Broody for the second time in a month?!

I might be exaggerating. I left town in April for one night, with a neighbor watching my "girls". When I came back, my silver laced wyandotte was broody. I'm a pretty new chicken mama, so it took me a day or so to really catch on. Thankfully, she wasn't mean - she just sort of purred whenever someone approached her in the nesting box. Unfortunately, all four of my girls refuse to use any place other than that one nesting box to lay their eggs. I ended up rounding up an old cage from a friend, where my Wyandotte spent two or three nights before she finally broke.

Today, just over a month later, I found her in the nesting box...purring...fluffing up. ARGH. I locked the girls out of the coop allllll day, to see if she would calm down. No dice. When I went out at 9 to let everyone back in for bed, she went straight to the nesting box. Stubborn little thing!!

So, tonight, she is back in the cage on the deck, next to the last three chicks who are still too little for the yard.

Can someone please reassure me - is this normal behavior? I mean, can I expect all of my flock to go broody at the drop of a hat like this at some point? Or is Sara just really stubborn?? (We have no rooster, no need for new chicks, and no desire to let her sit in the nesting box until she gives up in a month or two.)

Chickens are like people. You can't use one as a par for everyone else. I have a hen that has been broody for five weeks. I feared she wasn't getting food or water but I spied on her doing just that. I don't let my broody hens sit on eggs but I don't try to "break" them either. I think the hens know what they want to do. Unless it really hinders your egg production or causes issues I would just let nature take it's course.

You...make a good point. I just miss her eggs...and I might be the teensiest bit controlling. LOL

Last time she was broody, the other girls would peck at her and chase her whenever she came out. This time, it isn't the case. It's just so funny to peek into the nesting box - there were three girls in there together! It's actually one long nesting box, with two doors. The broody one was in between the doors, and two more girls were in the Favored Place, beak to tail. As soon as they finished up, the broody one scooted right over onto the eggs.

it is so difficult to collect the eggs at night, though! She moves all of my bedding, so I can hear the eggs clunk onto the wood of the box. And if I left her out, sometimes she will hold onto an egg between her thigh and belly so that when i set her down, it falls out and cracks on the ground. Crazy girl.

I am kinda new to this so maybe you should wait for someone else's input. It might be one of those things where it's easier to break the broody the less time they act like it. Anyways, you sound like you will get it. Good luck.

Maybe she just needs to have a hatch(even a small one) . Sometimes people buy fertile eggs to put under the hen. Sometimes they take the eggs away and put a 1-2 day old chick under the hen, so she thinks she hatched a brood and may get on with her life. If you feel you have to break her - you generally put them in a crate raised up a little from the ground and have her just on a wire floor - no bedding. The cooler air under the hen usually gets her to forget about brooding. Sometimes it takes a few days in the crate, sometimes it takes 2 or 3 times of being in the "broody breaker" till they give up.

If she really won't quit and go back to laying eggs maybe you could rehome her to someone who wants a broody - so both of you won't be stressed anymore.

This is just a thought, I have no idea if this is bad for them but you could just take out the eggs by sliding your hand under her slowly and take the eggs out one at a time. If she doesn't have any eggs under her she might forget about it. But I've only been doing chickens for around a year now so I really wouldn't know.

Broodiness has pretty much been bred out of most hatchery birds, so you don't really have to worry about your flock all going broody at once. Some birds do persist in it, some are easy to break. If she's persistant and you don't want eggs, you might look into trading her with someone local who wants a nice broody. You could get a dependable layer and she could get to be a momma, sounds like a win-win.