Breaking The Broody Cycle - Need Input

[moderndayhippy]

I just purchased a new book on Mini Farming and it says that when a chicken goes broody, you are supposed to take them out of the nesting box and put them in a rabbit hutch as their "broody cage" or they will stay broody indefinitely. It says to make sure that it's a wire bottom with no litter and to keep her in it for 36 to 48 hours to break her broody cycle, or desire to sit on the eggs. It also states the obvious in saying that you want to provide adequate food and water.

So....here's my question. This is my first experience ever dealing with an extremely broody baby. She is very sweet and will let me pick her up, but she does hiss and me and trill a lot too. She wants to stay in the nesting box ALL of the time, and I have to literally pick her up and move her outside of the coop with food and water in order for her to get up and stretch her legs. So it does concern me.

Has anyone else ever done this to break a hen's broody cycle, and if so, is what I read in this book completely correct? I have her in the rabbit hutch right now, but did give her some time earlier to stretch her legs in the run and eat and drink and scratch at the ground. I really want to do right by her, but I also don't want to have to deal with a broody baby for months on end either.

HELP! Please!

 

[silkiechicken]

I've done isolation and as long as they get a cold bum on wire feeling, they tend to quit in a few days. Had a real stubborn bird though, and to make her stop, I just ended up giving her day old chicks after she had sat for 4 weeks.

 

[moderndayhippy]

Quote:
LOL That would definitely be a pain. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

 

[silkiechicken]

No problem, the last ditch resort of giving her a chick to break the broodiness however, did also result in her not laying again for 6 weeks as she tender to her babies! Silly hens.

 

[moderndayhippy]

I wanted to come back and update on this incase anyone else is dealing with a broody baby.

I did go ahead and put her in the rabbit hutch and it worked wonderfully! I left her in there for 48 hours with ample food and water. (I had to empty out all of the bedding from the hutch and make sure that her food and water stayed on the wooden floor end, so that she would be on the wire floor end.) I could tell she was ticked off at me for leaving her in there (hence her multiple attempts to escape during food and water changes) but in the end it worked well and I will use this method again for future broody cycles in my hens. It was getting to the point that she was hardly eating and drinking, which in turn was making her begin to molt. I couldn't allow her to hurt herself over it. Tough love.