Broody hen - help needed!

[kbird]

I have 4 hens, 1 rooster. All are Greystone/RIR mix. One of my hens is going broody and we don't want chicks, with the chance of one being a rooster. I tried to get her out of the box but she started pecking at the broom handle I was using and she got really annoyed at me. How can I safely get her out of the nesting box and back with the others? I collect the eggs in the morning so if I can get her out of the coop I can close the gate and keep her out. Thanks for any advice!!

 

[joedie]

I'd stick my hands in there with gloves on and pick her up. Mine will usually just peck at me once this way and it doesn't really hurt. If you don't want her broody you can break her of it by putting her in a small dog crate/kennel with the floor taken out and raised on a couple of bricks so the air moves under her butt. Keep her in there with food and water for 3-4 days and then let her out. It works every time for me. If you just move her out, she'll find some other place to brood. You need to break the cycle. Just remember, she may start up all over again in a month or two. BTW,

 

[Backyard Hencam]

Keeping her in cage for a few days usually works. I just learned that taking her out of the nest (wear gloves) after dark and putting her on the roost with the others will work if you continue it for about a week. They can't find their way to the nest in the dark and their bottom cools off during the night. Good luck!

 

[calicokat]

I don't know, mine's been finding her way to the nest each night - maybe I'm moving her too early.

At this point I think we're going to get her some eggs and see what we can hatch (yeah, this chicken thing should have it's own 12 step program!)

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
Make sure it's really dark out. And, remember that a broody will usually get back on the nest at daybreak, when she can see her way again.

My broody's broodiness was about 1/2 broken the first night she spent on the roost (of course, our back yard is pitch black at night, making the henhouse very dark). After that night, I found her on the nest each morning. Each morning I would move her off the nest, get her belly and chest cooled down in the cold morning breeze, then put her down on the ground (cool her off again, if necessary) until she wasn't crouching, any more. Once they were free-ranging for the day, she stopped (mostly) going into the nest to sit out the day. At night, again, I had to move her from the nest to the roost. That happened for about 4 nights, after which she went to the roost on her own and her broodiness had disappeared.

Of course, hatching eggs would be fun! I think next year, if this one goes broody again, I'm gonna be ready to hatch some chicklets. She would be great mother hen - she's so poofy & huge.

 

[aveca]

There is a very funny vidieo on utube of a lady using oven mits to lift a broody hen becuase she heard peeping under the hen , she just wanted to take a peek , and another using leather gloves to move a broody hen to a cage to break her out of the spell... The old timers used to cage them to break it. Sometimes I carry one out across the farm and set them down some run right back to brood some stop it by the second time I carry them out, the hens at our other farm have no rooster with them so no sence in wasting time..

Right now I have triple doody broodys just grew into quadruple and not enough quiet space to put them , all have just a couple fertile eggs apeice that I collected from the breeding pen..For some reason when I took the new babies I hatched in the incubator out in a pen next to the hen house , they all went broody at once something about the sound of babies I guess it triggereed the mommy in them, so I employed them.

they steal each others eggs too when one hops off the nest for a drink and poo, the one next to it reachs over like a backhoe and gently pulls the eggs over to them. So I have to give an egg back its like being a referee, but only in one box that 2 hens have decided to use.

 

[kbird]

Thanks to all of you for the advice! To joedie....you're donkey is adorable!! Thanks for the welcome

Today my broody hen was in the nesting box again so I lifted the lid of the box and she squawked, jumped out and joined the rest of the flock to run around. She had 2 (very warm) eggs underneath so I gathered them up. Oh....a couple days ago I put ping pong balls in each nesting box to discourage the hens from laying in the woods. A friend was over yesterday and picked my hen up and took her out of the box to stop brooding....and she was sitting on 2 of the ping pong balls! So I guess the balls worked to stop her from laying in the woods, but made her broody in the process! Chickens are hilarious. You never know what they're going to do