Hen acting broody, breast feathers mostly gone, red streaks on skin, smells bad

[Sapphire Sebright]

The broody period usually lasts until:
A) She has sat on the eggs for about 28 days, which is about how long it usually takes for an egg to hatch
B) She hatches an egg underneath herself
C) The hen is forcibly broken of her broodiness, by any one of several methods.
Also, I have a broody ISA Brown, too! She's been broody since the Thursday before Mother's day, and she incubated a guinea egg. I really should break her, but I just keep getting distracted. I keep removing her from the nest box and placing her somewhere away from the coop. She looks hilarious when she puffs up as I walk towards her -- she looks like a big walking ball of feathers!
Good luck with your broody.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

Hi, you should move her at night somewhere where she’s protected from predators but also where she can sleep and not get startled or scared at night. You want to keep her health up.
I move my broodies wire crate into the garage at night and cover with a sheet.
The longer she’s been broody the longer she’s going to take to break. I give my hens three days in the nest box full time to see if they are truly committed then they go to the broody breaker. If you catch it early it takes three to four days to break.

Hey Kathy, the chicken jail cage I had was pretty big to move, so what I ended up doing was transferring her back to a standard battery cage with a wire bottom, then putting her in a locked shed. This is the fourth or fifth night since she's started going broody, and she is relentless. Go out, she's pacing in the cage like she wants to rejoin the flock, let her out, she rolls around, eats, poops and then in front of me walks into nest box. I lift her up and put her back in chicken jail. Over and over.

She makes this low "cluck cluck" noise that's constant whether sitting down or not, it's not the same sound the other girls make when laying at all. I also notice she is flexing her vent muscles a lot. If she's doing these things, should I be letting her out of chicken jail or wait until she stops doing that?

 

[Kathy Golla]

Yep that crazy clucking is textbook broody.
How old is this hen? Has she ever been broody before? Good times....
What I do is place the crate right in the middle of the pen during the day. She has food and water and the sun can’t get to her. Sounds like you have a similar set up. Do not let her out with any kind of access to the pen or nest box!
Then lock her up at night as you’ve done and move her again to in sight of the others the next morning. You’ve got to probably get four straight days of not letting her out and at the end of those four days her clucking getting less and less to even start to think she’s broken. I do make sure the hens feet get a break by periodically having the kids take her out to the garage to stretch her legs. She cannot have access to nest boxes at all. Once a couple of days passes, I let the hen free range with the rest of the hens in the evening. I block any access to the pen/nest boxes, and if she becomes frantic to get into the nest box instead of free ranging with the rest, it’s to bed in the garage in the crate we go. I like to try to have the broody hen in sight of the others during the day, it’s easier to reintegrate later.
Someone once told me, broody hens will do their best to make you feel really bad and that is the truth!
The way I know that the hen is starting to come out of broodiness is they stop making that clucking sound while they are in the crate. Also, they stop puffing up and screaming in the crate. And they stand up more and not lay down still trying to keep their breast warm. Also, you can feel their breast and it’s not ultra hot. But mostly a good indicator is slowly over days stopping that clucking sound.
The good news is typically this doesn’t go on longer than three weeks, the laying/hatching cycle. And you will learn with this hen when she likes to go broody and what the sign are for her, and in my experience one hen only goes broody twice a year at most, usually in my experience spring and early summer.
Once she’s not broody, just make sure she’s eating and drinking and dust bathing and a good bath is in order. Check for lice/mites. Change the nest box liner.
Try not letting her out at all, or if you let her out to stretch it’s for a short period of time, totally outside the pen.
Some hens, even being in sight of the coop, they will continue to be broody, so if the broody behavior doesn’t lessen within a few days of having no access to a nest box, you may have to move her out of sight totally from the coop and other hens.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

She's an Isa Brown from the pound that I got a year ago. She was an almost daily layer until this broody business came up, so I'm estimating her age at about 2. Today I walk into the shed to get her, she's being broody right there in the battery cage, stuck her claws into the wire to not come out to be transferred to outdoor chicken jail cage. When I finally got her out there were four other hens in the chicken jail eating her food already. Finally got her situated in there. She's sitting down on the wire being broody again.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She's an Isa Brown from the pound that I got a year ago. She was an almost daily layer until this broody business came up, so I'm estimating her age at about 2. Today I walk into the shed to get her, she's being broody right there in the battery cage, stuck her claws into the wire to not come out to be transferred to outdoor chicken jail cage. When I finally got her out there were four other hens in the chicken jail eating her food already. Finally got her situated in there. She's sitting down on the wire being broody again.

Is the jail elevated so it has air flow? She needs air flow to help cool her.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

Is the jail elevated so it has air flow? She needs air flow to help cool her.

It is but the ground is not even, so parts of the jail are on the ground. I have a bunny hutch, should I be using that instead?

 

[Kathy Golla]

After a while I will put a 2x4 on its side in the breaker for periods of time during the day to break her feet, and let her roost on that at night.
The biggest side effect of the broody breaker imo is it hurts their feet.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Whatever circulates air under her. You can also put the jail up on a couple of 2x4s or some bricks.
Can u post a pic of the jail set up?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It is but the ground is not even, so parts of the jail are on the ground. I have a bunny hutch, should I be using that instead?

A bunny hutch may be better.

 

[coach723]

in my experience one hen only goes broody twice a year at most

I have one hen that will go broody 4 or 5 times a spring/summer/fall sometimes. Warm season is long in Florida.
Averages are made to be broken with chickens. I obviously don't let her sit every time, so the jail gets used a lot for her. I had 3 hens go broody at the same time this spring already. Having extra crates pays off. It was just too hot to let any of them sit this time around.
Be patient, she will eventually change her mind, some can be VERY stubborn.