"Chicken Timeout"

We have a hen who is going broody and we are not trying to hatch any of our eggs. The first time this happened, we put her in what we call "chicken timeout" and isolated her and made her stay in a smaller coop/run alone for three days and it seemed to work temporarily. Now not more than a month or so later she is at it again. We have again put her in "chicken timeout" but wonder if there is a better way that might last longer or if this is just an expected reoccurence with this hen? None of our other girls have done this ever so far.

I've heard lots of ways to break a broody, but the common theme seems to be cooling her belly. Keeping her in a cage with a wire bottom and no bedding does the trick for most folks, keep her there until she starts laying again. I've heard of some people dunking the poor gal in cool water (obviously never submerge her head) but I'd only try that of its warm and sunny out so she won't get too chilled.
I have no idea about how often she'll go broody, certain breeds are more prone but each chicken is an individual.
Sorry I can't be more helpful but good luck!

machinfarm said:

I've heard lots of ways to break a broody, but the common theme seems to be cooling her belly. Keeping her in a cage with a wire bottom and no bedding does the trick for most folks, keep her there until she starts laying again. I've heard of some people dunking the poor gal in cool water (obviously never submerge her head) but I'd only try that of its warm and sunny out so she won't get too chilled.
I have no idea about how often she'll go broody, certain breeds are more prone but each chicken is an individual.
Sorry I can't be more helpful but good luck!

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Thanks! Yeah in the isolated coop, its bare of bedding or anything inside. We went with that, because it was the easiest method to try for us. I could never submerge my girl into cool water. We had to bath them for other issue last year and it was the saddest sight to see the girls wet and miserable so I would avoid that again whenever I could. They were not happy campers then....but at least it was warm then and so was the water. She may just be the only one of ours inclined this way.....

After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.
Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.

Sounds like you're doing the right thing. some birds are just persistently broody, it's hormonal and you really can't do anything about it. If she's really persistent and it's too much hassle to manage and lose the egg production, you can always sell her to someone who wants a good dependable broody and replace her with another productive layer.

What breed is she?

donrae said:

Sounds like you're doing the right thing. some birds are just persistently broody, it's hormonal and you really can't do anything about it. If she's really persistent and it's too much hassle to manage and lose the egg production, you can always sell her to someone who wants a good dependable broody and replace her with another productive layer.

What breed is she?

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I wish i could say. She was sold to us as "Cuckoo Maran" but she is not maran, although we do think the cuckoo part correct, just not sure what mix was.This is her in picture.

What a cutie! What color eggs does she lay? My first thought is someone's Olive Egger, she looks like she could be a cuckoo Marans/Ameraucana mix. Although, since the cuckoos don't as a rule lay really dark eggs, that cross might result in a regular green egger. Or, the crest could indicate a Legbar/Ameraucana mix.

What an odd mix!!!......barring sure looks like BR or cuckoo....but looks like maybe a muff....and maybe a crest too.

donrae said:

What a cutie! What color eggs does she lay? My first thought is someone's Olive Egger, she looks like she could be a cuckoo Marans/Ameraucana mix. Although, since the cuckoos don't as a rule lay really dark eggs, that cross might result in a regular green egger. Or, the crest could indicate a Legbar/Ameraucana mix.

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She lays a green egg, either khaki green or mint green, we have not been able to catch whether her or her sister lays which. But they both look just alike but lay slightly different shades of green. We suspect she is the mint layer due to the last time she was broody not getting any of those for a while before they showed up again. You can see both their eggs in bottom of basket here.

Here she is with her sister. Hard to get pictures of them together they are little skittish.

aart said:

What an odd mix!!!......barring sure looks like BR or cuckoo....but looks like maybe a muff....and maybe a crest too.

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Yeah we tried to guess but we were not sure, but her and her sister did not seem to match with the marans, their combs are more like our EEs. We guessed maybe Cuckoo Araucana? Either way we think they are pretty and love their egg colors. I named the eldest Minerva and the broody younger one is Iris.