Broody hen?

[Bellagrl]

This morning I went to check for eggs and found a chicken sitting in one. I lefther for a couple hours and she was still sitting on it. I put on gloves and tried to get the egg. She did not want to move and kept pecking at me. I was a bit surprised, she just started laying eggs less than a week ago and it's starting to get cold here an do usually shes very skiddish of me. Is there another way I should be getting her eggs or is it ok to just put a glove on and grab it?

 

[Chris-n-Kate]

I would just wait patiently. Some chickens like to sit awhile when they lay eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know if she is broody or not. A hen that is on a nest to lay an egg will often peck at you if you stick your hand in there. I've had that happen plenty of times.

There are a lot of different signs that a hen might be going broody. The key word is might. I've had hens exhibit a lot of them and still not kick over into full broody mode. They may act sort of broody for two weeks before deciding one way or the other. I've also had some go full broody practically instantly. My test if a hen has gone full broody and deserves eggs or chicks is that she has to spend two consecutive nights on the nest instead of sleeping in her normal spot.

What do you want to do if she is broody? My suggestions are to break her from being broody, give her fertile eggs to hatch, or wait a couple of weeks and give her some day-old chicks to raise. If you want more information on any of these let us know. If she really is broody the one thing I would not do is nothing. I see where you are (thanks for including that info) and I know what time of year it is. It's not the best of the time of year for a broody to hatch and raise chicks but some do it quite successfully.

Now to your question. When I was a kid on the farm in the middle of the last century one of my chores was to collect the eggs. If you collect the eggs once a day they are still good to eat, even if they are fertile and spent most of that day under a broody hen. If we let a broody hen hatch eggs we'd mark the ones we wanted her to hatch. Every day in the late afternoon I'd check under her to see if there were any unmarked eggs.

I'd pick the hen up and set her on the coop floor so I could see the eggs. Some of those broody hens were very protective of their nests. They could peck hard enough to really hurt. No way was I going to let Dad think I was afraid of a chicken and I sure wasn't going to ask for a glove. Some things you just gotta do.

I've grown up a bit since then. There is nothing wrong with wearing long sleeves or a glove. That pecking can hurt. But just get the darned egg.

 

[Bellagrl]

I don't know if she is broody or not. A hen that is on a nest to lay an egg will often peck at you if you stick your hand in there. I've had that happen plenty of times.

There are a lot of different signs that a hen might be going broody. The key word is might. I've had hens exhibit a lot of them and still not kick over into full broody mode. They may act sort of broody for two weeks before deciding one way or the other. I've also had some go full broody practically instantly. My test if a hen has gone full broody and deserves eggs or chicks is that she has to spend two consecutive nights on the nest instead of sleeping in her normal spot.

What do you want to do if she is broody? My suggestions are to break her from being broody, give her fertile eggs to hatch, or wait a couple of weeks and give her some day-old chicks to raise. If you want more information on any of these let us know. If she really is broody the one thing I would not do is nothing. I see where you are (thanks for including that info) and I know what time of year it is. It's not the best of the time of year for a broody to hatch and raise chicks but some do it quite successfully.

Now to your question. When I was a kid on the farm in the middle of the last century one of my chores was to collect the eggs. If you collect the eggs once a day they are still good to eat, even if they are fertile and spent most of that day under a broody hen. If we let a broody hen hatch eggs we'd mark the ones we wanted her to hatch. Every day in the late afternoon I'd check under her to see if there were any unmarked eggs.

I'd pick the hen up and set her on the coop floor so I could see the eggs. Some of those broody hens were very protective of their nests. They could peck hard enough to really hurt. No way was I going to let Dad think I was afraid of a chicken and I sure wasn't going to ask for a glove. Some things you just gotta do.

I've grown up a bit since then. There is nothing wrong with wearing long sleeves or a glove. That pecking can hurt. But just get the darned egg.

I don't know if she is broody or not. A hen that is on a nest to lay an egg will often peck at you if you stick your hand in there. I've had that happen plenty of times.

There are a lot of different signs that a hen might be going broody. The key word is might. I've had hens exhibit a lot of them and still not kick over into full broody mode. They may act sort of broody for two weeks before deciding one way or the other. I've also had some go full broody practically instantly. My test if a hen has gone full broody and deserves eggs or chicks is that she has to spend two consecutive nights on the nest instead of sleeping in her normal spot.

What do you want to do if she is broody? My suggestions are to break her from being broody, give her fertile eggs to hatch, or wait a couple of weeks and give her some day-old chicks to raise. If you want more information on any of these let us know. If she really is broody the one thing I would not do is nothing. I see where you are (thanks for including that info) and I know what time of year it is. It's not the best of the time of year for a broody to hatch and raise chicks but some do it quite successfully.

Now to your question. When I was a kid on the farm in the middle of the last century one of my chores was to collect the eggs. If you collect the eggs once a day they are still good to eat, even if they are fertile and spent most of that day under a broody hen. If we let a broody hen hatch eggs we'd mark the ones we wanted her to hatch. Every day in the late afternoon I'd check under her to see if there were any unmarked eggs.

I'd pick the hen up and set her on the coop floor so I could see the eggs. Some of those broody hens were very protective of their nests. They could peck hard enough to really hurt. No way was I going to let Dad think I was afraid of a chicken and I sure wasn't going to ask for a glove. Some things you just gotta do.

I've grown up a bit since then. There is nothing wrong with wearing long sleeves or a glove. That pecking can hurt. But just get the darned egg.

Thank you that was very helpful! I'm definitely not looking to hatch any at the moment and i don't know that my rooster is even old enough to start mating anyway. I just wasn't sure if there was anything specific I should be doing or if just moving the hen out of the way was fine to do. I'm thinking maybe in the spring I would consider letting some hatch. Thanks again!

 

[aart]

I would just wait patiently. Some chickens like to sit awhile when they lay eggs.

Yup...the 'Loungers'.

These are my go-to signs to tell if they are broody or not:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.


If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(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. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Assuming she's not broody and just sitting around a bit, there's nothing wrong with just putting her hand under there and grabbing the egg. No they're not happy about it, but most of mine will just grumble a little and pick themselves up enough to let me grab the egg before settling back down.

 

[mstricer]

I definitely have a crazy broody pullet. She's less than 9 month . No roosters. Hatchery chick. I made the mistake of leaving fake eggs in nesting boxes. I thought no way she's broody, so I took her out and set her down, would not stand up, all puffy and clucking. So I just put her back in box, as other girl was nailing her in face with beak

 

[JeannieB60]

I definitely have a crazy broody pullet. She's less than 9 month . No roosters. Hatchery chick. I made the mistake of leaving fake eggs in nesting boxes. I thought no way she's broody, so I took her out and set her down, would not stand up, all puffy and clucking. So I just put her back in box, as other girl was nailing her in face with beak

OH!!!, poor girl