Broody hen laid an egg in chicken jail

[Asaria1]

Hello fellow chicken keepers. Im a little confused about this whole chicken jail thing. Im under the impression that the sooner you try to break a broody the better. However, is there a such thing as too soon? My hen is showing all the signs.. so in the broody pen she goes. But this morning she laid an egg in there! No bedding or anything. She just laid it on the wire bottom. So i let her out and everything was great. Dust bathing, eating, foraging with the flock... not even an hour later, BAM! she’s right back in the nesting box flattened out and angry with me for moving her yet again. Do i have to wait till she completely stops laying eggs before i put her in jail? At the first sign i locked her up. She laid an egg the morning i jailed her. But she was SITTING. She laid that egg and never got back up again.
Thanks for your help!

 

[JCaseyHammond]

Hello fellow chicken keepers. Im a little confused about this whole chicken jail thing. Im under the impression that the sooner you try to break a broody the better. However, is there a such thing as too soon? My hen is showing all the signs.. so in the broody pen she goes. But this morning she laid an egg in there! No bedding or anything. She just laid it on the wire bottom. So i let her out and everything was great. Dust bathing, eating, foraging with the flock... not even an hour later, BAM! she’s right back in the nesting box flattened out and angry with me for moving her yet again. Do i have to wait till she completely stops laying eggs before i put her in jail? At the first sign i locked her up. She laid an egg the morning i jailed her. But she was SITTING. She laid that egg and never got back up again.
Thanks for your help!

I spent 60 days trying to get a broody hen to quit sitting. Finally I let her hatch one egg (November). It would have taken less time to just let her hatch a few eggs to begin with. 21 days versus 60 days.

*****Edited to add the most important detail that affects the hens’ health and laying ability:

Broody hens don’t eat much and become de-conditioned (lose breast meat) over the 21 days it takes to incubate eggs. It looks like the hen is in a trance until she hatches eggs. Then the broody trance is broken, and mother hens get up to show their hatchlings how to scratch for food. That exercise reconditions the broody hens’ bodies to lay again.

So my opinion is that the safest, most reliable way to break the broody trance, and avoid having the hen become de-conditioned and starving to death, and bring her back into lay, is to allow her *2 week* vacation to be broody, after which she *hatches* a *few* eggs (or sneak putting a few chicks under her at night).

Here is the Easter Egger chick named “November” with her black bantam hatch mother.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Keep her in jail - because you caught her so early, she still had an egg in the system (and may have another) so she'll just lay it in the breaker since she can't lay elsewhere.

 

[Asaria1]

I spent 60 days trying to get a broody hen to quit sitting. Finally I let her hatch one egg (November). It would have taken less time to just let her hatch a few eggs to begin with. 21 days versus 60 days.

Oh no

 

[Asaria1]

Keep her in jail - because you caught her so early, she still had an egg in the system (and may have another) so she'll just lay it in the breaker since she can't lay elsewhere.

Thank you! This information was bery helpful!

 

[Imammusa]

Just because a chicken is broody doesn’t mean she is done laying . She will lay 2 to 3 more eggs before stopping and concentrate on hatching

 

[Shadrach]

You may have put her in jail before she commited a crime.
If she is not fully broody she will just continue to lay eggs in jail, just like a battery hen in a cage.
It is quite normal for a broody hen to lay perhaps one or two eggs after going broody but once they've sat for a couple of days the egg making cycle switches off.
I let a broody hen sit for a couple of days before I try to discourage her from sitting. This way I know for certain that she is serious about being broody and I can be confident that her egg laying cycle is switched off.
Then I just confiscate her eggs, destroy her nest and that is often enough. With free range hens and semi feral hens, nest predation is common, where another creature steals her eggs or makes the nest site unsafe in one way or another.
The natural reaction is for the hen to abandon the site at this point, She knows that neither her or her eggs are safe and sitting at that site is pointless. Some hens have had many of these natural reactions supressed, but preservation of eggs is so deeply ingrained that in the right circumstances a hen will revert to more natural behaviour.
So, let the hen prove she is properly broody before you try to discourage her from sitting on her eggs. If this wasn't the case, then the hens kept in wire cages in commercial units wouldn't lay any eggs.

 

[Asaria1]

Just because a chicken is broody doesn’t mean she is done laying . She will lay 2 to 3 more eggs before stopping and concentrate on hatching

I am learning so much! Thank you!

 

[Asaria1]

You may have put her in jail before she commited a crime.
If she is not fully broody she will just continue to lay eggs in jail, just like a battery hen in a cage.
It is quite normal for a broody hen to lay perhaps one or two eggs after going broody but once they've sat for a couple of days the egg making cycle switches off.
I let a broody hen sit for a couple of days before I try to discourage her from sitting. This way I know for certain that she is serious about being broody and I can be confident that her egg laying cycle is switched off.
Then I just confiscate her eggs, destroy her nest and that is often enough. With free range hens and semi feral hens, nest predation is common, where another creature steals her eggs or makes the nest site unsafe in one way or another.
The natural reaction is for the hen to abandon the site at this point, She knows that neither her or her eggs are safe and sitting at that site is pointless. Some hens have had many of these natural reactions supressed, but preservation of eggs is so deeply ingrained that in the right circumstances a hen will revert to more natural behaviour.
So, let the hen prove she is properly broody before you try to discourage her from sitting on her eggs. If this wasn't the case, then the hens kept in wire cages in commercial units wouldn't lay any eggs.

Thank you!

 

[AuntieD]

I see a lot of talk about broody hens, I am stupid about this. Can't I just let nature take its course? The drop in egg production will not be a problem for me as I don't think I will be selling eggs... UNless they lay like crazy then I will be wanting to get rid of eggs.