can I stop broody hen, if so, how?

[trunkman]

I think I have a broody hen, I would have welcomed it a couple of months ago but I just hatched 23 chicks 4 weeks ago. I went to the coop this afternoon to collect eggs like I do every day at 4 and noticed a hen in a nesting box so I waited an hour and checked again, she was still there, waited an hour more, still there, I repeated till 9, still there, I felt under her and she had 4 eggs and she pecked at me. This never happened with her before so I think she is broody. My question is if she is still on the eggs in the morning can I break her of her broodiness by pulling the eggs or should I just let her be?

will she give up if I pull the eggs?

 

[jak2002003]

My hens are going broody all the time and it used to drive me mad. Now I have a easy plan that works every time.

I take the broody hen off the nest and put her in a large dog crate in the coop / run, with food and water. I also put a roost in there for her.

After about 2 days and night in there I let her out. Then she is not broody any more. Only once this did not work, so I just put the hen back into the cage for another night and that was that.

 

[trunkman]

Thank you Jak, gonna go get her out of that nest box right now...

 

[sierradane]

I guess I was mean in how I got one of our chickens to get off her eggs. She was a biter and I noticed that she had one chick to hatch and it was dead. I put on long sleeves, work gloves, picked her up from the nest and threw her out in the yard then closed the chicken house door. The dead chick looked like it had been bitten on the neck and/or smashed. I took all the remaing eggs and threw them away out in a field. Then I opened the door & she got in the nest, looked around but then got off and went about her other daily non setting personality.

 

[artsy1]

sierradane.................thank you for being honest. I also sometimes let my anger get ahold of me, but it's good to know that other people can get as angry as myself.

I have a broody hen that I have been putting in a dog crate for a week now, I let her out at night, cause I don't have space to leave it in the coop.
It isn't working....so I have to think of something else.

 

[nseattleguy]

A friend put his hens butt in a bucket of cold water and he said that worked. I've never had a broody hen, so I've not tried this.

 

[CALsilkies]

My chooks do that some times, so every day I lift her off the nest till she doesn't get back on.

 

[cassie]

I put mine in a wire cage with no bedding but food and water. Works for me.

 

[Mrs C]

how long do you keep her in the cage?
thanks for your advice

 

[Kittyf]

I kept my broody Sussex in the wire cage (with food & water, no bedding) for four days - allowing her out to range for an hour or so in the run if she wanted and it 4 days to break her of broodiness. She hasn't stopped laying snce! And she's still very affectionate toward me (you know, for a chicken)

I also dunked her butt in cold water daily, which she actually seemed to like as it's been hot. The idea is to bring down the temperature of their undersides which produce heat during broodiness.

Love those chickens!

K