Constantly broody hen

[KatefromOz]

Hello...I need some advice about a broody hen please. We have a hen, Gina (not sure of breed - perhaps a golden comet or something similar) who has been broody 3 times in the past 4 months. She has only been laying for just over 4 months so she is still relatively young. Here is my problem... we have no rooster so the eggs will never be fertilised. We aren't allowed to keep roosters in my city. We collect eggs every day so she is really just sitting in the laying box on nothing. We can't get chicks at the moment but that could be an option later in the year. Gina is really aggressive to my little isa brown and sometimes doesn't let her in either of the laying boxes. When we take Gina out of the box...she screams until she can get back up there. It's similar to the egg song but SO LOUD. My neighbour's have already complained to me about it. We haven't tried the wire bottom cage but have tried other methods and she stops being broody for maybe a week, and then it starts all over again. My husband said if she goes broody one more time we have to get rid of her. This brings tears to my eyes, even though she is a pain I could never desert her. I'm in Australian so it has been hot and humid...90-100 degress fahrenheit for the past few months. Is she likely to stop being broody in the winter? Is there anything I can do to stop this broodiness? Any suggestions would be so appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Cyprus]

I don't know what methods you have tried already, but here are some suggestions I have for you:
1) Block off the nesting boxes at night
2) Put Gina on the roost at night, do not let her lay on the ground.
3) Put a bag of frozen vegetables or ice cubes under her. This will lower her body temperature, which she is trying to raise to brood eggs.

Since you live in Australia, and winters do not cold enough to slow laying, I don't think that Gina will stop being broody in winter.

I would highly suggest moving onto the wire crate method at this point, especially if she is being aggressive to another hen.

 

[Jrose]

Make her a broody pen somewhere else and let her be a broody nag sitting in a pen on nothing until you’re ready to put chicks under her. She can sit quietly in the dark for weeks or months, coming out now and again for food, drink, and bath. No screaming, no bullying. Her pen can be tiny, if she’s broody she doesn’t care.

If you never intend to put chicks or eggs under her, see if you can break her, but it’s most likely that she’ll just keep on brooding if it’s in her blood.

If you need to rehome her, don’t think of it as deserting her! This girl wants to be a MAMA. Think of it as enabling her to follow her dreams on a farm with a handsome roo

 

[aart]

We haven't tried the wire bottom cage

There ya go....that's what you need to do.
It may be harder to 'cool her off' with temps like that, this is where dunking her belly in cool(not cold) water before putting her in the crate might really help.


My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop with fed and water

I let her out a couple times a day(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.
Or let her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Feed and water added after pic was taken.