Always clucky

[JaeG]

Yes!! It’s about 10 before she goes broody! Did you break her or just let her go? I tried to let her go the first time but she was like that for over 21 days so I broke her instead.
how old is she?

I never broke her - I don't see the point when they are really broody and will be back to brooding before you know it. It is just a hormonal change that stimulates them to sit, and our girl would sit for up to 6 weeks, then she'd give up, do a bit of a molt, and start laying her 10 eggs before repeating the process. She did that for her first 2 summers (she was a winter baby) then the last 2 years she's just gone broody maybe once or twice each summer. She's really slowed down in the egg laying department, but she's a pretty girl so we keep her around and I'd be surprised if she goes broody at all this summer (I'm in the southern hemisphere).

Chickens don't have the same sort of attachment to their babies as we do, and she won't be sad that nothing hatches. They are a lot more philosophical about these things than we are.

 

[BernieMac]

Ohh no rooster? Then just keep breaking her. Maybe you’ll get lucky and she’ll lay longer that way like JaeG ‘s hen did.

That’s a plan.

 

[BernieMac]

I never broke her - I don't see the point when they are really broody and will be back to brooding before you know it. It is just a hormonal change that stimulates them to sit, and our girl would sit for up to 6 weeks, then she'd give up, do a bit of a molt, and start laying her 10 eggs before repeating the process. She did that for her first 2 summers (she was a winter baby) then the last 2 years she's just gone broody maybe once or twice each summer. She's really slowed down in the egg laying department, but she's a pretty girl so we keep her around and I'd be surprised if she goes broody at all this summer (I'm in the southern hemisphere).

Chickens don't have the same sort of attachment to their babies as we do, and she won't be sad that nothing hatches. They are a lot more philosophical about these things than we are.

Thank you. I let her go the first time but since she’s the boss, no one else wanted to go into the coop so they’d just walk around it complaining
Maybe I could set her up somewhere else and let her sort it out herself?

 

[JaeG]

Thank you. I let her go the first time but since she’s the boss, no one else wanted to go into the coop so they’d just walk around it complaining
Maybe I could set her up somewhere else and let her sort it out herself?

You might have to if it's disrupting the others. It's best to move a broody when it's dark as then they wake up on their new nest thinking that's where they've always been (though the odd smart one won't settle, throwing a spanner in the works).