Broody hen question

[sesa]

I've got what I think is a broody hen, she is a year and a half old RIR that I got from a neighbor after she was kicked out of his flock by the other birds. She always seems to be in one of the nest boxes in the evenings when I go out to shut the doors. I read on here to put them in a wire bottomed cage to cool them off. How big a cage do I need to use and do I need to suspend it to get airflow underneath? Also should I take the golf balls out of the boxes since the other birds use the nesting boxes to lay already?

 

[PunkinPeep]

She always seems to be in one of the nest boxes in the evenings when I go out to shut the doors.

If she's new to your flock, she might be hiding, or looking for a safe place to sleep. My younger birds tend to try to hang out in the nest box at night before they're completely accepted with the adult flock. A broody hen will stay in the nest box all day and all night.

If you use the wire bottom cage, yes it is helpful to keep it someplace where there is airflow underneath it.

As to the golf balls, it's kind of up to you. It doesn't hurt anything either way.​

 

[beachchickie]

My tip to tell a broody. She puffs up like a puffer fish when she sees me and makes a shrill sound. She pecks at me when I push her off the nest. Mine have always done this funny bobbing thing when they walk and screech.

 

[Godiva]

If she is broody she will probably stay on the nest all day except for one spell to eat and drink. Otherwise she'll fuss at you when you go to move her, usually peck a whole lot more emphatically than usual, they often look comatose when broody. If I take a broody off the nest she will fluff up until she looks like a turkey esp when some of the other chickens come around. We have a 'broody jail' that works very well for breaking up the broodies. It is a wire dog crate that we put a small mesh welded wire bottom into (in fact we turn the cage up side down from how it is made to be used and use the original floor as a roof to stop the other birds from pooping on them.) Then I leave her in there for about 3 or 4 days with plain layer pellets and water (no treats!) and then I will try her back with the others. If she goes back to the nest she gets another day or more until she quits. Some of them are really persistent! Especially if they are at all related to silkies. Another thing that I have found that works very well with my persistent broodies is if I put them in a chicken tractor with no nesting box and then keep moving them all day. Gets them highly offended and they fuss mightily but they can't settle in anywhere... I have raised the broody jail off the floor in a number of ways but you have to be really careful not to have a space that a bird can get trapped in. I had the broody jail on a wooden pallet and one of the other chickens managed to squeeze under it and died before I found her

so I generally put the broody jail in an area that is separated from the others somehow, just works better for me. Good luck! The sooner she goes to jail the better if she is broody or it gets really hard to break them.

 

[kano]

Quote:
It's not absolutely necessary to have a wire bottom cage to stop her broodyness. With separate her from her nest is enough. (anywhere, but far from her nest.)