Breaking a broody

[MotherHen75]

So our silkie hen is 7 months old and already broody. She attacks my hand every time i try to get her eggs. And she’s picked the weirdest spot to sit, i can’t reach her but she’s on the tray to clean the coup out. So sooner or later i’ll need to clean it and she’s on it. As far as i know the eggs have been there for a day. We are also moving soon, so not the best time for her to go broody. When you break a broody, will she go broody again? I would love to have chicks later on.

 

[aart]

And she’s picked the weirdest spot to sit, i can’t reach her

Ha!
Little stinker, she probably knows you can't reach her!
This is one good reason to build your coop so you can easily reach every inch of it.

When you break a broody, will she go broody again?

More than likely.


If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.

My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) 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. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken:

 

[chrissynemetz]

In my experience most hens will go broody again at some point. I can only think of a small number of times when I've broken a broody girl and she never went broody again. So I would say you're probably safe

 

[MotherHen75]

I don’t think she’s full broody yet, she wasn’t on them all day today, so i took the eggs. She is very young so i’m hoping one day she’ll go full broody, just not right now.