Brooding and Bullying

[ahwhite]

Help! One of my chickens has gone broody, but when I try to (repeatedly) take her out of the nesting box to discourage her, the other chickens bully her. I guess they assigned her that role? How can I keep her out of there without her getting pecked in the face when I do? Isolate her?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Put her in a wired bottom crate slightly elevated off the ground for 3-5 days. Other hens routinely fight with a broody hen, so that's normal, break her and the drama will stop until next time she goes broody.

 

[ahwhite]

Ok thank you!

 

[aart]

Yeppers....I'm on day 4 with my 4th broody to be broken,
and I think she's done<crossesfingers>.
The sooner you get her in a breaker cage, the less time it usually takes to break them.
It took me awhile this time to conclude that she was broody, she toyed with it for a week...then I started to set her up to hatch out, but changed my mind.

My experiences pretty much go 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(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.
Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.

 

[MesMama]

I have the exact set up as aart and it works perfectly! Be patient as it might take a few days and you might have to put her back in there again in a couple weeks. Last year I had to break a broody hen multiple times. And I also had a hen go broody and the others pecked her, so I started isolating them when they go broody to avoid that.

 

[aart]

Yeppers....I'm on day 4 with my 4th broody to be broken,
and I think she's done<crossesfingers>.

Yep, she's done, Yay!!
Let her out for her morning constitutional and she never went back to the nest.

 

[MasAhora]

sigh... my serial broody acts 'broken' then goes into another hens laying spot, found her hidden behind another hen this morning trying not to cluck when she saw me.

When you pull your broody out, depending on the girl, she may need to get orientated a moment or two from her broody dream state -perhaps your girl needs a bit more time than others and thats why the others bother her? I'd stay with her and shoe the others away, if that is the case. I've got one girl that takes a minute or two to remember how to stand each time I send her out for a feed/poop break.