How to Break a Broody Hen

[Sunny Side Up]

Chikenbutwut, it sounds like you've got things well planned. You've got good reasons to keep bantams, and have good plans for their possible broodiness. I wish you the best of success with your flock!

 

[Cadens Farm]

The main thing I see in many of these posts, is that many are too attached to their birds. These are food animals, not pets. To make them pets, is emotionally unhealthy. You are trying to keep them in good health. Dunking them in water isn't cruel. We all swim, and never saw it as torture. Cages should not be a last resort, they should be a first resort. If you're morally opposed to cages, you need to rethink things. Broody birds can easily get weak and die. Much like tearing off a bandage, faster is better. It might hurt a bit, but it's the better option. I truly think animals in situations like this need to be looked at strictly from a logical point of view, not an emotional. I'm not at all trying to be rude here, or short, but it seems this has been talked about longer than it would have taken to actually break one. My .02

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

We were getting excited because one of our hens (we thought) had finally gone broody and we were going to sneak some fertilized eggs under her but when I collected the eggs she was sitting on she sat a while longer and then she got up. Did I blow it? Do I have to put fake eggs under her or if she was that easy to break, maybe she wasn't really broody after all?

Hmmm, if she got up that easily, she probably wasn't broody. Was she sleeping in the nest box? That's usually a tell-tailed sign that a hen is broody. In addition to the defending the nest like there's no tomorrow, growing and pecking.

Now she might have just been ready to get up for a break as they do take a break a few times a day to eat, drink and poop. So don't panic yet. She may come back to those eggs. But either way, be sure to mark them with a pencil mark X or something so you know which eggs are the ones you want her to sit on vs. eggs you want to collect to eat.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I have a few question if you dont mind answering some please

first : will a hen go broody without a rooster being around ?

second :if a rouge rooster finds it's way from next door would it "hit it and quit it" or would it be more likely to hang around an claim it's "booty"?

third: how can I tell if the eggs are fertile so i may tell if the brodiness is placebo or real?

Thanks so much for you help I look forward to hearing from you e

Yes a hen can go broody without a rooster around. But the eggs would not be fertile so they would never hatch. I've had a hen sit on ping pong balls for weeks until I took pity and gave her some chicks to brood.

A rouge rooster would likely stay to take over the flock. After all the work he would have to do to even get close enough to a hen to "hit it" he'd definitely stick around. My girls fought pretty hard before the roosters were able to finally mate them and some never were mated because they were too fast.

If you have a rooster that is mating the hens, the eggs are more than likely fertile. You can break open one and look for the bullseye white dot with outer white circle.

Broodiness doesn't depend on whether the eggs are fertilized, but hatching would definitely depend on that.

The best way to know if she's broody is if she's sitting in the nest and not roosting at night, stopped laying, and puffs up when you even think about touching her eggs.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Thanks so much. you are awesome !  you confirmed what I already thought to be true . She is brooding for sure ,she sleeps in the nest and i can pet her a few times but she growls and puffs up and i am sure if i didnt stop she would peck me, lucky for me she has always had a gentle nature , today the other hen fought her till she got up out of the nest " out of all the nest i have apparently only one is good enough for 4 of my 7 hens" .But i waited for that hen to finish laying and as soon as she left my broody one was making a beeline for the coop but i beat her there and stole the eggs and as i was walking away with the eggs she seemed to see them in the wire basket and she walked towards me a puffed up lol "poor thing' and tonight i checked and she is still in the nest and seems to have a lump of bedding she is now trying to hatch so because i do not need any more chicks i dont wanna get fertile eggs for her to hatch but i also dont want to discourage her from her natural instincts so now i am wondering if she will just stop brooding after a while on her own and i can just steal the eggs or do i need to break her ? ohhhh tell me all knowing chicken master pleaseeee

 

The chicken below, a Maran called Bunny, sat for 46 days= at the end it was 25 days on eggs that didn't hatch, before that 14 days on eggs that she ruined, and the remaining time before that on air because I didn't leave eggs in the nest. My broody silky Topsy sat on air for 23 days before I finally let her hatch 4 of her own eggs. Removing the eggs might break her, but if she's determined I doubt it would work.

Here's what worked for me, two days or so in a raised wire cage=broodiness done. Dunking in ice water=nice cool bath for broody who went right back to nest and my hand felt like it would fall off.

And I don't believe she will loose the broody instinct this way, but time will tell with my girls. I broke Topsy once from sitting by simply removing her and eggs from the nest repeatedly. She went back to broody a couple of weeks later.

 

[pamschick]

My neighbor's buff Orpington has gone broody two times. Both times were when my neighbor was out of town for an extended period of time. The comb on her broody hen went ale and sickly too. So I went to the local feed store and bought a container of mealy worms. I took her off the nest and outside of the pen, I gave her some worms. This helped her immensely!! She LOVES the worms. A few days later her comb was perked up and she stopped brooding.

 

[MackChick]

Just thought I'd share my recent experience breaking my broody hen... I wasn't ready to try the wire cage method so thought I'd try something else to cool her vent. It's been about -5 C here so I wanted to see if the cool temperatures would break her. I locked her out of the coop all day then let her back in at night but blocked off the nest boxes. In the morning I locked her out again (opened up the nest boxes to the other chickens), and at night let her back in and closed off the boxes again. I went out on the third morning and she was on the roost with the other chickens! I let all the girls out of the coop leaving their door open so they could go in/out as they please... she hung out with the other girls all day, not returning to the nest box. Woo hoo! No eggs from her yet, but I think her broodiness is broken!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

The broody spell is broken when they no longer want to spend so much of their time setting on the nest. Most broodies won't continue to lay once they've begun to set, so if they lay an egg -- and especially if they don't want to set on it -- their spell should be broken. Others will take more days to begin laying after they stop feeling broody, but if they're spending most of their time foraging & returning to their previously scheduled programming, sleeping on a roost & not in a nest box, their spell should be over.

Each hen is different, and some will go for a long time in a half-broody sort of state. I think of them as "Hollywood Hens", like those ladies in show business who vacillate between career & motherhood...

 

[pegm]

Thank you for your advise. This is what I did. I made a separate pen outside of the coop/run area where she could still see her coop mates. It was completely shaded. That evening late I put her in the secure area with the roosting coop and no access to the nest boxes. She paced around but eventually went to roost. The next morning I put her in the separate pen again, and repeated the evening exercise whereby she went immediately to roost. Put her in the pen the third morning, but about mid afternoon I let them all out in a side yard to scratch and forage (an area separate from the run/coop area). Then I covered the nests boxes as the others had already laid for the day, and put them all back into the run/coop. The BO hasn't even looked at the nest boxes yet and has resumed her normal activities...I hope this holds, time will tell.

 

[bruceha2000]

Flachickman--I used a towel to put over my not so friendly hen while she was "sitting" in her nesting box. I put the towel completely over her and lifted her out. When I had her out--holding her football style under my left arm, I uncovered her head and petted and talked sweet to her to let her know I meant no harm. I then placed her in an all wire cage. The cage was set on blocks so air could flow through the bottom with no nesting materials--to "cool" her boo-tay. I put a roosting pole in it for her and her own food and water. She stayed 3 days, I let her out and she was "broken" from being broody. She went back to the flock and has been normal since. Funny thing is--she would never let me near her and was very unfriendly but after she came out of the cage, she lets me pet her. Seems like her alone time and me going out numerous times a day to talk to and pet her through the cage made her realize I'm not so bad after all!

I think that is important. The hen can't help it and the broody box isn't punishment. It just is NOT good for a chicken's health to sit in a nest on no eggs all day, day after day. My broodies get evening scratch even when they are in the box. I let them out in the morning if they don't seem too wound up so they can see a little of the world and share morning treats. If they go back in the nest, they go back in the box. You can usually tell when they are broody vs broken. When broody ALL they want is out of that box and when let out they run like their tails are on fire. If they are broken, they are calm in the box, come out when I open the door, hop down (my box sits on the end of the roosts) and head out like it is just another day.