Broody hen help?!

[lexidowney]

Hi!

I have a few questions on broodiness, specific to my hen. We went away for a couple days so didn’t collect eggs for about 3 days. The night we came back I noticed one of my girls slept in the nesting box (the favorite nesting box for all 6 of them) the next morning she was still there and into the day. I went out to collect all the eggs and she did get up and free range for about 5 minutes but went right back to the box. The next night we closed off the nesting box and she roosted with the others. I’m noticing now today she is still sitting in the nesting box but I’ve collected all eggs so she isn’t sitting on any! Is this a classic broody hen to sit on no eggs? Is there anything else I should be doing to try and break her of this? I don’t have a rooster btw.

 

[sourland]

Typical broody behavior. They focus as much if not more on the nest site than on the eggs. In order to break here, you will have to come up with a means of keeping her from the nest site. Many use a wire bottomed dog crate to do this.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

First, candle those eggs she sat on for three days, they may not be fit to eat. Or at least break them into a bowl before putting them in a skillet or cake mix!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Try this:

Here is @aart's excellent Broody Hen Breaking article:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/broody-breaking-ala-aart.77915/

R.I.P. aart.