Broody hen

[yolka doodle]

Hi All,

one of my hens (Maggie) appears constantly broody and each time her temperament changes. This time she has been broody for seems weeks and weeks. I take her off the nest box every day so she can run around and eat. When I take her off she is like a wind up toy or a chicken on drugs. She runs around like a mad hen, digging and pecking at everything clucking as she goes. She don't stay in on spot for any longer than a couple of seconds then she is off running around, she pecks at thing and the food quite hard and quick. The others hen tend to pick on her when she is out and OMG her poop is like dog poo massive. When I first see it in the chicken house I could not make out what could have done it then see her poo the when she was out.

She does get off the nest box because there are always eggs under her when I get home from work. I want t get some fertile eggs so she can care for some chicks but as she has been broody for so long I am worried she will snap out of it just as I get the eggs.

this is Maggie the one at the front. Any ideas as to what I should do please.

thank you

 

[sumi]

That's a beautiful hen! And oh, that broody stink eye LOL I know that look so well. What you can do is give her an egg or 3 to sit on for awhile, fake eggs will do if you don't want to sacrifice any. Let her sit on those for a week or 2, then get some, 2 or more, day-old chicks and slip them under her at night, removing the eggs at the same time. Then she will (hopefully) wake up in the morning and think her eggs hatched. It works well most of the time. But it's better done at night when the hen's sleepy.

 

[fiberart57]

I have a Buff Orpington that will stay broody for over two weeks. I put her in a cage that hangs in the run, close to the rest of the hens. The bottom of the cage has hardware cloth and I don't put bedding down. This cools her underbelly, which is warm from being broody. It seems to help.
Mary

 

[yolka doodle]

Thank you Sumi and Fiberart57

I have put her in a wire bottom cage before but it only lasted a couple of weeks and she was broody again. I need to find a way to separate her from the others so she can bring up some chicks. Someone I know has fertile eggs I can use an di can give him the chicks when the time comes, its just I don't have the spare space at the moment, I could section off there shed its 13ft by 7ft and there are 7 hens in there so they could spare a bit for her and some chicks for awhile.