Breaking Broody

[SwampPrincessChick]

Is she being picked on by others? I have a girl who is towards the bottom of the pecking order. When others chase her away she walks around like a broody until the other chicken leaves her alone.

No, April is at the top of the pecking order in her flock. All of the large fowl (Polish and Sussex) are scared of her, even though she is almost 1/4 their size. I guess I will have to watch her and see how she does but I really don't want her to be sick, it is worrying me.

This is why I haven't put her in broody jail—I don't want her feeling worse.

 

[RoyalChick]

Good luck with your Broody. i’ve had a few that were easy to break and a couple that took days. My worry was they never seem to care about eating or drinking much. I love your containers for food and water. Would you mind telling me where you got them everything I put in gets knocked over in the dog crate! Thanks so much

I got them at PetCo or PetSmart - on of those. I use them in the brooder when I have babies too.

 

[RoyalChick]

Those are parrot cups, I use the same ones. Any pet store with a bird section should have similar:

View attachment 3811724

Yup. That’s the one.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I am following along.
I just put my girl in broody jail. She is not happy with me!
Last night I locked her out of the nest and put her on the roost. But as soon as she was able she was right back on the nest so early morning I hauled her off and put her here.
I have never been through this before so am anxious about it.
View attachment 3802106

Based on all my reading, Looks like your setup is spot on. I have never had a broody hen, but if I did, her set up would look the same as yours. Good luck!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I did this with one who I broke 6-7 times over a summer after I let her hatch in the spring. New owners were thrilled, but she never went broody again.

I had the opposite, my friend gave me her broody speckled Sussex which she did nothing about. She got to me and I never seen her broody for a second

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Update: April did fall sick but this morning she was acting a bit better. Hopefully she continues getting healthy again!

On the topic of breaking broody hens, I have a Speckled Sussex named Lily who goes broody often, which does not surprise me because her breed is known for that. Not too long ago, I found her sitting on a nest under a fallen log in a line of trees between our yard and the neighbor's yard. I watched how she did, and she worried me when I noticed she was not getting up to eat or drink for multiple days. I have heard of broodies starving themselves before, and the eggs Lily was sitting on would not be fertile anyway, so I decided to take action. I got Lily off her nest and found that she was sitting on a few broken eggshells and one egg with a crack in it. Those would certainly never hatch even if they were fertile! Lily did not go back to the nest. I have never actually had to put my hens in broody jail, only get them off the nest a few times and break them that way. I feel like some people are too quick to put them in jail when they can easily get them off. But if the hen is definitely persistent, then jail it is.

 

[PoppasGrill]

We have a broody barrred rock bantam that keeps switching nests. She’s sat on 9 eggs for 2 weeks, leaving her Polish boy toy to sit on the eggs while she went and got food.
Then she started sitting on 5 eggs in the nest next door, and again 10 days later on 6 eggs next door to that nest.
We just got 6 RI Blue chicks , 2 weeks old, and was thinking we can put her in with them to knock out the mothering mode.
Or we will isolate her in a store coop with 3-4 eggs and let her hatch .
It’s funny watching her try to cover 5-6 full size eggs with her tiny bantam body.

 

[Yardmom]

We have a broody barrred rock bantam that keeps switching nests. She’s sat on 9 eggs for 2 weeks, leaving her Polish boy toy to sit on the eggs while she went and got food.
Then she started sitting on 5 eggs in the nest next door, and again 10 days later on 6 eggs next door to that nest.
We just got 6 RI Blue chicks , 2 weeks old, and was thinking we can put her in with them to knock out the mothering mode.
Or we will isolate her in a store coop with 3-4 eggs and let her hatch .
It’s funny watching her try to cover 5-6 full size eggs with her tiny bantam body.

Did you already try this? Be very cautious if you are still planning to do this. 2 weeks is older than what typically works for grafting chicks to a mother. Your hen may consider the chicks competitors to her potential chicks. Meaning the broody hen may attack the chicks .

 

[CaptainArrow81]

I have an entirely different problem with a broody hen! Here what:

I acquired some hatching eggs and had them in my incubator just chugging along. In the meantime, I had not one, but four other hens go broody in my flock. My flock is free-ranging and I have no need for any more mixed breed chickens, so I wasn’t really keen on these girls being broody. I have my brooder box set up in my garage and have brought up over 200 chicks throughout the winter. That was the plan for the hatching eggs.

But with five broody hens all at once, including three that have successfully reared clutches in the past…why not let them do the work, right? Well, sort of. The chicks started hatching yesterday and two of the mommas have pecked three of the chicks to death after hatching them. They are now in solitary confinement and the remaining eggs were placed under other mommas to finish up.

Now, here’s my theory, but it’s only a theory: the two offending (seasoned) broody hens were/are definitely broody, but they only had the eggs under them for the last five days…not 21. I really think that they pecked the chicks to get rid of them so that they wouldn’t have to leave the nests to tend to the “early chicks” while the balance of the eggs were still unhatched (thinking their own biological clocks needed to stay longer).

Has anyone else experienced this, or witnessed my theory play out?

Pic of the nest box situation for tax. I had to add temporary litter bucket “boxes” just to accommodate them taking up all the prime real estate!

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

I have an entirely different problem with a broody hen! Here what:

I acquired some hatching eggs and had them in my incubator just chugging along. In the meantime, I had not one, but four other hens go broody in my flock. My flock is free-ranging and I have no need for any more mixed breed chickens, so I wasn’t really keen on these girls being broody. I have my brooder box set up in my garage and have brought up over 200 chicks throughout the winter. That was the plan for the hatching eggs.

But with five broody hens all at once, including three that have successfully reared clutches in the past…why not let them do the work, right? Well, sort of. The chicks started hatching yesterday and two of the mommas have pecked three of the chicks to death after hatching them. They are now in solitary confinement and the remaining eggs were placed under other mommas to finish up.

Now, here’s my theory, but it’s only a theory: the two offending (seasoned) broody hens were/are definitely broody, but they only had the eggs under them for the last five days…not 21. I really think that they pecked the chicks to get rid of them so that they wouldn’t have to leave the nests to tend to the “early chicks” while the balance of the eggs were still unhatched (thinking their own biological clocks needed to stay longer).

Has anyone else experienced this, or witnessed my theory play out?

Pic of the nest box situation for tax. I had to add temporary litter bucket “boxes” just to accommodate them taking up all the prime real estate!

Broody hens will kill chicks for various reasons. If they do not fit her standard of appearance (which means if they look weird to her in some way, like having an obvious deformity) she will get rid of them, and she will do the same to chicks that are weaker. The dam seems no reason to care for chicks she does not want, and some broody hens end up killing all of the chicks she hatches because she sees them as competition in the pecking order. Your theory would be correct because a dam is not fond of caring for early chicks when she still has eggs to brood. Chicks that hatch early feel out of place to her.