Broody hen sitting on empty nest?

[chickenbritt5908]

I have a hen that has been sitting in her preferred nesting box for about a week or so. I check under her, no eggs. Is this a thing? I’ve been tracking how long she has been setting.. if she is indeed broody, I might stick some chicks under her closer to the 21 days but I want to be sure this is the case?

 

[birdlover2]

I have a hen that has been sitting in her preferred nesting box for about a week or so. I check under her, no eggs. Is this a thing? I’ve been tracking how long she has been setting.. if she is indeed broody, I might stick some chicks under her closer to the 21 days but I want to be sure this is the case?

Does she let you get near her? Has she stopped laying? How do the other chickens behave around her?

 

[chrissynemetz]

Is she staying on the nest over night? What does she do if you take her off the nest?

 

[aart]

These are my go-to signs of a broody:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?

 

[AllenK RGV]

Sounds like you have a Silkie. If you slide your hand towards her does she go on attack? I would break her @aart has written my bible to hen breaking. I do not think introducing chicks at 21 days would work as she never has heard her eggs peeping.

Lord knows I have tried that thought experiment as well. Broody chicken for me have never accepted foreigners.

 

[HappyClucker7]

You could try putting chicks under her. It worked with my hen. She is a first time mom, and she was just sitting on golf balls for a week before she got the chicks. She accepted them, and is now a very proud mama.

 

[chickenbritt5908]

She gets up once a day, all fluffed up and hurried. She’s not my first broody. She’s just the first that is showing broody signs but no eggs? I don’t think she is laying.

 

[AllenK RGV]

She gets up once a day, all fluffed up and hurried. She’s not my first broody. She’s just the first that is showing broody signs but no eggs? I don’t think she is laying.

It really sounds like you are the proud owner of a broody hen. Mine sometimes gather oyster shells from around the property to brood. Or rocks or golf balls, or or or.... I guess to make a long story short my girls do not need eggs to brood.

 

[aart]

She’s just the first that is showing broody signs but no eggs?

A broody will brood on nothing.

 

[chickenbritt5908]

A broody will brood on nothing.

That’s what I needed to know