Broody hen pecked on when removed from nest

[Yevesman]

Hi all,

seeking your advice as I’ve got a broody hen and I remove her from the nest and return her to the run to change her behaviour, but my other chook pecks her As soon as I do so. I’ve read somewhere that this is normal in that broody behaviour is natural (albeit unwanted by humans), so the other chook is pecking the broody one to get her back into the nest. I struggle to believe this is true. regardless, my question is, what should I do here?
-continue to take the broody hen off the nest and into therun even if it means she gets pecked in or;
-let the hen go broody?? Or
-is there something else I should be trying to break the broody habit and somehow also stop the pecking.

many thanks in advance!

 

[sourland]

Due to her change in behavior your other hen regards her as a 'stranger'. If you don't want to hatch or foster chicks to her, I would place her in a cage away from her nest site until the broodiness breaks. Upon reintroduction they will have to work out their pecking order. Chicken society frequently appears cruel. It's sort of like 'mean girls in high school.'

 

[Yevesman]

Thank you @sourland ! I will give this a go. How long should I keep her away do you think?

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you're trying to break her broodiness, best thing to do is cage her in a wire crate (or if you don't have one, something that'll keep her isolated from nest box) in view of the other chickens, with food and water, until she breaks. It takes an average of 3 days, depending on how determined she is. She can come back out for a test run once she no longer shows obvious broody behaviors. If she heads back to the nest box, she needs to go back in the cage another 24 hrs, etc.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Hi all,

seeking your advice as I’ve got a broody hen and I remove her from the nest and return her to the run to change her behaviour, but my other chook pecks her As soon as I do so. I’ve read somewhere that this is normal in that broody behaviour is natural (albeit unwanted by humans), so the other chook is pecking the broody one to get her back into the nest. I struggle to believe this is true. regardless, my question is, what should I do here?
-continue to take the broody hen off the nest and into therun even if it means she gets pecked in or;
-let the hen go broody?? Or
-is there something else I should be trying to break the broody habit and somehow also stop the pecking.

many thanks in advance!

Mine do that too, so I just make sure I set the broody down away from the others and sort of shoe the others away and then they don’t do it to her.

 

[aart]

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.

My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(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. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[Yevesman]

Mine do that too, so I just make sure I set the broody down away from the others and sort of shoe the others away and then they don’t do it to her.

Thanks for sharing! But what do you do to also stop the broody behaviour?

 

[SurferchickinSB]

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.

My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(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. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.
View attachment 2064718

Take aarts advice. It’s not good to leave a hen broody if you are not going to raise chicks. It takes too much out of them healthwise and then they are left rundown and more susceptible to illness and they go through molt and stop laying eggs for about two or three months

 

[Yevesman]

Oh

Take aarts advice. It’s not good to leave a hen broody if you are not going to raise chicks. It takes too much out of them healthwise and then they are left rundown and more susceptible to illness and they go through molt and stop laying eggs for about two or three months

Oh trust me I am taking the advice. Unfortunately I can’t buy her a decent cage due to covid lock down but I’ve built a makeshift one for now. Have given her food and water as well.

 

[Yevesman]

Oh

Oh trust me I am taking the advice. Unfortunately I can’t buy her a decent cage due to covid lock down but I’ve built a makeshift one for now. Have given her food and water as well.

What about just preventing access to the coop and nest, except for nighttime, instead of a cage, would that work?