Broody chicken keeping other hens from laying. Is it unhealthy for the girls that want to lay but ca

[cluckindood]

I have recently had a chicken go broody and has been broody for about a month now. Recently it has gotten to the point where she keeps the other girls from laying so now not only am I not getting eggs but my girls can't even lay them! I'm doing my best to break her habit (without the use of a secondary cage cause I don't have one) but I'm curious to as until she breaks her brood, is it okay that the other girls won't lay? I guess I'm just concerned that them not getting the opportunity to lay every day might be bad for their health. Any info on whether or not that is true? Also, if you have any advice on how to get my broody girl to stop (except eating her, but the frustration is giving me crazy thoughts sometimes

) that would be great!
Thanks!
-cluckindood

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I have recently had a chicken go broody and has been broody for about a month now. Recently it has gotten to the point where she keeps the other girls from laying so now not only am I not getting eggs but my girls can't even lay them! I'm doing my best to break her habit (without the use of a secondary cage cause I don't have one) but I'm curious to as until she breaks her brood, is it okay that the other girls won't lay? I guess I'm just concerned that them not getting the opportunity to lay every day might be bad for their health. Any info on whether or not that is true? Also, if you have any advice on how to get my broody girl to stop (except eating her, but the frustration is giving me crazy thoughts sometimes

) that would be great!
Thanks!
-cluckindood

How is she keeping your other hens from laying? Do you say that because you believe she is keeping them from having access to teh nest box(es)? How many boxes and how many hens do you have? Rather than stopping, your other hens will continue to lay but just not in the box(es) the broody is guarding - meaning you would want/need to search for where they ARE laying. If they have truly all stopped laying it is unlikely that it is related to her being broody.
Since you want to stop the broody behavior - search on breaking a broody hen - there are several different threads where it is discussed and, no, it does not require eating her.

 

[cluckindood]

I have two boxes and she just won't let them anywhere near the nesting boxes. She's really become kind of a nasty thing (why I have recently started calling her "hiney" because she's such a pain in everyone's you know what!), I've opened the door before and have seen her get up out of her one nesting box to push a laying one out of the second box. Then after, she quickly retruend to her original box. I don't know if they boxes are too close together which is what sets her off so easily but she really isn't a happy camper when the other three come around the nesting area. but I do have enough space in the coop to install a temporary third one so that might help. they are in a closed tractor so they can only range within the run of the mobile coop so if they were to have laid an egg "elsewhere" they would've had to escape somehow to do so. So I guess until I find a method that works for breaking the broody, I'll just have to see if a temporary nesting box will work.
thanks for your response Ol Grey Mare!
cluckindood.