I have an insane chicken. She thinks if she sits on it long enough, straw will spontaneously generate into chicks. Seriously, she's gone horribly broody, hasn't laid eggs in three weeks since she went over the edge into broody mode, and nothing I do snaps her out of it. I move her, I put her out in the forage cage, I have tried dipping her in water, I've done everything, and she's still trying to brood straw. I took an egg away right before she went this way, and she's been being typically broody, but with NOTHING UNDER HER. When I get her off the nest, she goes out and forages, eats some food, drinks some water, then goes right back. I shut her away from the nest box, and she started brooding the straw in the nest for the Cornish, which an open box outside. I shooed her out of that one, and then she just colonized the corner behind the feeder. I'm at my wits end. Oh, did I mention that when she's off the nest, she calls nonexistant chicks, and acts like she's defending them from the other hens? Do I just resign myself to having an insane chicken? It would be funny if I didn't worry that she's starving trying to brood straw...
I break my broodies by removing them entirely from the nesting boxes. We have an enclousure that I'll put them in for a few days with water and food, but no place to nest. The longer they've been broody, the longer it will take to break them of it.
It is often suggested to isolate them for a few days in any sort of cage that has a wire floor. Evidently the air cools their bottom side and causes them to stop being broody.
