Chaos! Please help

[Silkiebegins]

Ok so if I remember this right you would move them away from the hen laying box and keep them in an area above gravel more preferably. I'm pretty sure @Debbie292d knows the answer for sure.

 

[Debbie292d]

Broody jail sounds cool. How is this done?

how do I do that?

I used to use our dogs' kennel on the other side of the yard that has a gravel base. The dogs need it at night plus it's not secure like the coop so I open the kennel and let them run to the coop at dusk. Then whoever is still in nests when I open the chicken door, back to the kennel they go. That takes 4 days. Except for Marsha. Marsha was on day 6 and still broody so I got out our pet pen and set it up in the driveway (gravel) and put her and two more in there that got broody. It appears after two days, they seem broke by appearance, so we'll see who stays in the nests in the morning.

The idea is to make them unable to make a nest for themselves. Also I've heard of putting icepacks in there so they sit on something cold, but I've not tried to go to that length yet.

The round thing in front is the pet pen I am speaking of. The rest of that behind it is breeding/grow out pens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The way I break a broody hen is to lock her in an elevated cage with a wire mesh bottom so her underside can get cooled for 72 hours. That is usually enough to break them but occasionally one goes back to her nest when I let her out so she goes back in for another day or two. I put food and water in there but nothing she can use for a nest.

Many people use those wire dog cages set on brick or cinder blocks. I use a 3' x 6' pen I built as a brooder, broody breaker, and a place to isolate chickens when I need to. I've had as many as 3 in mine at a time. I'm not sure how many you could put in a dog cage.

 

[Joanndavid]

Update on this situation. I have 4 hens that are “sharing” 8 chicks, one hen that has 6 chicks( she only hatched 4, so she stole 2 from the sister wives), and lastly I have 1 hen that was sitting on two eggs, but I just had the last rescue hatch so I moved her, gave her the chick, and put the two eggs in the incubator. I’m sure that she will be happy, she has been sitting for almost 2 months.