Topic of the Week - Broody hens

The only contribution I can make to what has already been said is to respond to the "how do you break a broody" question by answering "you don't, you buy fertilised eggs and put them under her".

(I suspect that my chickens are in charge of our relationship, and not me)

ChickieChat said:

I have two chickie girls, that are small and mix breeds, one has some silkie, the other is a white with black feather speckles. They continuously go in and out of brooding and hardly ever do I see an egg.
Would love to have no brooding and eggs instead, or brooding and egg laying would also be fine. Any thoughts about that?

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One of my hens goes broody a lot. She will lay for 10 days to 2 weeks and then go broody. It takes me 1-2 weeks to break her. She takes a week off then and starts laying again. This goes on all spring/summer/fall. It is very frustrating and hard on her too. I put her in a wire cage away from the others (in my basement) with the light on continuously and the radio. Sometimes she breaks quickly; other times it takes nearly 2 weeks. Nature of the bird I guess.

My barred rock is broody but I don't know where I can get fertilized eggs for her she won't move or even eat her favorite treat a fresh meal worm she gets twice a week from my home raised mealworm bucket I lifted her yesterday and she had three eggs under her

I don't have rooster

We tried the fertile egg approach but they have never hatched. We got day old chicks from the local country feed store and stuck them under our silkies. Once they got to be about 3 weeks old they snap out of the broodyness and start laying again

My white sussex cross (supposed to be with araucana, but she just looks completely white sussex) has been broody for some time. She just stays in the nest box all day. If I take her out and make her go out with the others, she seems normal, she has something to eat, a dust bath, walks normally, she doesn't look sick in any way so I don't think she's staying in there because she's unwell. I had (obviously mistakenly) thought that she'd give it 3 weeks and when chicks didn't appear go back to normal, but she hasn't. She went like this a little while after the chicks hatched, and they'll be 10 weeks old on Saturday, so it's been a long time.

If I take steps to "break her", what's to stop her just heading straight back to the nest box again after I let her out from the cage/wherever? She seems so determined to stay in there.

I really don't want to give her chicks, because I've got chicks from the eggs I put under my other broody chooks, and I'm in the suburbs so can't increase the flock size. I'd be grateful for any advice as to what to do with/for her.

Wonderful information! Thank you!

sumi said:

Broody hen hatches is probably my favourite part of chicken keeping. But with this wonderful, natural event there are potential problems and questions and dilemmas for chicken owners too. This week I would like to hear you all's thoughts on everything broody hen. Specifically:

- How can you tell a hen is committed (really broody)?
- What is the best/quickest way to break broodiness?
- Is there an "ideal" number of eggs to give a hen to hatch?
- How do you best take care of a broody and her nest?
- What to do once the chicks hatched?
- Can/should you let a hen raise her chicks in with the rest of the flock?
- What do you feed a broody hen and chicks?



For a complete list of our Topic of the Week threads, see here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

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1. I give her a week on that nest...if she's been tossed off several times, keeps going back, stays on it during feeding times and at night, she's committed.

2. I used to duck them in water and toss them out of the coop...that worked well for several years until that one broody that it didn't work on, so that method was abandoned for penning them up in a separate coop without nests, just roosts. That seems to work well for broodies of all kinds. Another sure way is to just give them some chicks to rear....if you can spare the room in the flock and if they have new chicks at the local feed/farm store, you can stash a few chicks under that broody and finally get her off the nest.

The one that could not be broken with the bucket.....and she just sat in that cool water for a long time, several times...nope, wasn't going to work with that one.






3. Depends on the size of the hen. My big WR hens can take over 20 eggs easily and when they build their own clutch it is anywhere from 15-22. When I put eggs under one of them, I usually give them 12-14.

4. I usually try to move my broodies to the broody ward pen where there is room for several broodies to brood at the floor level. After that I let the broody take care of her own nest.

5. Once the chicks are hatched they get chick starter feed for a week, then both Mama and chicks are turned out to range if the weather isn't too rainy. After that they can either return to the broody ward for chick starter/layer ration or eat the same in the main coop with the rest of the flock.


6. Not only can you do so, but if you have a free range situation, you should do so. The sooner they are out on range, the better. I let the broody choose how soon she integrates them into the flock after that. She can choose to sleep in the coop or in the broody ward or even near the broody ward, her choice.

7. I feed chick starter the first week and then that chick starter gets mixed with the general layer ration that the flock eats. When the chick starter is gone, then layer ration for all birds from then on. Mostly though, those little chicks aren't eating much grain feed at all....most of their daily ration comes off the land, with the chick starter/layer ration as a supplement.