Broody hen

[Zebedee1]

I have 11 hens and one of them for almost a week now has been very broody. She’s a silkie, I don’t know if that matters, anyways she’ll spend all her day laying in one of the nesting boxes. I’ll move her out and put her into the run with the other girls and she will peck around for a minute or so and then she goes right back to the same nesting box and will stay there unless I move her out. Sometimes I grab her and I can feel her crop is full but then other times it’s not. Another thing is that most of the time she isn’t even sitting on an egg. So what should I do?! I can only move her so many times a day because I can’t watch her all day long.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

I have 11 hens and one of them for almost a week now has been very broody. She’s a silkie, I don’t know if that matters, anyways she’ll spend all her day laying in one of the nesting boxes. I’ll move her out and put her into the run with the other girls and she will peck around for a minute or so and then she goes right back to the same nesting box and will stay there unless I move her out. Sometimes I grab her and I can feel her crop is full but then other times it’s not. Another thing is that most of the time she isn’t even sitting on an egg. So what should I do?! I can only move her so many times a day because I can’t watch her all day long.

Silkies are one of the most broody breeds, I've heard.

For the average broody I've grown up with, my mom would just remove the eggs daily and leave the bird alone. Ours would take care of themselves, then eventually the broody hormones would run out.

You might not see them leaving the nest, but they're supposed to. A good broody (whether or not they have eggs) will leave the nest, make waste, eat, drink, dust bathe. It could very well be for an hour every day.
Sometimes they don't do that, and that's a problem.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I assume you do not want her to hatch eggs but if you do get back to us so we can discuss.

Before a hen even starts laying eggs she builds up a lot of excess fat. That fat is mostly what she lives off of while broody. Hens will come off of the nest to poop, eat, drink, and maybe take a dust bath but you might not see it. If she is not pooping in her nest she is coming off.

The way I break a broody is to put her in an elevated cage with a wire bottom so air can circulate under her. I give her food and water but nothing that can look like a nest. I leave them in that for 72 hours and let them out. Most of the time they are broken from being broody by then but if they go back to the nest I put them back in for another couple of days.

Most hens will remain broody until they have used up that excess fat, which can last 5 weeks or more. But you don't get guarantees with living animals, occasionally you can get one that doesn't act right. And the hen will not start laying again until she replaces the fat that she used up. So I try to break them from being broody instead of just letting them go.