Broody Hen - no rooster

[lavender2015]

My Ruby girl has been wanting to sit on eggs for weeks now. I have tried all of the methods for breaking her except the dunking her in water method. Before I do that I was just wondering if anyone knew why that method is supposed to work.

 

[sourland]

Have you tried locking her in a cage so that she can not access her nest site?

 

[wali]

My rooster is unable to walk but he is trying and move little distance apart

 

[lavender2015]

Yep! Put her in one where she couldn't "nest". I'm getting her a half dozen fertile eggs today and I'm going to let her be a mommy! Done fighting it. Guess I'll learn about rearing chicks! Supposedly she will do all the work. Thanks for your reply and so quickly too!

 

[sourland]

It can take as long as a week or more to break broodiness. Good luck with the hatching eggs.

 

[ramsburgchicken]

Okay... **DO NOT** put a broody in a cage!! We are rehabbing hens because of this! There are breeds that are broody and breeds that have the broodiness bred out of them. Please know the breed! All 44 of our hens have been rescued from various places that used this technique and various owners trying to "break the broody". It has taken us 9 months to rehab a silkie from this! We have some hens that flip out if the gate to the pen is closed.

If your a woman with your period, do you lock yourself in a dog kennel to stop bleeding? No. You wait for your hormones to return to normal. Same with chickens. Get them up often to stretch, eat, drink and poo. After sometime they're hormones will return to normal. 25+ years with chickens and never had one die an early death from being broody. Not sure why this is even still in practice and why so many people believe that by torturing their hens they are doing them a service.

 

[lavender2015]

That was my problem with all of the methods. They all seemed so cruel. She just wants to sit and hatch chicks! I was more worried about her health - not eating or drinking for days. But since I introduced the fertilized eggs, she takes food and water from my hand when I offer it to her. Before, if I tried to touch her when she was "nesting" she would peck at me but she hasn't done that since we put the eggs under her. She fluffed herself out to cover each egg I put under her and settled onto all six happily. Problem solved.

 

[Weehopper]

My best game hen took more than 2 weeks to stop being broody.
They are determined mothers.

 

[KayTee]

I tried to break the first broody that I had by taking her off the nest every time she went back on it. (I didn't try any other methods because as you say they all seemed too cruel). After 2 weeks I gave up wasting my time and let her brood a fake egg, then bought some day-old chicks for her to raise - she was a fantastic mother!

Since then I have never tried to stop a broody. Before I had a roo I would buy one or two day-old chicks for a hen, and slip them under her after 3 weeks of brooding. This year I have my beautiful Bielefelder, (Ben), so I have just put a few eggs under each hen and left them to it. My second broody of the year is currently sitting on 3 eggs (she broke 1), and a chick that she hatched last year has already brooded this summer and hatched 5 beautiful chicks!

You will have a great time watching your broody hatch and raise her chicks - trust her to know what she's doing - it's all instinctive. Just make certain that she gets off the nest at least once a day to poop whilst she's brooding, and everything should be fine!

 

[lavender2015]

Thanks to everyone who came forward with advice or experience! She has settled happily on 6 fertilized eggs I purchased for her. She let me take her off the nest this morning and put her in front of her food and water. She ate well and drank a fair amount. But she didn't poop. I'll continue to take her off the nest every morning for food and water and hope for the best. I'll post updates on her progress to motherhood!