First Broody

[Kyle Boisseau]

We got our first chicks early this spring and thus far we’ve had a great experience raising chickens. I noticed about 3-4 weeks ago that one of our leghorns had gone “broody”. I’d read about methods of breaking broodys but out of laziness I decided to wait her out. My daughter has been taking her off of her nest each day and she does eat a drink a little. I noticed this afternoon that she has completely worn off all the feathers from her breast and underside. She’s not sitting on any eggs and I don’t have a rooster. Is it time to bring her to the garage and put her in a pen for a few days or am I good to still wait it out? We’re not at a lack of eggs, so that’s not an issue. Mainly concerned for her health.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

A broody leg horn? That's awesome. They do pull the feather off the breast and underside to line the nest. If you're certain you dont want chicks I'd put here in a wire dog kennel with no bedding. Just food and water and maybe a bar to roost on. I believe that's the protocol for breaking a broody.

 

[aart]

I never let a broody set if I don't want her to hatch.
Might take longer to break her is she's been setting for 3-4 weeks.

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about 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 feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(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 take 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.
Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.