broody hen question

[Keene's coop]

my cochin has been broody for about 3 weeks now. how long will she be broody for when she has no eggs to sit on?

 

[Sooner]

If it has been three weeks you need to break her up, put her in a wire bottom cage where she can't keep her chest & belly warm. You may have to leave her in the cage for a week or more.

 

[tgperg]

Cochins are really hard to break up. Could you get some day old chicks from the feed store and shove under her during the night so she has some chicks to raise? Wish I had that problem. I need a broody REAL bad.

Traci

 

[sheribaz]

My buff orpington went broody for three weeks; during that time, I often manually took her down to eat and go to the bathroom outside the coop. she stayed out there for a bit each time, did her biz, and went back into the coop. at the end of three weeks, like magic, she stopped brooding. ten days later, she's laying eggs again and has NOT gone broody again. i read in many books the methods of "breaking up" a broody hen, but after talking with my friends on the farm (old-school chicken keepers), they assured me -- along with some of my favorite books' advice -- that the hen will normally just come out of it on her own. and this was true with my buff. nature has a way... i've not tried to break her up with the broody cage that i've read about; having one chicken not laying eggs for a few weeks doesn't ruin my life. her hormones will eventually return to normal and she'll come out of it, is my guess. i know they're all different, but i have to go on my own experience thus far. good luck!

 

[Keene's coop]

she comes out once a day for about 1/2 hour. i cought her the other day steeling the other hens eggs after they just layed.we've been on top of collecting eggs as soon as they are layed so she doesn't get them.

 

[jennh]

I tried to break a broody hen with a tragic outcome. One of my hens had become broody, so I let her hatch some eggs. Well, my BO went broody also, and I didn't want her to be. I kept taking her out of the nestbox and putting her outside. I went to check on her and she had killed all the chicks. Last year my Cochin went broody and hatched some eggs. I left my BO do what she wanted, as she was broody (again).

This time she didn't kill the chicks. In fact, she actually "helped" my Cochin take care of them. My Lgt Brahma also helped. Shoulda seen that, all three hens taking care of the little chicks! So my motto is "Don't mess with Mother Nature".

 

[scottfarm]

cochin are very great setters and hard to stop but try putting her in wire cage .

 

[gritsar]

Quote:

Broodiness is very hard on a hen's body. You can't let it just go on indefinitely.

 

[Keene's coop]

well she's comming out of the coop more now so i think she's almost done, i hope

 

[Keene's coop]

i broke her by taking out the nest box and now she is laying eggs again. but when i put the nest box back in, all the chickens refuse to use it.