First broody hen.

[newchick1358]

I have my first broody hen. We do not have a rooster nor do we want her to hatch eggs. How long will she sit for? Do we have to brake her of it. If yes what is the most effective way. The other hens have almost stopped laying since she has gone broody but none of them are showing signs of going broody them selfs. Is this normal? She did take the favorite nesting box. Thank you

 

[Lukedawg]

Awesome! Congrats! If that's what you wanted.....

I had a broody hen hatch two newbies a month or two ago. It's a great fun experience !!
Just remember they know better than you do on what to do and how so let them do their thing!!

 

[aart]

I have my first broody hen. We do not have a rooster nor do we want her to hatch eggs. How long will she sit for? Do we have to brake her of it. If yes what is the most effective way. The other hens have almost stopped laying since she has gone broody but none of them are showing signs of going broody them selfs. Is this normal? She did take the favorite nesting box. Thank you

Look under the broody...are the other hens' eggs there?

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 and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day 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.
Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.

 

[newchick1358]

Thank you my coop is to small for that but maybe I can rig some thing. No I have removed any eggs under her and have been trying to remove the other eggs as fast as I can. But is it normal for the other chickens to have lower egg production while she is broody ?

 

[Peeps61]

I've had that happen sometimes. I have 30 laying hens, and two of them went broody, one after the other. I went from an average of 25 eggs a day to between 15 and 18. Now that both are no longer broody, I am back up to 23 eggs a day, even though the post-broody hens aren't laying yet. So, yes, I think the other hens hormones may have something to do with it.

 

[newchick1358]

Ok good I was worried they might be having some sort of problem I have one chicken that just started laying she only lays really tiny eggs but she has stopped altogether now. I was hoping she wasn't getting sick or something. Thanks