Help! We suddenly have two big problems...

[Dora'smom]

The first one definitely sounds broody to me. We have our first broody right now, and decided to put a few fertile eggs underneath her. So far we have veining. (YAY!!!)
Maybe you could check Craig's List for your area, to see if anyone has any fertile eggs they might be willing to part with. We actually got ours for free, though I have seen an ad for blue-laced red wyandotte eggs locally at 50 cents apiece, since.

 

[BarkerChickens]

Sounds broody to me. Broodies will get up about once a day to eat, poop and take a quick dust bath. If she is puffing up and giving you an evil eye, that sounds like a typical broody.

As for the injured one...any swelling anywhere? Have you checked the bottom of the foot?

 

[gardener]

Yes a broody hen will stop laying eggs. She will not be like this forever just until the urge or hormones pass.

 

[Chickanmanfromarkansas]

Cure for a broody hen: An aspirin in some water. It will break her sitting fever.

 

[live2shine]

Are you serious about the aspirin? I feel much better with all the response about her being broody. I'm sure that's what it is. I'll keep working on finding fertile eggs or chicks. My "gimpy" legged RIR is doing much better today. At this rate she'll be back to normal in a day or two. Thanks again for the responses!

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Aspirin won't stop a hen from being broody. You can try to "break" or discourage a hen from staying broody by taking away her nest and anything that she can use as a nest. For persistent broodies, you may have to put her in a wire bottom cage so air can circulate under her to get her to stop being broody; some hens will keep on being broody no matter what you try.

Your hen is just behaving normally for a broody hen. They only eat and drink when they take a brief daily break from the nest. You'll probably notice she produces a single, huge, very stinky dropping when she's off the nest. This, too, is normal.

I weighed my broodies when they finished hatching out their clutches this spring and each had lost about 30 percent of her pre-broody body weight. They gained their weight back quickly, though, once they were done with their mothering duties.

 

[mboreham1]

if you get babies for her, you will have to let her have them for more than a week, i was watching mine last night, they are now 1/2 the size of momma and both were still trying to nestle under her and her wings! (they are 7 or 8 weeks old) I could probably take them away, put them in a different coop and run but they are happiest when with momma and momma is happiest when they are with her, its what she is designed to do!

 

[Miss Lydia]

My hens and I have 18 are very loud they put the roosters to shame lol. They are game, game/ bantam bantam and just pain ole bantam, but I love them and we have no close neighbors thank goodness!