Mean broody- need advice

[Dotsontori]

Hi everyone! My hens are almost 2 and one has gone broody for a while now. Not laying her own eggs but sitting on my other hens eggs. I decided to leave them to try and get new chicks added to my flock. Surprise, it worked! One chick arrived a few days ago witch I removed from flock due to the nesting box being so high up. (No access to food or water for chick) Another chick hatched yesterday but my hen is being so mean trying to retrieve the chick, is this normal?

Also once all these eggs are hatched how do I get her to start laying again?

 

[PirateGirl]

I recently had my first broody. My hen was formerly the most docile of the flock, and when broody she fought with the other hens, drew blood from my hand, has peck/bite marks on her comb, and is/was overall extremely grumpy. She stopped laying and stole the other hens' eggs daily and they would fight over the favorite nest box. I was advised (and it helped) to wear long sleeves and gloves when handling her/stealing eggs/etc. She got used to it and some days just let me do my thing. She fights with the other girls less again. Some days are better than others. What I'm saying is that yes, a change in personality, and being protective of the nest/eggs/babies is normal.

Hopefully once all the eggs hatch and she has chicks to raise, or you take the chicks away, or whatever your plan is, she will return to normal on her own. She will start laying again in her own time as her hormones run their course. I don't think you can make her lay again. There are techniques to break broodiness if she does not snap out of it once the hatch has passed, but I'd give it some time first.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not sure what you mean by the hen being so mean trying to retrieve the chick. Mean to whom? In what way? Which chick, first or second? It's pretty normal for mothers to protect their babies, broody hens are famous for it. So is it normal? Probably but I'm not sure what is going on.

How many days apart did those chicks hatch? Did you start all the eggs at the same time or did other hens continue to lay in the broody hens nest and those eggs were left. There is a lot I don't understand about your situation. I generally collect all the eggs I want a hen to hatch, mark them, and give them all to her at the same time so they hatch about the same time, check under her daily to remove any that don't belong, and leave the rest up to the hen.

Since the chick absorbs the yolk before it hatches it can go over 72 hours without eating and drinking. That way, if they are all started at the same time, the hen can hatch them all before she needs to bring them off the nest to find food or water. No need to take chicks away early.

I let my broody hens raise their chicks with the flock but you can brood the chicks yourself if you wish. That will get her back to laying earlier. Otherwise she won't think about laying until after she has finished raising the chicks. Before a hen even starts laying she builds up a certain amount of excess fat as a reserve in case she goes broody. A broody hen eats and drinks a little while broody but spends most of her time sitting on the eggs. She mostly lives off of that fat reserve, so by the time she hatches a lot of that reserve will be gone and need to be replenished before she starts laying again. That will take time.

So what can you do to speed that process up? Realize it will not be overnight but it will take some time. I never take the chicks away right after she has hatched. It normally takes about two weeks for them to start laying after they wean the chicks but they have probably been building up those reserves some while raising the chicks since thy are not confined to a nest. I had one hen that started to lay even before she weaned her chicks but that is extremely unusual. I've had some that started the molt early in late summer before they weaned their chicks so it was months later that they started to lay, but two weeks isn't unusual.

Fresh off the nest her reserves are probably pretty low. It may take a little longer for her to get to laying status again. She should break from being broody in a couple of day of taking the chicks away, most do. She will get her reserves built back up to resume laying just on what she regularly eats. You can probably speed that up some by giving her treats rich in protein and fats. BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds) would be perfect for that as they are rich in both.

 

[snow5164]

Hens are mean when broody because they’re protecting their babies from you and others ... my broody dinosaur isn’t she sweet??

 

[snow5164]