Brodie young hen.

[Foxinthehenhouse]

This hen is about seven months old, she is small and started laying eggs about two months ago. She lays six eggs a week. Three days ago she spent the entire day in one of the nesting boxes, couldn’t get her to move. I keep taking her out of the box and she goes back and stays. No eggs under her. Now she’s made a nest on the floor and just stays there! What to do? She seems awfully young to start this and it is November! No roosters.
HELP!

 

[boskelli1571]

They are never too young! What breed is she? Cooling off the underside is the answer and putting her in a broody cage may be your solution.

 

[ChickNanny13]

2x @boskelli1571 .... "Broody Jail" = Wire Cage (remove the tray, add 1x2 welded wire at the bottom for footing) with food & water suspended or off the ground so that air circulates under the cage, keep her in for at least 3 days within the coop.

Unless you want hens to hatch eggs, it's best to break them of it. I thought removing would help but when they are determined, it's senseless. Mine lost so much weight before I tried the BJ ... I swear by it now.

 

[Foxinthehenhouse]

Thank you, I’ll try it.

 

[aart]

I've had some luck just tossing broody pullets out of the nest multiple times a day.
I take them to the run and 'drop' them. But I have lots of time to mess around with this..a crate would be a quicker route to breaking them.

These are my go-to signs of a broody:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) 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. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[Foxinthehenhouse]

Thank you ever so much for the info, I will try it!!