Black silkie hen (shadow is her name) wont stop going broody

[Bryce Thomas]

I have tried all the tricks in the book, I have done the broody breaker cage, removed her from the nest, removed the nesting boxes literally everything and nothing works. When it does work the second she finds an egg shaped rock or a shaded area that's just nice for incubating eggs she goes broody. If I stop her then she will just go broody again and never stops. I don't want more chicks and both my 2 mature laying silkies are broody and don't lay eggs so I don't even have any eggs. I feel like giving up and letting her go broody for 21 days but she never stops and I know its only a matter of time before she dies of thirst or hunger because she refuses to get off the nest. I have 2 fake eggs for my 2 nesting boxes and even If I remove the 2 fake eggs shadow still goes broody. I honestly don't know what to do at this point and I know its not a how but a when as there is always a tiny chance of a broody hen dying on the nest for every day that a hen is on the nest. I have tried everything for about a month now and she still wants to go broody. If there was a guiness world record for the most broody hen on earth this chicken Shadow would have that achievement and its so stressing and annoying. I have even caged off every location that she would go broody before removing all the chickens then putting them back in so they are not locked in. The wire mesh (1x1 inch holes) was impossible to get through and it was 8 feet tall. Shadow is 2 times smaller than my rooster Koa and he can only jump 4 and a half feet. These cage mesh were 8 feet. I have wooden boards over everything. Not even a parrot would figure out how to get in and these boards were HEAVY and she STILL gets in to these locations. The boards seemed to have moved a little so im assuming she jumped up there somehow and scurried into the nesting box area, the cage mesh was not moved and there was no tunnel burrowed. She is some ninja chicken that wont stop being broody. This is not a troll post. She can literally get into an impossible to get in cage and still go broody. I love shadow and it would be like losing a child to have her die and I know a hen can die of broodiness and she just wont stop. Someone help me please any help would be greatly appreciated! ! !

 

[JacinLarkwell]

That's a silkie for you. They're going to go broody as often as they can, just like my pheonixes do.

 

[Bryce Thomas]

That's a silkie for you. They're going to go broody as often as they can, just like my pheonixes do.

Yes but she wont stop and will eventually die of it and thats not normal and I have to take her out of the nesting box for an hour a day so she can eat and fatten up a little last time she went broody I forgot to do that and she nearly died because she was skin and bones

 

[katelwil]

For my hen, I started locking her out of the coop every single day. At some point she gave up, it took forever though. I'm sure once she starts laying again, I will have to do the whole process over. Like @JacinLarkwell said, that's a silkie for you!

 

[katelwil]

Yes but she wont stop and will eventually die of it and thats not normal and I have to take her out of the nesting box for an hour a day so she can eat and fatten up a little last time she went broody I forgot to do that and she nearly died because she was skin and bones

Also, I had a hen go broody in the middle of summer and she ended up getting heat stroke and dying.. even more reason to discourage it, at least in the summer.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I just let nature take it's course with the stubborn broodies. Had an old hen die this spring after about 2 weeks of brooding after a failed clutch. There's only so much I'm going to put up with before I back away. It sucks, but that's that.

 

[Bryce Thomas]

I just let nature take it's course with the stubborn broodies. Had an old hen die this spring after about 2 weeks of brooding after a failed clutch. There's only so much I'm going to put up with before I back away. It sucks, but that's that.

Really? I can do that, when I pick her up and place her out of the nest box she goes for water and food and its not just a tiny amount she practically eats it up till she is full so I could do that, but she will stop going broody eventually right?

 

[aart]

Put her in a breaker crate.

it would be like losing a child to have her die

Do not say that unless you've actually lost a child.

 

[Bryce Thomas]

Put her in a breaker crate.
View attachment 2780262


Do not say that unless you've actually lost a child.

how long to do the broody breaker cage? And when do I know that she has stopped going broody because shadow knows when i try and do this, she plays im not broody and walks around and always spills over the food into the water to try and get out, if that does not work she stands there so i think she is done being broody then once i let her out she wanders around for 0-30 mins then gets back to being broody in a nesting box

 

[AshliMal]

We just broke our broody silkie, she was incredibly persistent and after all the usual didn’t work, 5 days in broody jail finally ended it. She needed a small fan (like a little personal fan) blowing under her (made she she had room to get out of the breeze if she was too cool). The fan made the difference for her, and we had to get her up and off the ground, otherwise she was just brooding on the ground in the crate. It’s frustrating.... she wasn’t even hatching anything, just sitting!