Broody vs Egg Bound- How do you know?

[VHoff]

Hello everyone-

I'm a newbie to chicken rearing and need some advice: how do you tell the difference between a broody hen and an egg bound hen?

I have four pullets, three of whom have just started laying in the last couple weeks, and a boss hen who was the first to lay and has produced an egg daily for over a month now. The Boss has been in her nest for a good 18 hours as of this writing- she was out of her nest briefly yesterday and looked fine (no "penguin walk") and ate some with the rest of the crew in the run, but she hadn't produced her daily egg. The other hens had all laid in the other nest. It might help to know that four days ago there were four eggs (all hens laying) but one of them was full sized, meaning it was close to twice their usual size, and I suspect it was hers because she’s been laying the longest. I’m fearing that she’s trying to pass another large egg and it isn’t going well, but it's might also be that she's just feeling broody. In case it helps, my chickens are a Marans/Dominique mix and are under a year old, and all appear to be healthy and happy with no real conflict in the coop.

My chickens aren't comfortable with physical contact yet and I'd hate to traumatize her with handling if I don't need to- are there any clues I can interpret to see if a more aggressive intervention is required?

Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[staceyj]

All chickens will require handling at some point in their lives. It's best to work to get them used to it sooner rather than later, in my opinion.

Some broody symptoms:
Approach her on the nest.
Does she appear to go flat? (called pancaking)

If you reach out to touch her will she attempt to nip at your hand?
Does she make a growling sound?

Next, place a hand firmly on either of her sides (wings held down) Remove her unceremoniously from the nest.
Is she fussing at you?
While you have her in your hands tilt her over and
look at her tummy and breast areas.
Is she bald, or nearly so under there?

Now toss her gently to the ground.

If there are other Hens in close proximity to her,
Does she fluff up like a turkey and fan out her tail feathers?

Make a beeline back to the coop?

Make a constant clucking sound?

If you answer yes to more than 1 or 2 of these questions I'd strongly suspect broody behavior.

 

[VHoff]

UPDATE:
I just took my hen out of her nest and am able to add a few more "yes" answers to the broody question list: she pecked and growled at me, fluffed herself up and did the tail thing once she was on the ground, and was clucking non-stop. There was also a "normal" size egg for her in the nest. She was FAMISHED and ate up a storm once she was on the coop floor. There aren't any apparent bald spots on her body, but I think it's pretty safe to say she is going broody, so I'm going to attempt rebrascora's low-impact suggestion about removing her repeatedly from the nest during the day and physically placing her (if needed) on the roost at night. If this doesn't seem to help I may escalate from there.
Thanks again to everyone for jumping in with your suggestions-- as a new chicken keeper I feel much like a new father worrying about every little thing with a newborn, so it's reassuring knowing that this community is there to offer help and reassurance. It does take a village!

 

[rebrascora]

Agree with @staceyj Not all broody hens will display all the signs of broodiness but will display at least one or two. The other thing to look out for is a great big disgusting smelling broody poop. Broody hens hold their waste to prevent soiling the nest and usually do just one horrific poop a day whilst they are off the nest to eat and drink. If your girl is doing normal poops or soiling the nest she is probably not broody.
It she was egg bound, she would usually have a hunched back posture and her vent would be pulsing. They usually feel and act ill and will not generally eat because the stuck egg blocks them from pooping and that backs up their system and makes them feel "full"

Do you have any plans if she is broody? It is better to break her of her broodiness if you do not plan to let her hatch chicks. If you do decide to giver her some fertile eggs, have a plan in place regarding what you will do with the surplus cockerels that will result.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[rebrascora]

To break a broody you are essentially trying to prevent her from maintaining a slightly higher than normal body temp. The broody buster cage does this by putting her in a cage with no bedding and air flow underneath to cool her underside for a few days. Standing on a roost at night in winter will achieve a similar result and if you put her there after dark, she cannot see to get down and return to the nest, so she has to stay until morning. If you kick her out of the nest a few times during the day as well, that might be enough to cool her off and discourage her, especially as first time young broodies are often not fully committed to brooding like seasoned broody hens usually are.
Of course some people dunk them in a bucket of cold water each time they find them in the nest but at this time of year that is not recommended! Breaking broodies in winter should be somewhat easier, purely because of the cooler ambient temperature making it more difficult for them to maintain that increased body heat, especially when you deprive them of a comfortable nest to snuggle into.

 

[rebrascora]

If you decide to graft young chicks onto a broody it is best to let her be broody on a nest of sacrificial eggs or golf balls for at least a couple of weeks before trying to swap the chicks for the eggs. There is also a chance that a first time broody will not accept chicks like that as it is such a sudden shock..... during the final days of incubation, a broody hen starts to bond with the chicks inside the eggs and they talk to each other. This helps prepare her for when they hatch. If she hasn't experienced hatching chicks before and doesn't have this pre hatch bonding time and suddenly finds strange little beings in her nest and doesn't figure it out, it can end badly.

If you hatch sex linked eggs, the cockerels are still to cull and killing cute little day old chicks is harder than full grown adolescent males that will at least make dinner.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

I appreciate the full range of suggestions with the understanding that there may be different approaches and different experiences for everyone. I also don't take much as absolute-- rather, I try to synthesize what others say and adapt it to my circumstances using my common sense and instinct. So far I haven't heard anything that struck me as "wrong". Thanks again to EVERYONE!

VHoff just reading a few messages on here. I can tell you already have a good head for chickens on here. Thank you for not bringing chicks into a freezing environment btw. Too much can happen and chicks raised on Warm May/June Weather just seem to have a good healthy glow to them. It helps out that new Momma too. To not have an added environmental factor to worry about.
I think each broody is different. I've heard of miraculous graftings. Actually tried it on a silkie who had two chicks she hatched on her own. I wanted to give her two more. She was horrible to the newcomers. Flinging them across her broody coop. So Plan B: I brooded them in my garage.
Two years later she hatched just one Welsummer chick for me. Which was disappointingly taken at 3-4 weeks old by a hawk. I found the silkie broody in the coop for two days looking still broody but grieving, and scared. I brought her up to my garage to show her some chicks that I just brooded on my own given her history of flinging. Just maybe she would cheer up with some babies...? I was already letting them out for short free ranges in the afternoons. She began chooking for them and showing them tidbits. She wanted to be their Mom! I was taken aback. Crazy Hen. The adopted chicks were quite independent in their own right already and it took them a week to accept her tid-bitting. But they did take her up on her good hard work and ended up forming a family unit. Then on schedule at their 6 week age ( only about two weeks later) she started pushing them away to independence. Fun to watch the behavior dynamics. You just never know what you're going to get. And you can never tell from one brood spell to another how a hen will act to grafting for that matter either.
Harvesting extra cockerels is something to wrap your head around. I've done about maybe 10 birds going on 6 years. I don't know if it gets easier as I don't care for the job. But I understand it's part of it and I get why people don't like doing their own. If I could get DH to do it I would. LOL. But he tells me it's my hobby. Deal with it. But kind of nice knowing where that supper came from to be sure. And some pride in it to be certain.

One thing I've done to break a broody Australorp I had was a clean wire cage in the garage and left the lights on. What lights do is switch the hormones over to egg laying tendency. Which kicks them out of the dark warm recesses of broodiness. LOL. It's messy business without bedding though and kicked over water founts and spilled feed from a pacing broody. But it does the job. I'm usually treating the prisoner with high end treats. So I hope she doesn't think it's too horrible.

Good luck with your broody girl.

 

[VHoff]

VHoff just reading a few messages on here. I can tell you already have a good head for chickens on here. Thank you for not bringing chicks into a freezing environment btw. Too much can happen and chicks raised on Warm May/June Weather just seem to have a good healthy glow to them. It helps out that new Momma too. To not have an added environmental factor to worry about.
I think each broody is different. I've heard of miraculous grafting. Actually tried it on a silkie who had two chicks she hatched on her own. I wanted to give her two more. She was horrible to the newcomers. Flinging them across her broody coop. So Plan B: I brooded them in my garage. Two years later she hatched just one Welsummer chick for me. Which was ripely taken at 3-4 weeks old by a hawk. I found the silkie broody in the coop for two days looking dejected and scared. I brought her up to my garage to show her some chicks I was brooding and letting out for short free ranges in the afternoons. She began chooking for them and showing them tidbits. She wanted to be their Mom. I was taken aback. Crazy Hen. The adopted chicks were quite independent in their own right already and it took them a week to accept her tid-bitting. But they did take her up on her good hard work and ended up forming a family unit. Fun to watch the behavior dynamics. You just never know what you're going to get. And you can never tell from one brood spell to another how a hen will act to grafting for that matter either.
Harvesting extra cockerels is something to wrap your head around. I've done about maybe 10 birds going on 6 years. I don't know if it gets easier as I don't care for the job. But I understand it's part of it and I get why people don't like doing their own. If I could get DH to do it I would. LOL. But he tells me it's my hobby. Deal with it. But kind of nice knowing where that supper came from to be sure. And some pride in it to be certain.

One thing I've done to break a broody Australorp I had was a clean wire cage in the garage and left the lights on. What lights do is switch the hormones over to egg laying tendency. Which kicks them out of the dark warm recesses of broodiness. LOL. It's messy business without bedding though and kicked over water founts and spilled feed from a pacing broody. But it does the job. I'm usually treating the prisoner with high end treats. So I hope she doesn't think it's too horrible.

Good luck with your broody girl.

Thank you! I think parenting is difficult work for human children and animal "children" alike-- hard love is always going to be difficult to mete out, but one hopes for happy and healthy children in the end who may (or may not) appreciate your efforts.

 

[VHoff]

All chickens will require handling at some point in their lives. It's best to work to get them used to it sooner rather than later, in my opinion.

Some broody symptoms:
Approach her on the nest.
Does she appear to go flat? (called pancaking)

If you reach out to touch her will she attempt to nip at your hand?
Does she make a growling sound?

Next, place a hand firmly on either of her sides (wings held down) Remove her unceremoniously from the nest.
Is she fussing at you?
While you have her in your hands tilt her over and
look at her tummy and breast areas.
Is she bald, or nearly so under there?

Now toss her gently to the ground.

If there are other Hens in close proximity to her,
Does she fluff up like a turkey and fan out her tail feathers?

Make a beeline back to the coop?

Make a constant clucking sound?

If you answer yes to more than 1 or 2 of these questions I'd strongly suspect broody behavior.

Thank you for your quick response! She does go flat in the nest, so that's one "yes". I'll go back to the coop and put her through the remaining exercises to see if I can get more and will report back.
Thanks again!

 

[rebrascora]

no rooster = no fertile eggs to hatch
You didn't mention if you have a rooster.

No reason why the OP can't buy some fertile hatching eggs to set as many people do.
I would be wary of putting a bird in a broody buster cage in winter. Certainly need to make sure she has a good roost to stand on as it would be too easy for her to get frost bitten toes in a wire cage if it's a cold climate.
As she is just young and not used to being handled and perhaps not fully committed to being broody yet, it might be a simple matter of lifting her off the nest a few times during the day and placing her on the roost at night after dark with the other girls for a few nights to discourage her.
.