Broody Chicken (how long in "solitary") ?

[Mommysongbird]

We have a broody hen, 1st time with this one and I am it whitts end.

We have tried everything that I have used in the past but nothing is working for her. We put her in "solitary" for 3 days. Let her out today and she went straight to the coop, ran out the other girls, and then sat on the eggs that were there, one just freshly laid.

How many days would you keep one in "solitary"??

 

[azygous]

There's no set number of days to break a broody. It's always taken my broodies around three days to get them over the compulsive need to sit on a nest.

However, I have a not-quite-three-year old serial broody who has gone broody eleven times now, the most recent being just two weeks ago. I honestly was beginning to think she was going to have to remain in the broody cage for the full three weeks. Every day beyond the third was just driving me nuts!

Finally, after two full weeks of the cage with a fan going full time under it, she quit running into the coop and onto a nest the minute I let her out.

Some hens are so determined to be broody, the hormones are so strong, that it can take a week or longer to break them.

All you can do is let your broody out of her cage first thing in the morning, and if she doesn't immediately end up back on a nest, then you know she's broken.

You can only hope you don't end up with one like mine.