Chickens stopped laying bc of Broody?

[Lockmat]

One of my 6 girls started sitting on some eggs and it seems like all the others stopped laying. I know because it was raining all day today so we didn’t let them out of the run. Normally they lay around mid-day, but when I got home from work today there were none anywhere.

There wasn’t any the past few days either. Maybe because the broody one is laying at the main place they all lay. I walked all around my yard and didn’t find any eggs either.

I have a rooster too.

Is it possible they stopped because they feel they don’t have a place to lay?

I don’t know if the broody one is getting up and letting them lay there, but I don’t think so.

 

[ChickNanny13]

How many nest boxes do you have? You should have at least 2, ratio is 1 nest per 4 hens.

 

[fluffycrow]

How old are they?

 

[Mrs. K]

Have you looked under your broody hen? Some are notorious in getting eggs even out of other nests and adding them to the clutch. But the other thing I would look for is a hidden nest. People often think they would find them, but they can be cleverly tucked away.

Mrs K

 

[Lockmat]

How many nest boxes do you have? You should have at least 2, ratio is 1 nest per 4 hens.

I don’t really have boxes. They have one spot in their coop where they may. Sometimes they lay right next to that spot, but they haven’t been laying there.

 

[Lockmat]

How old are they?

About 3 years old. Ever since the other one got broody, no signs of eggs.

 

[Lockmat]

Thanks, I was

Have you looked under your broody hen? Some are notorious in getting eggs even out of other nests and adding them to the clutch. But the other thing I would look for is a hidden nest. People often think they would find them, but they can be cleverly tucked away.

Mrs K

Thanks, I was thinking both those things. Count find a hidden spot.

Would the momma peck at me if I tried to look under. She makes noises like she’s angry when I get close but has let me pet her a little

 

[Mrs. K]

Put a towel over her and carefully lift her out. Be careful as eggs can get tucked up under a wing. When I have a broody - I do it about every 3 days just to see what is going on under her.

 

[Mercyr79]

Put a towel over her and carefully lift her out. Be careful as eggs can get tucked up under a wing. When I have a broody - I do it about every 3 days just to see what is going on under her.

Hi. My hens are having the same issue. When you check under the broody hen, what exactly are you checking for?

 

[Mrs. K]

Well, you are checking for unmarked eggs.

The proper way to set a clutch for a broody, is wait a couple of days to make sure she is really ready. Then mark with a sharpie the eggs you are setting to hatch. A pencil will rub off. Put eggs under her. If you catch her off the nest, then you can check the eggs she is sitting on.

Layer hens often will sneak in and lay an egg in the clutch, laugh and be gone, and the broody will come back and sit. This caused a lot of problems:

• The clutch can get so large, that the eggs not covered die. The broody hen moves her eggs around, so in a day or so, eggs in the center are moved to the edge, and they die too. You can get terrible hatch rates with too large of clutches
• You can get a staggered hatch - again not a good thing. Eggs do nothing, are inert, until they are warmed to about 100 degrees for 24 hours, and then they begin to grow into chicks. So if a week later, the layers add eggs to the clutch, those eggs are behind.
• What happens then, is the early eggs hatch. My broody hens have come off the nest in 24 hours, with the active live chicks. The eggs are are a week behind are abandoned as she takes care of the lived chicks.

So, in the wild, and sometimes you can have a hen disappear, and later show up with little fluff balls behind her. She had hidden the nest from the others. She laid eggs until she was happy with the clutch, set and hatched them out.

But most of us, hatch in the coop. Where they are around the other layers, and can get stray eggs in their nests. So you should check a couple time a week. Not real often, but every so often, removing anything not marked.

MRs K