Broody hen, help!

[Ameraucana5]

Hey guys, I have a broody speckled sussex hen, she's been on the nest for over a week now and I can't seem to get her away. I will pick her up from off the nest and put her down in the yard, she will run around for a while but then go right back in. I've taken out all the eggs from underneath her but she'll sit back down on nothing but an empty nest. What else could I do? I can't shut her out because I have other hens who still need to lay their eggs. Any ideas, I am willing to listen to anything.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I had 2 Wynadottes go broody, thankfully not at the same time. The wire cage was strongly recommended but I thought it "mean". 1st - I removed her whenever I saw her in the nest, alot of back & forth. 2nd - I block off the nest box AFTER everyone laid, I only had 5, they all lay mid morning to early afternoon. The first Broody was getting "light", I ordered the wire cage.

I wish I would have done it earlier I was able to suspend the cage balancing on a roost board, so she was able to stay in the enclosure. Put food & water for her, no bedding, just wire flooring (I put a piece of welded wire 1/2 x 1). The first Broody was 3wks into brooding & she was stubborn, took 4 days before she finally was "normal".
My second Broody went straight into the cage when she started, it took 1 day.
So the sooner you start, the faster they "break".

Either that or stick some (4 - 6) fertile eggs under her to hatch, get some "backyard" mix in the event she gives up. Or I've also read some try sticking baby chicks under the Broody but depending on your girl, you may need to raise the chicks. You put the eggs/chicks under the Broody at night when it's dark.

Other may have more ideas....Good luck

 

[LRH97]

If you don't want her to hatch out eggs, you'll need to break her. Put her in a separate pen or crate with no litter or bedding. Just food and water. The goal is to keep her from being able to make a nice cozy nest. If you have something with a mesh floor, that will help too. The cool air that comes up on their underside seems to break a broody up quicker. Not that the process may take anywhere from a couple days to a week, depending on how devoted she is. Also remember that the longer you leave her alone to set, the more difficult it will be to break her as well.

 

[Ayam onthe Farm]

Keep taking her eggs. She'll give up.

 

[Ameraucana5]

Keep taking her eggs. She'll give up.

I have taken every single egg out from under her every night for the almost 2 weeks that she has been on there. She always just sits back down on the empty nest.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I have taken every single egg out from under her every night for the almost 2 weeks that she has been on there. She always just sits back down on the empty nest.

WIRE CAGE Yours sound as stubborn as my 1st Wyandotte that went broody, I let it go too long & she lost alot of weight. Thankfully the wire cage broke her broody spell & she's back to eating/putting on weight.

 

[azygous]

It helps to understand what makes a hen broody when you are trying everything you can think of to stop the process. It involves much more than merely the strong desire to sit on eggs. When you keep removing the eggs from the nest and the broody still wants to sit on an empty nest, it should be a clue that you're dealing with a very strong force.

That strong force is hormones. Humans experience this force when they watch their formerly sweet child enter puberty and turn into a stubborn creature they don't recognize. So it is with a hen who has laid a certain number of eggs and suddenly hormones are triggered that turn the hen into a single-minded, determined-at-all-costs, nest-sitting demon.

And "demon" isn't too strong a word for a formerly sweet hen that will now puff herself up like an angry badger and even try to take your hand off when you try to remove her from the nest, snarling and growling like a demon.

These hormones raise the body temperature of the broody and she will lose feathers along her keel bone in preparation for making direct hot contact with incubating eggs. Her metabolism slows down, she requires much less food and water than before, and she will go into a sort of trance, making it possible to survive three weeks barely getting off the nest more than a few minutes a day.

The key to interrupting the influence of these powerful hormones is to lower the temperature of the broody. This is why the open-mesh bottom cage is so helpful. It confines the broody, preventing her from returning to a nest while allowing cooling air to circulate under her. Without this mechanism, all other attempts to break the broody cycle are futile.

Recently someone reported their hen was still broody after two weeks in the cage. It was over 100F where they lived. This hot climate prevented the broody hormones from dissipating because it was impossible to cool the broody's body temperature. We recommended dipping the broody in tepid water just far enough to wet down her belly feathers. This created an evaporation effect and helped to cool down the broody so the hormones lost their grip.

I like to set up my broody cage in the center of the run where there is maximum activity to further break the broody "trance". A fan blowing under a dampened broody further cools her down. Generally, three days is about the average time it takes to get your sweet hen back to normal.

 

[aart]

My experiences went 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.