broody with bloody/ripped comb

[dftkarin]

I have 4 hens, no roosters and no space for more hens and last spring my austalorp became broody and I allowed her to sit and hatch 6 fertile eggs I got from a local farm and it was exciting and cute - but she lost her interest in mothering after about 2 weeks and then it was a lot of work for me to take over the 'mothering' job of keeping them warm and safe from the other hens (who pecked them horribly). So she's gone broody again and even though last year I thought it sounded cruel to try to "break" her of the broodiness, this year I think its the kindest thing to do. She was literally skin and bones after the 3 weeks of hardly eating last time. I tore her out of her nest this morning and put her in a 3'x5' chicken-wired pen - and all day she paced and dragged her face against the chicken wire trying to get out and back to her coop/nest - and by evening her head and face were ripped up and bloody and looking gruesome. I closed up the coop and let her out (of the chicken-wire pen) and she went straight to the coop door and tried to get in. I am locking her and her sisters out of the coop tonight (a risky plan because of predators) so she has to sleep out on a roost in the run - she's still snuggled with her sisters but they are on a 2x4 roost - do you think that will be enough to start re-setting her hormones? I also look the nesting box out of the coop in case she got in - and I thought about filling a zip lock bag with ice cubes and setting it in the nesting box - maybe the next step if this doesn't seem to help? I love this sweet hen so much and its really hard to see her so desperate to go sit on eggs (none of which are fertile!) - and now to be all ripped up from her desperate pushing at the wire walls. Ouch!! I might try a coop water dip too.

 

[irenew]

Sorry it is hard to see them desperate to raise eggs.

I found it takes 2 and half to 3 days to wean them off the broodyness.
I think I am rather kind to the broody hen, I put her in a run during the day and then let her out 5 pm , when she will eat and drink and make a bee line for the nest. As the oths go to roost I take her off the nest and return her to the perch with the other girls.

Of course she's up early getting breakfast and running back to the nest, so back to solitary confinement again for the day.

this is why it takes about 3 days for me

 

[dftkarin]

Thanks. I will persevere. She spent the night out with her sisters on an outdoor roost but she's still sitting there - all puffed and glaze-eyed - still looking broody - and her sisters are screaching at me to let them IN the coop to lay eggs. Maybe I'll keep trying to toss the off the roost this morning. I'll dap some antibiotic ointment on her torn up comb too.