Broody Hen

[kccarmea]

I have a broody hen who has been sitting on eggs or just in an empty nest box for about 3 weeks now. We do not have a rooster so she will never hatch them and I take her eggs every day. How long is she going to be like this?

 

[Chicken Girl1]

They normally do it until they are able to hatch them unless you break her. Here are a few articles on the subject: Broody Hens, Encouraging or Discouraging Broodiness

 

[aart]

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
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(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.
Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.