / October 1998 - Part One / October 1998 - Part Two / November 1998 - Part One / November 1998 - Part Two / December 1998