Broody Hen

[WadeC]

Hi All, We have had our Australorpe chickens since they were a week old and have just started laying eggs at Christmas time. One of the girls(Janice) has what I believe become Broody. She sits on the nest all day if we let her, even if we have collected the eggs. We remove her from the nest and she just sits on the ground then finally works out she has been moved and goes straight back to the nest. We have locked her out to try and make her hang out with the other 2 girls but she is not overly interested. Quite often she will just go back to the tractor and sit on top of it waiting to be let in. I don't like locking the tractor as it stops the other girls from coming and going for food and water and also to lay as the laying cycle is different, some morning some afternoon. Any suggestions to break her broody mood?
Thanks Wade

 

[Sagey_7878]

How long has she been broody for?

 

[ChickNanny13]

I had 3 Wyandottes, taking turns being broody. Tried the removing from the nest & blocking but none worked. One was really serious, could feel her loosing weight so decided to do another method which I read about here but was my last resort.

Got a wire cage (Amazon) that I removed the tray replacing with 1/2 x 1 welded wire. Suspended on the corner roost, bungeed to ensure it wouldn't fall, put her feed & water in it with her, in the coop with the rest. It took her 3 days & she was "broke".

Wire cage in the coop, she was still part of the flock so no reintroduction needed. Elevating the wire cage off the ground allows cool air to flow under her, no bedding required. The sooner done, the sooner you break the broodiness.

The one that was the most stubborn was the first broody I had, tried everything else before I did the wire cage. The other two took only a day, they went to Broody Jail ASAP.

 

[WadeC]

She has been Broody for nearly 2 weeks. Should I try the wire cage before it gets too late or just keep removing her from the nest and locking her out?

 

[Sagey_7878]

She has been Broody for nearly 2 weeks. Should I try the wire cage before it gets too late or just keep removing her from the nest and locking her out?

I say to try the wire cage, and then give up and let her hatch chicks or let her sit it out for a few more weeks then let her hatch. I had a broody Wyandotte hen who has was broody for 3 months and I couldn’t break her, and also she lost heaps of weight and was in a bad way, so I gave up and now she is looking after chicks!

 

[WadeC]

I’ll try the cage as She’s never going to hatch any eggs as there is no rooster.

 

[Sagey_7878]

I’ll try the cage as She’s never going to hatch any eggs as there is no rooster.

You dont need a rooster to hatch. I didn’t have one and I still hatched. What I did was buy fertile eggs from someone and at night I put them under her and she sat on them for 21 days and they hatched! Or you can buy day old chicks and slip them under her at night and she’ll think she hatched chicks!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

She has been Broody for nearly 2 weeks. Should I try the wire cage before it gets too late or just keep removing her from the nest and locking her out?

Yes. If you don't intend to give her eggs or slip chicks under her then bust her of the torment of brooding. It's not a healthy state to be in. Wire cages are the best at breaking broods. No nesting material at all, keep off ground so she can't "nest" on dirt or grass under the cage. Keep her in the cage for three days. Let the poop fall through cage and only provide food and water. Don't let her out for three complete days. She'll be out of brood guaranteed.

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC!

or just keep removing her from the nest and locking her out?

That is obviously not working, sometimes it does, but...time for the crate.
It may take longer than a few days to break her since she's been broody for a couple weeks.

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 with fed and water

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.

Feed and water added after pic was taken.

 

[WadeC]

Thanks everyone, she has been moved into the cage. She didn't like it very much to begin with so hopefully it will work.