Has your chicken ever done this?

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MackChick

MackChick

In the Brooder
6 Years
Jun 17, 2013
87
6
43
BC, Canada
My EE started laying just over a month ago and everything was going great... however she hasn't laid in over a week and is just hanging out in the nest box. Is she being broody even if she's not laying on an egg? Everytime I move her out of the box she is mad for a second then runs to eat food. She's just sitting in there and doesn't eat or drink, but when I take her out she acts totally normal. Any guesses what is going on or how to fix it?? Thanks!


 
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My Japanese bantam will stay on a nest of air! (We remove all of the eggs, daily.) She first went broody a few months after she began laying. -sat on air for three weeks. I cannot say with any certainty that your pullet is broody, but this is one plausible possibility. When you move her off the nest does she puff up and growl or fuss? You stated that she was "mad", which does sound like typical irritable broody behavior. Also, after you take her out and she acts normal, does she eat and drink then? -promptly return to the nest? Most broody chickens will return to the nest within a short time of eating/drinking.
 
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TXchickmum said:
My Japanese bantam will stay on a nest of air! (We remove all of the eggs, daily.) She first went broody a few months after she began laying. -sat on air for three weeks. I cannot say with any certainty that your pullet is broody, but this is one plausible possibility. When you move her off the nest does she puff up and growl or fuss? You stated that she was "mad", which does sound like typical irritable broody behavior. Also, after you take her out and she acts normal, does she eat and drink then? -promptly return to the nest? Most broody chickens will return to the nest within a short time of eating/drinking.
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Thanks for the reply! Yeah she will make a noisy fuss then sit on the ground in her laying position then get up and eat or do whatever the other chickens are doing. I'm not sure how long before she heads back to the nestbox. The more I'm reading on this website the more I think she is indeed broody. Should I just keep kicking her out of the nest box?
 
If you want to break her from being broody there are different things you can try.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/181289/how-to-break-a-broody-hen
We've always just placed ours in a large dog crate with food and water. After 24 to 48 hours, they are ready to return to the flock. The little bantam is very determined, so we just leave her on the nest (making sure that she comes down several times a day to eat and drink). After 4 - 5 weeks, she's finished.
 
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Soooo I read all the advice about how to break the broodiness but I didn't have a wire cage... it's been about -5 C here so I decided to see if the cool temperatures would break her. I locked her out of the coop all day then blocked off the nest boxes at night. In the morning I locked her out again and opened up the nest boxes to the other chickens, then let her back in and closed them off again at night. The next morning she was on the roost with the other chickens! I let all the girls out with free range to go back into the coop and she hung out with them all day, not returning to the nest box. Woo hoo! No eggs from her yet, but I think her broodiness is broken!
 

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