Broody Hen

[Mother_of_Hens]

Hi, looking for some advice on a hen who repeatedly goes broody.

She began laying in March and has been broody at least once a month since then. I put her in a broody cage and after a couple of days she stops being broody. She will start laying again after about a week and will be fine for 2/3 weeks before she goes broody again.

Any idea why this is happening? My other two have both had broody spells but they broke fast and haven’t relapsed.

I block off the nest box at night so she has to roost with the others and have taken to closing the coop entirely once the other two have laid but as they don’t lay til after lunchtime she still gets plenty opportunity to hunker down on the nest. I don’t want to keep caging her if I can find an alternative as A is a hassle and B it upsets the other two.

Can I restrict access to the coop, only opening it for a couple of hours in the afternoon for them to lay? Can they hold the egg til they get access to the box? Or will they start laying outside of the box if they can’t get in?

I’d love to put her on eggs and let her hatch them but don’t have a large enough pen to accommodate more hens.

 

[Starburst]

Hi, looking for some advice on a hen who repeatedly goes broody.

She began laying in March and has been broody at least once a month since then. I put her in a broody cage and after a couple of days she stops being broody. She will start laying again after about a week and will be fine for 2/3 weeks before she goes broody again.

Any idea why this is happening? My other two have both had broody spells but they broke fast and haven’t relapsed.

I block off the nest box at night so she has to roost with the others and have taken to closing the coop entirely once the other two have laid but as they don’t lay til after lunchtime she still gets plenty opportunity to hunker down on the nest. I don’t want to keep caging her if I can find an alternative as A is a hassle and B it upsets the other two.

Can I restrict access to the coop, only opening it for a couple of hours in the afternoon for them to lay? Can they hold the egg til they get access to the box? Or will they start laying outside of the box if they can’t get in?

I’d love to put her on eggs and let her hatch them but don’t have a large enough pen to accommodate more hens.

What breed is she? That can be one big reason why she's broody all the time. As for breaking the broody, continue doing what you have been doing and collect the eggs as soon as they have been laid, though I'm guessing from how broody this hen is that she'll brood on bare ground, even if there are no eggs. I'm not a huge fan of the broody cage myself, but it is pretty effective. If you do the broody cage again, make sure to put it in the run, or at least as close to the run as possible so that you won't have too many issues reintegrating her back into the flock. If she has a chosen nesting spot, you can remove the bedding/block off that one nesting spot. Of course, removing her from the nest repeatedly before the others have laid is good too. If it's warm in sunny, you could try freezing a water bottle/ice pack, and then place it under her. You can also give her an ice bath, dipping just her underside into some ice water, but only do this if it's warm outside. As for the chickens laying outside, at least for me, I do have an issue that if the can't get the access to the coop, they'll start laying somewhere outdoors, which is a hassle trying to find. Anyway, I hope this helps, and that someone with a little more experience can come and help you soon.

 

[Mother_of_Hens]

What breed is she? That can be one big reason why she's broody all the time. As for breaking the broody, continue doing what you have been doing and collect the eggs as soon as they have been laid, though I'm guessing from how broody this hen is that she'll brood on bare ground, even if there are no eggs. I'm not a huge fan of the broody cage myself, but it is pretty effective. If you do the broody cage again, make sure to put it in the run, or at least as close to the run as possible so that you won't have too many issues reintegrating her back into the flock.

We do keep the cage within the run so she has some company. We aren’t really sure on the breed, we thought maybe blackrock but she lays a white egg and everything I’ve read says they lay brown eggs. Photo’s attached.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I block off the nest box at night so she has to roost with the others and have taken to closing the coop entirely once the other two have laid but as they don’t lay til after lunchtime she still gets plenty opportunity to hunker down on the nest. I don’t want to keep caging her if I can find an alternative as A is a hassle and B it upsets the other two.

Can I restrict access to the coop, only opening it for a couple of hours in the afternoon for them to lay? Can they hold the egg til they get access to the box? Or will they start laying outside of the box if they can’t get in?

They lay when they need to lay. In an effort to make it "less hassle" you may be making it more of a hassle in the long run - I mean it really isn't a hassle to stick her in a cage for 3 days, other than having to monitor her feed and water. Also by avoiding breaking her immediately it's possibly going to lengthen the amount of time needed to break her of her broodiness.

If you really can't stand her broodiness, some people would LOVE to have a serial broody to hatch chicks, so you could possibly find her a new home with little effort.

 

[Mother_of_Hens]

They lay when they need to lay. In an effort to make it "less hassle" you may be making it more of a hassle in the long run - I mean it really isn't a hassle to stick her in a cage for 3 days, other than having to monitor her feed and water. Also by avoiding breaking her immediately it's possibly going to lengthen the amount of time needed to break her of her broodiness.

If you really can't stand her broodiness, some people would LOVE to have a serial broody to hatch chicks, so you could possibly find her a new home with little effort.

It’s more the fact that the hens aren’t super keen on being handled and catching her freaks them all out. As soon as I lift the nest box lid she rockets out in panic mode. I just don’t like the thought of causing them stress if there are other options.

 

[rosemarythyme]

It’s more the fact that the hens aren’t super keen on being handled and catching her freaks them all out. As soon as I lift the nest box lid she rockets out in panic mode. I just don’t like the thought of causing them stress if there are other options.

I guess I figure it's be pretty stressful on them to lock them out of the coop too, as that should feel like a safe space for them, that's why they're willing to lay eggs and sleep at night in there.

Is there any other way to access the nests? Not sure how your coop is laid out but if it's big enough to walk-in you could try grabbing her from the nest entrance they use, so she can't squirt free.

 

[Mother_of_Hens]

Is there any other way to access the nests? Not sure how your coop is laid out but if it's big enough to walk-in you could try grabbing her from the nest entrance they use, so she can't squirt free.

So this morning, I enlisted the help of my son. I held the dog crate open at the doorway of the coop and he opened the egg box and shooed her out of the coop and into the crate. Much less stressful for the hens. I will release her from the crate tonight after dusk and block the nest box and repeat the capture process tomorrow.