Broody hen....

[KWynne]

Hi! We have Rhode island red who's been broody for a week. The other 2 are laying eggs in bushes, you name it. Needless to say, we aren't getting eggs right now. I've tried locking her out of the pen/coop (they free range). She seems okay for a bit then tries to get back in. She's aggressive with one of the others. Next to the coop is an old shed we will be setting up for their winter and future home. I put a nesting box (with her in it) with hay around it. She stayed for a bit then tried getting back in the coop. Should I just let her do her thing? I want the other 2 to have a box they can go to while getting them used to going into the new "digs".
Another thought... we want to add 2 more chickens, wait for the brooding to be over?

 

[sourland]

or allow her to set on fake eggs for a couple of weeks and foster some known pullet chicks to her so that they can be raised in the flock.

 

[aart]

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, IMO it's 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.

Tho not necessary a chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Hi! We have Rhode island red who's been broody for a week. The other 2 are laying eggs in bushes, you name it. Needless to say, we aren't getting eggs right now. I've tried locking her out of the pen/coop (they free range). She seems okay for a bit then tries to get back in. She's aggressive with one of the others.

Another thought... we want to add 2 more chickens, wait for the brooding to be over?

You really should break her if eggs are a priority. Messing around with locking them out, or just allowing her to be broody for nothing at all, is also making things difficult for your other birds. Aart posted how to set up a broody breaker. I break my broodies ASAP and it really minimizes how much of an impact they make on other birds in the flock.

Adding new chickens could help break her broodiness... or cause her to be even more difficult and aggressive with newcomers. I'd get this resolved first, before you go on to the next set of problems.