Breaking Broody Hen in Wire Box - Won't Sit Down

[aart]

It's not sad if you don't want a broody hen, it's great!

I usually let my broody out of the cage a couple times a day to give her a stretch and a 'nest test'.

My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.

Nipple water bottle added after pic was taken.

 

[Beekissed]

Not a good idea to have broody and chicks in the middle of winter, so breaking her was the right thing to do. Maybe she'll go broody for you again when it's an appropriate time of the year to raise young ones.

 

[RoosterDon]

I had a young hen go broody and we were really done with raising chicks having just hatched 17. I kept taking the eggs from underneath her. She never got upset, she just stayed in that nest. Other hens would lay in there when she would take a break. I kept this up for 2 months then finally was filled with guilt and let her sit on 4 eggs. I put her in her own pen when the eggs started to hatch, and she hatched 3 of the 4. I let her raise them in a separate coop and area. This time though I was less worried about helping and watching her with them and just let nature take over and I was happy to find out that she needed no help at all. They are two months old today and still with the hen.

Like someone said, it is so much fun watching the mom train and teach them from scratching for insects to taking their dirt bath. And the little language they use is so fascinating and interesting to watch.

I will now never stop a hen from brooding since it is pretty seamless letting them go at it on their own.

Plus, I have learned that you never know when you might lose 1-3 for any reason, mostly predator related, so keeping them coming is not a bad thing, especially with the 50/50 chance that you get a roo that will need to be culled out.

 

[awakening2]

Gosh, that sounds like fun! I hope we can experience that too, down the road. I had no idea I would love chickens as much as I do.

 

[awakening2]

What a great photo. Thanks for sharing. Chickens are such funny little creatures! I'm thrilled that Phoebe, our girl, is back to her normal self. When she turns broody again, I'll have a lot more tools to help her through it, thanks to everyone on this forum.