Broody Phoenix

[feather13]

Hi! My eight month old Phoenix has gone super broody. I've tried putting her in a cage and also locking her out of the part of the coop where the egg boxes are. She goes completely nuts and I'm afraid she's going to hurt herself. I've never seen a hen so broody. We don't have any roosters, so won't be hatching any chicks.

Here's the problem: I have to go out of town tomorrow and my teenage daughter will be taking care of the chickens while I'm away. Should we just let the pullet lay in the egg box? She exhibits all the behaviors of a broody hen and has started to get a pale comb, so I'm a bit worried. We have two Phoenixes who are laying, so I didn't catch the broodiness until yesterday.

We have a covered run, a coop where the egg boxes are, and a run (covered in hardware cloth). Any advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[rosemarythyme]

So are you hoping to try and break her, despite her being upset, or planning to let her ride it out?

If the latter, then there's nothing special/different that your daughter needs to do.

If you're planning to break her, then mainly she'd need to monitor the food and water in the broody breaker (as they're prone to knocking them over) and if you're gone for multiple days, she'd need to decide if the bird was broken enough to let back out of the cage.

 

[aart]

She goes completely nuts and I'm afraid she's going to hurt herself.

How long did you leave her in the breaker?
Sometimes it takes a bit(half a day) for them to calm down.

 

[feather13]

Thank you so much, @rosemarythyme and @aart, for responding to my post and for your helpful suggestions! I follow your posts and comments a lot and have always found your advice really useful.

Before I left town, I put the pullet in a decent sized dog crate, but she was really stressed out and overturned the feeder and waterer. I didn't have time to get clip on dishes for her and since my daughter can only come to the house once a day while I'm away, we just decided to not to put her in the cage. Great timing for becoming broody, eh?

So we'll just let her be and when my daughter's there she'll make sure she gets out of the nesting box and gets enough to eat and drink. Hopefully this will keep her healthy until she decides that nothing is going to grow out of an empty nest, poor thing. The issue right now is that when she comes out of the nesting box, the bullies (a RIR and two Black Stars) peck her a bit. If she gets really lifeless and her comb gets paler, I'll ask my daughter to put her in the cage again.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When a hen goes broody they stop laying eggs. When they are not laying eggs their combs get pale. That pale comb is not an indication she isn't healthy, it is an indication she is not laying while broody.

 

[feather13]

When a hen goes broody they stop laying eggs. When they are not laying eggs their combs get pale. That pale comb is not an indication she isn't healthy, it is an indication she is not laying while broody.

In our ten years of chicken keeping, we've never had a broody hen, so this is incredibly helpful advice! Thank you. We have a "post-menopausal" hen that has stopped laying and she has developed a very pale comb, so that makes so much sense.