Broody Hen

[rides2far]

One of my 10 month old pullets has decided to hatch golf balls. She is now in a time out cage with food & water. Any hints or suggestions?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sounds like you know what you are doing, should take around 3 days depending on how long she was broody, the longer they are broody the longer it takes to break them, I can sometimes catch them on the first day and break them in two days. Still takes at least 2 weeks to resume egg laying, most take about a month.

 

[aart]

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.

 

[rides2far]

Just letting you guys know, I placed her in a cage as suggested. It took about 3 or 4 days to break her. It was actually pretty easy. So far, out of 14, she's the only one to go broody so far. (Knock on wood.)

 

[rides2far]

This same hen has gone broody 2x more since I first posted. Little bugger! The others have not gone broody at all, thank heavens. She just spent 4 days in a cage. It was so hot I was worried, but she made it.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Unfortunately some are like that, and all my bantams are like that, so I'm pretty used to it.

 

[amynrichie]

I have a pen that I can lock my broody in, away from the coop. I put her on the roost at night-it usually only takes a day or two.

 

[tracker77]

Related question. Does the introduction of a rooster trigger broodiness? One of this year's batch of chicks turned out to be a Mr. Pullet. Living in NC, we're trying to decide how to handle the HB2 bathroom issue, but so far, none of the other pullets and hens have complained. I do have a 2 yr old hen that has gone broody. First one in 3 years I've had go broody. Up to this point, I've only kept hens, and not really setup for incubating, etc. So... back to my original question. Does the addition of a rooster to a hen-only flock trigger broodiness?
TIA

 

[Pork Pie]

Related question. Does the introduction of a rooster trigger broodiness? One of this year's batch of chicks turned out to be a Mr. Pullet. Living in NC, we're trying to decide how to handle the HB2 bathroom issue, but so far, none of the other pullets and hens have complained. I do have a 2 yr old hen that has gone broody. First one in 3 years I've had go broody. Up to this point, I've only kept hens, and not really setup for incubating, etc. So... back to my original question. Does the addition of a rooster to a hen-only flock trigger broodiness?
TIA

Nope

CT