Broodiness

One of our bantams has turned broody. She gets up from her nest once/day to do all her various tasks (input/output, etc.). At that point, she's quite lively. But when she goes back to her nest, she becomes a zombie -- eyes closed or close to closed, frozen position (so much that if we lift her and put her back down with some body part in a new position, it stays there). Since we're still learning about hens, this is fascinating! Of course, without a rooster, our broody hen would just rot her eggs. And since we wanted to eat them, we took the whole clutch and left her a couple of golf balls. Apparently, anything'll do if you're broody.

For those of you who are dying to learn more, Silkies and Cochins are particularly stubborn about sitting on eggs. Our bantams are 7/8s Silkie and 1/8 Cochin. Oy! Many chicken raisers, according to the web, try to 'break up' the broody. Some experts suggest keeping her from food and water, but that seems cruel. Others say that a wire nest allowing air to come up through it or a clutch of ice cubes will move her out of this awful phase. We're not worried about this. Everyone has their little idiosyncrasy. If this is our hen's, so be it. We can't wait to see what hatches out of those golf balls!