It is indeed very difficult to break a hen of broodiness if she is determined. I have been trying to break one myself.
Things I have tried:
*Gather all eggs as soon as possible, and remove golfballs, fake eggs, etc. from the nestbox.
*Keep putting her out of the nestbox.
*Try to get her moving around, doing things with the other hens.
*Put her on the roost at night. Don't let her sleep in the nestbox.
So, this has been going on for about 6 days, and today she was not broody. YAY!
I expect that she will try it again in about a month.
Mike K - Welcome to BYC!! The thing that seems to work the best with stopping a broody is to put her in a wire cage with NO bedding material - no nest. Just have food and water in there with her. That will often stop them after a few days or a week.
ok! thanks for the suggestions! how big does this wire cage have to be! my nan said somethin about puttin her in a cardboard box! but I thought Iwud check it out with the experts 1st
I've come to the conclusion that one of my hens has gone broody as well, and since she has only been laying eggs for about 2-1/2 months, I'm not to pleased.
How long do you need to do the ice cube trick to get them to break the broodiness? Does the hen, when using the ice cube trick, go back to laying eggs again fairly quickly?