Broody chickens can be something of a pain at times. Having heritage breed chickens is great, but this is one of the downsides. Each season in the warm summer they decide they want to sit and hatch out some chicks. This just isn't practical because they stop laying eggs and the chicks don't usually do that well here anyway. We have snakes and crows and all sorts of nasty predators that take the chicks. It's better to rear the chicks in brooders here away from broody hens. Yeah, I know, that's a shame but it's the practical option. Otherwise we are always losing babies. So our sussex pullets need to be snapped out of this mood when it comes on them. This isn't easy. We have to move them or cage them differently to disturb their 'mood'. We have some suspended breezy wire cages that seem to do the job.
