Broody hen wont eat drink or poop

[chickens really]

Some people say to never touch a broody hen, well I disagree. I think that is great she went to the bathroom and had some food and water....Keep doing as you are....


Cheers!

 

[aart]

I picked her up again and put her beside food and water, this time she started drinking immediately so I left her alone, came back 7-8 mins later and she was on her nest, and had pooped and looks like she ate as well so all looks good now, guess she just needed a bit of a push.

Perfect!! Good News!
I smooth over the top of the feed in the feed dish....
.....that being disturbed and the huge poops that can't be missed will let you know she is taking nourishment at least every day or two.

 

[Dmontgomery]

I picked her up again and put her beside food and water, this time she started drinking immediately so I left her alone, came back 7-8 mins later and she was on her nest, and had pooped and looks like she ate as well so all looks good now, guess she just needed a bit of a push.

Good job!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't mean to offend anyone but for all the proponents of interfering with the process, wonder and innate wisdom of the broody hen let me ask this.
There are 10,000 species of birds that have been successfully incubating their eggs and brooding their chicks for millions of years. How and why has it, all of a sudden, become necessary to provide human assistance just now with the resurgence of the backyard hen?

I've had at least 100 broody hens in my life and monitored captive macaws and wild birds on eggs. I've never touched one. And believe it or not, none died.
Whether I leave them with the flock or put them in their own broody apartment, I just make sure there is food and water available, mark the calendar and count chicks after 3 weeks. That's the beauty of a broody hen. She does all the work.
The only time one has to handle a broody hen is if they don't want them to hatch eggs. In that case they go into a wire bottom suspended cage, with food and water.
The only time I do ANYTHING with a nest is if they are with their flock, I wait till she comes off the nest and I mark the eggs under her so I can remove eggs the other hens volunteer.




















The nice thing about having a broody in their own space is that you can count the times they come off the nest by counting fecals. It is sometimes once a day. Sometimes they miss a day or two in succession.




We had about 400 scarlet and great green macaws. The breeding pairs were provided a barrel nest and raw materials to make a nest with.




This pair had an egg. Never once did we ever touch a bird and especially not when they had an egg. That is an absolute no no.

 

[aart]

Shame on us for interfering with our broodies!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Interfere all you want. I just wanted to say that it isn't necessary or advisable except in emergencies.

Might as well incubate artificially if one is going to be hands on all the way through.

 

[aart]

Interfere all you want. I just wanted to say that it isn't necessary or advisable except in emergencies.

Might as well incubate artificially if one is going to be hands on all the way through.

Not necessarily, still a lot of advantages to using broodies.
Some interference/management is not always a bad thing, it's not a black/white, right/wrong issue.

 

[Beekissed]

I picked her up again and put her beside food and water, this time she started drinking immediately so I left her alone, came back 7-8 mins later and she was on her nest, and had pooped and looks like she ate as well so all looks good now, guess she just needed a bit of a push.

No...they don't need any push. The first three days are critical for the chicks and you'll not see a good broody come off that nest for the first three days and again, for the last 2-3 days she won't either. Please don't make her do it then either, as a certain humidity needs to be retained in the nest and eggs for a good hatch in those last 3-4 days....forcing her off the nest will cause her to lose that valuable humidity level there. When you force her to, you mess with what she is trying to accomplish there and may even damage the eggs when you try to force her when she's trying to hunker down and not leave.

A broody state is not like any other time in a chicken's life and everything slows down...it's sort of like a mini hibernation and their body doesn't require food, drink or elimination daily like when their normal metabolism is in play. Chickens have been hatching out chicks since the beginning of time without a human there to force them off the nest to eat and drink. And I've never seen a nest located by a running stream or a ready food source, either, so forcing her to drink by dipping her beak in the water could just be messing up what needs to happen in her body.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Unless a bird is sick, interference with the natural order of things is usually a bad thing. They don't need our help to live and reproduce. If they did, I would no longer raise chickens.

People come here for advice. They get lots of different opinions - some good, some bad.

I come here to give the best advice I can. Take it or leave it.

 

[WthrLady]

We had one like this too. She's not allowed to go broody anymore as I refuse to co-brood a nest of eggs. Once they hatched though, she was the best mom. She sat fine, just had no idea she was supposed to get up eat, drink and poop.