Eggs, then no eggs, and now a broody hen at 31 weeks??

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NTBugtraq

NTBugtraq

ex-Surgeon General
7 Years
Jul 26, 2012
1,139
118
211
Hell's Half Acre, Ontario, Canada
About 5 weeks ago I was getting 15 eggs a day out of some 30 odd laying pullets (older than 28 weeks). Then we had a severe cold snap and egg laying more or less stopped, 5 eggs a day. The cold snap ended and I was down to 2 eggs a day. Now I have a 31 week old pullet who has gone broody, I thought that only happened in their 2nd year...

Any suggestions on how to snap them out of this? They get an 18% layer (non-GMO) feed, lots of fresh water, black oil sunflower-whole oats-scratch twice a week as treats.
 
not just the second year they can go broody any time, try putting a light in if you really want more eggs. I don't like this but some people do it because they want more eggs.
 
try a different feed maybe, or add a supplement that is attributed to help boost laying, like sea buck 7 or omega egg maker or feather fixer or meat bird starter grower.
 
Your feed is probably fine...and the light mostly irrelevant at this time of year.
Do you free range?
Did they run out of water(freeze up) during cold snap?

If you want to break the broody, check this out:
My experience went like this: 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.
 
Last edited:
aart said:
Your feed is probably fine...and the light mostly irrelevant at this time of year.
Do you free range?
Did they run out of water(freeze up) during cold snap?

If you want to break the broody, check this out:
My experience went like this: 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.
Click to expand...

I can't free range, unfortunately. My 3 dogs (the youngest was 8 when she first met a chicken...they are squeaky toys), Fishers, Owls, Red Tail Hawks, Wolves, Coyote...too many threats in my bush to free range.

The water did freeze (not the first time), but it was only frozen for less than 1/2 a day.

Thanks for the info about the broody, I'd rather break her out of it than cull her.
 

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