Do Broody Hens stop laying eggs when setting.

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ging3rhoffman

ging3rhoffman

Songster
10 Years
Feb 23, 2009
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I was wondering if a broody hen stops laying egg. If so, when does she start laying again. What is the usual number of chicks that a hen raises. Do you take the rooster out when she starts to sit? Gee, I dont know much about chickens do I !
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Yes, the broody will stop laying. She'll start back after weaning her chicks or a week or so after you break her from brooding. I'd remove the roo while she's brooding. He could easily attack and kill the newly hatched chicks. We all were new to this once so don't feel bad.
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I have a one year old bird that has stopped laying for the past 5 days. Now I don't have a rooster in my flock, so obviously no fertilized eggs. But my question is can a chicken still get broody even though they are not fertilized?

At first I was wondering if she was egg bound, but now I wonder if she is broody. She is constantly in her nesting box. She does eat and drink when I take her out of her box, but she isn't acting like her normal self. I don't think she would leave her box if I didn't take her out. She is not aggressive to me at all. Making noises in the box, her backside is up like she is going to lay an egg. I've tried the warm bath and massaged warm olive oil around her opening, but still no egg. I don't feel any hardness around the opening. I don't know what's up
 
mschreiner1 said:
I have a one year old bird that has stopped laying for the past 5 days. Now I don't have a rooster in my flock, so obviously no fertilized eggs. But my question is can a chicken still get broody even though they are not fertilized?

At first I was wondering if she was egg bound, but now I wonder if she is broody. She is constantly in her nesting box. She does eat and drink when I take her out of her box, but she isn't acting like her normal self. I don't think she would leave her box if I didn't take her out. She is not aggressive to me at all. Making noises in the box, her backside is up like she is going to lay an egg. I've tried the warm bath and massaged warm olive oil around her opening, but still no egg. I don't feel any hardness around the opening. I don't know what's up
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I've had 6 of my original hens and 3 others I've hatched here go broody. Every one of the started getting more off to themselves, then parked itself on the nest. The problem I've had is if a hen gets off the nest to take care of herself, it's as though she forgot which nest is the right one. I have to move the eggs to her. I have a GLW that's been setting for 2 months now. She hatched one chick but it took up with 4 other new hatchlings. She went back on the nest so I gave her two eggs. There hatching now. Should be good and dry by tomorrow.

I think the lifted backside is just her being fluffed up to give room under her. Your chicken is not laying, she's wanting some children.
 
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We have placed our broody hen in a pen by herself after trying the water dip and just moving her off the nest. How long will this need to go on? We have to break this Or into the pot she will go.
 
perryspatti said:
We have placed our broody hen in a pen by herself after trying the water dip and just moving her off the nest. How long will this need to go on? We have to break this Or into the pot she will go.
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for best results, the hen needs to be in a wire bottom cage, elevated off the ground so there's airflow under her. Food, water, a roost if you're so inclined, but no bedding or nesting materials. It usually takes about 3-5 days to break her.

If you have a chronic broody and don't want to utilize her, you might consider selling her before butchering. Some folks will pay a good $20 for a consistent broody hen.
 
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 was installed after pic was taken:
 

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