Broody Orpington.

[City Farmer Jim]

I was hoping I wouldn't have to ask this question BUT...is there a cure for broody hens? We have 5 hens all about 7.5 months old that seems to have gone through a hierarchy shuffle in the past week ish. The aftermath is the largest hen of the flock a buff orpington has what seem to me to have gone broody. Guess I need to back up a bit and add this. We have a second flock of pullets Various ages from about 10 weeks to 4 weeks which is a whole other story. We just started letting the young birds out in a small pen in the older girls run. I'm wondering if this has affected the broodyness of the Orpington. HELP if you can PLEASE

 

[sourland]

Nope it's her maturity and tis the nature of the beast. Orpingtons are frequently broody. Lock her away from her nest site until the broodiness breaks. Some birds are far more maternal than others, and it is likely that this particular bird will be frequently broody.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

I was afraid of that answer but needed to ask. I'm relatively new to raising chickens but do the research on them. She has had a couple issues prior to this and wonder in hindsight if those issues were more significant than I realized. I built a chunnel(a 2'x2' leanto covered with camouflage netting) and came home 1 afternoon to find her tangled up in the netting to the extent both wings and 1 leg/foot were completely tangled to where I had to cut her out. She seemed a little bewildered after that for 15-20 minutes but fine. She is the largest bird in the flock but the lowest in the pecking order..Pun intended then when she started laying she seemed to take longer than the others and they or at least one other bird would go into the coop and seem to be " hurrying her" for lack of a better term.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

We have 4 other hens that are laying eggs so keeping the orpington in question our of the coop is all but impossible. I moved the fake egg out of her favorite box and she just moved to one of the other 2. I will remove the other fake eggs so I am hoping she may snap out of the broodyness for now at least. What do you think?

 

[sourland]

Some hens imprint as much on the egg site as they do on the eggs. Perhaps she will 'break' on her own, but I doubt that. Good luck.

 

[aart]

I am hoping she may snap out of the broodyness for now at least. What do you think?

You can hope in one hand......you know the rest.

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

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.