I have a hen who is brooding. She isn't laying eggs and sitting on them, just sitting in her nest. Is it okay to let her brood or do I need to put her in a separate cage with no nesting materials to break her of this? I'm just concerned that she won't eat or get water unless I lift her out of her nest. All help is appreciated as I am new to raising chickens but certainly enjoying it!
You can try to break a broodie hen by moving them and gathering eggs daily but that is not a guarentee.. It kind of depends on the bird and how serious they are about having babies...
My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day. I let her out a couple times a day 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. Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.
Thank you for your reply. I put her in a rabbit cage with food and water for three days and then let her out. She is back to normal now. Thanks again!
