Give me your best advice on discouraging broodiness!

[chickcrush]

My 1year old Brahma chicken is broody and we are trying to break her of it. We have closed up the coop during the day. How long will we need to keep this up?

 

[LaLoomis]

I had a couple of broody hens that I moved to a tractor thinking they could set some eggs and not be bothered by other hens laying on top of them. They were so upset to be in a new place they stopped being broody.

 

[Kittymomma]

This is a great thread on breaking broody hens. The wire bottom cage method works great!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=181289

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I pulled mine out of the coop and put her in a wire dog kennel with just her water and food. No beding, no straw. Took 2 days. she never went broody again.

 

[chickcrush]

Thanks, kittymomma. Just what I needed!

 

[Rennie]

There is loads of advice for making them stop being broody on here .. where are the tips to start it lol

I would love for one of mine to go broody as soon as possible

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
What breeds of chooks do you have? Some breeds tend to go broody, others rarely if ever go broody so your chances of getting a broody hen really depend on what breeds you have to work with. It seems like I waited forever for my first broody and then had five of them start within two weeks of each other....

 

[Rennie]

2 ORPS and 2 Bantam SLW ... I read somewhere though that most dont go broody until there second year of life .. Maybe i just need to be patient ..Or get an older hen

 

[Kittymomma]

My orp went broody at around 8 months old. My slw's haven't but since yours are bantams they might be more likely too, but I'm not really sure. Sending broody vibes your way

 

[kayri]

I used to worry about mine going broody, but then my oldest girl (who never was broody) became an internal layer and from reading all the posts and threads I realized it was because she had laid so many eggs in her life that her reproductive tract eventually became so scarred that the eggs just couldn't pass through. It's not a nice way to die. So now when my go broody, or don't lay so much in the winter, I think of them as just taking a break and resting and I don't mind.

I still take them off the nest once or twice a day when they are broody so they get enough to eat and drink and a chance to run around, but aside from that I don't worry the way I used to.