Hi there. I’m sort of new to the chicken world and recently one of my youngest newly laying hens became broody ... she seems to be triggered by the full moon. So I’ve been dealing with her bloodiness monthly now for several months, and here is what I’ve found that works best for her ... we don’t have roosters to provide chicks, so I had to get creative to break her of being broody. And I’m not a fan of drama and fanfare... I like to keep everything as simple as possible.
As soon as she begins to brood, on the first morning I pull her out of the box and put her with the other hens, then throw down some delicious scratch full of yummy meal worms and sunflower seeds and other chicken candy mixed with their regular food to entice her to eat.
While she is eating, I place a large zip lock baggie full of ice cubes into the nesting box that she likes, large enough to cover most of the nesting area. After about an hour I go back out to the coop to make sure she’s on the ice ... if she isn’t, I place her on it, making sure as much of her belly area as possible is on ice. (Unless her jets are cooled, she will not quit brooding).
Throughout the day, every few hours, I return to the coop with a fresh bag of ice, swap it out, place her back on the fresh ice, and just let her brood on it.
Then in the evening, after dark (because chickens don’t see well in the dark), I go out to the coop and gently pluck her out of the nesting box and place her on the highest perch. She can’t see well enough to get down, so she just stays there all night (in theory this is supposed to snap her out of wanting to be in the nest).
I repeat this process every day until it breaks her broody mood. Sometimes she comes out of it after a few days, other times it might take a week or more.
I have found that the sooner I catch her being broody and the quicker I get her on ice, the shorter her brood is. Also, the more consistent you are with the ice the quicker she comes out of her mood. Currently I have a broken leg and am relying on my husband and neighbors to pull broody duty for me, so she’s been brooding for about 10 Days now (since they’ve not been able to be as consistent as I usually can be), but just this afternoon she was back out running around with the rest of the flock so I’m hoping that she is finished with it.
The key is keeping them cool. When they’re broody they get very hot... so if you cool them down it eventually breaks them of it. Baggies of ice seem to work much better than water bottles (I tried that at first and failed). Also, removing eggs layed by other hens as soon as possible helps discourage her.
I hope this helps!
