Broody Hen is not eating or drinking for 1 1/2 days. What should I do?

[maggiegigs]

My broody hen ( I have no rooster) is sitting in nesting box and is not eating or drinking. Please advise.

 

[gamebirdsonly]

most of my broodies will go 2 or more days before they will leave the nest and eat or drink Crazy birds

 

[Farmer_Dan]

Quote:
She'll come eat & drink when she needs to, don't worry about that. If you want her to stop being broody though, either give her a couple fertile eggs to hatch or (my favorite trick) get a few chicks from the feed store or craigslist or something (day old chicks) and put them under her during the night. Most likely she'll wake up, spend the next 2 or 3 weeks teaching them how to be chickens, then go right back to bwaaaking around with the other girls.

 

[new chick 203]

I take mine off at least once a day and put her in front of the food and water, but i don't know if I need to or just feel like i do.

 

[mpguay]

I took mine off the nest everyday for poop, water, feed, scratch and dirt bath. she seemed VERY grateful.
And here she is, with 2 of her chicks that hatched last night!

 

[azygous]

You could offer her chicken soup. No, seriously. My vet, who admittedly is a large animal vet, recommended that to me when I called and reported that my hen was sitting on a nest and hadn't eaten for three weeks.

It was my first broody, but I didn't know it at the time, and the vet didn't have a clue, obviously.

She did enjoy the chicken soup.

 

[mcostas]

I would take mine out and she would immediatly drop and gobble grass while dirtbathing. I finally came to the conclution that in the absence of a rooster I had to perform the duties of a rooster by escorting her off the nest. She always carried on when I lifted her out of the nest box but she never bit and she got to where she seemed to appreciate it.


Finally she snapped out of it and joined the others! She has started laying again as well! It was so sad when she was broody. At first she was real cranky around the other birds, and the doggies, but she's calmed down a lot. It was only her and my dark brahma before I got the new flock. She had been at teh bottom of the pecking order, she seems happy to be able to pick on others!

The others are larger then her but they still pretend to be afraid. I'm happy she acts like she belongs in a flock! I was worried there for awhile. She went from timid to over assertive. Now she seems friendly and balenced.

 

[lclough1998]

i dont know where to ask a question, but I am wondering about a silkie hen that we have sitting on eggs, I gather that it is okay to encourage her to eat? and I am wondering if it would be good to give her some egg yolk from some egg white omelettes that I made my daughters for dinner? It makes me feel wierd to give them eggs?

 

[mpguay]

This is a good thread on stopping broodiness:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=181289.