Hen is perpetually broody

[five is my dog]

This broody hen does get off the nest and eats and drinks and runs around a bit then gets right back on the nest. The last time I let a hen set on eggs she hatched out 9 chicks. Six of them turned out to be roosters. I suppose I could isolate her with a couple eggs and let her set on them and hatch them and hope they aren't roosters. The other broody hen I had was a fabulous mother and it was fun to watch her raise the babies. I just hate to feed and take care of a bunch of roosters that I wind up giving away anyway. I have a small coop I could put her in with the nest and eggs in it and see what happens. Thanks for the advise. If I just ignore this and keep taking the eggs will she eventually give up being broody?

if she really wants chicks she will sit on an empty nest. but it might work.

 

[five is my dog]

Quote: i have done this before and had no problems water isnt going to atract vermin maybe food would but you could atleast give her some water

 

[buttercup95]

I've never had vermin problems either but I have two barn cats that pretty much eat everything but my chickens. I even had one bring me a young rabbit. Also my chickens are pretty good at taking out vermin I've found a few dead mice in their pen. oh well I suppose it's all in one's opinion. the fear of having vermin bring bacteria in is completely logical. I say just do whatever you feel comfortable with. If you don't want her to have any chicks just keep taking the eggs out and if she continues I would suggest trying to break her from it just so she can get out in the sun with the flock. You can eat the eggs so long as their fresh it doesn't matter if they're fertilized

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: I deliberately obtain a crop of roosters to eat by breeding young hens. Almost all of the offspring tend to be male if she is under a year old. I obtain breeding roosters by breeding hens over two years old. Then they produce some really good males whereas not one young mother's son has been worth breeding.

She sounds instinctive enough, she should stop brooding when her system tells her that period has passed for now. Missed the 'season'.

Quote:
Good stuff, love it when cats are doing their job. Mine used to but because of paralysis tick poisoning she stopped doing her job and I temporarily had to take care of the vermin problem myself. She and her son used to catch rabbits twice their size and eat them. My chooks eat mice and rats, and snakes, lizards, toads, frogs, etc but the issue is at night time they aren't eating them, that's when the rodents might eat them.

My cat's son (Hunter) got his name from killing a mouse when it was the same size as him. His eyes were not properly open, he was a week old, and he suffocated it with his mouth over its mouth; it was a full grown mouse, not injured or ill, lol! Just one very instinctive cat. Then he buried it in the bedding and went to suckle but had to repeatedly stop and check nobody had stolen his mouse, eventually he dragged it to his mum' side and cuddled it while he suckled. He also sucked on the mouse a lot but had no teeth and could not even walk with his belly off the ground yet, far too young, so eventually of course I removed his prize.

Quote: Actually a good easy source of water is a prerequisite for vermin.

Nothing rats like better than having food and water laid out right next to their nesting areas.

If you train a hen who is learning to brood that food and water come to her, it will dissuade her from leaving the nest to tend to her own health, which will be detrimental. I sometimes give food and water to hens as babies are hatching but would not supplement a hen just because she's on eggs. But each to their own I guess. Best wishes.

 

[buttercup95]

Quote: I also recently purchased some guinea so I hope they'll help keep rats away from the chicken coop. I'm mostly worried about coyotes which are a big problem out here. I was wondering if there's some sort of special way to keep them close to home since I have some larger dogs which keep them away from the coops (haven't lost any chickens since I built a coop) Anyways right now they're only three weeks and I know they prefer to roost in trees so they won't be locked up with the rest of my flock

 

[five is my dog]

Actually a good easy source of water is a prerequisite for vermin.

Nothing rats like better than having food and water laid out right next to their nesting areas.

If you train a hen who is learning to brood that food and water come to her, it will dissuade her from leaving the nest to tend to her own health, which will be detrimental. I sometimes give food and water to hens as babies are hatching but would not supplement a hen just because she's on eggs. But each to their own I guess. Best wishes.

they have always left to stretch there legs even with food with them. the broodys ive had have always taken care of there health.

 

[TwoCrows]

I have a hen that started up being broody at a very young age as well. I don't keep roosters and didn't see the sense in her sitting in a hot coop during the summer brooding fake eggs or no eggs at all. So tried the broody cage, broody dunk in cold water, isolation, everything I could think of to break her of it the first year of her life. NOTHING worked. She was/is one of those very determined broodys. And I could tell that not being able to follow her instincts only made her depressed. To the point of going thru a very long molt, no interest in eating and did not get back to laying for many months. So when her second year of life came around, again she became broody, I just let her do her thing. That second year was a lot easier on her and she wasn't as broody as she was that first year. Come her third year, she is far less broody now. She has gone broody only 3 times this season, so far, but the broodiness only lasts about 2 weeks and she then gives up. She goes right back to laying as well.

So for "Loon", it is possible that over the years your constantly broody hen will calm her hormones down over the years and be less broody. They can't help what their bodies are telling them and trying to break them can be very frustrating to the hen.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Interesting. Makes me wonder if some hens have a hormonal imbalance that causes them to go broody for an abnormal length of time. During brooding they aren't keen on eating, obviously aren't in lay, and moulting often coincides with the latter stages of rearing a clutch that's hatched, at least with my hens it does; so basically she is moulting into her new feathers as the babies are feathered and large enough to not need her feathers, and by the time she's got her new coat on she's ready to lay again. If your hen is similar and brooded too long that could be the case, possibly.

Quote: That's good.

I'm just not in favor of assisting an obsessive broody to remain brooding beyond the normal cutoff point for health reasons. I've had mixes of layer breeds and banties etc which have had the instinct to brood but no instinct to mother. The two instincts are not inherently linked. Not something I'm saying your hens have issues with, lol, just topic that came up.

Quote: If a broody needs taking out of the nest to drink and eat, and poop, I would consider her a problem. She ought to have the instinct to do all that herself. If she lacks that instinct she won't be the best mother. Only a hen lacking instinct soils the nest and weakens herself like that, so when babies arrive she can't tend them properly.

Being broody can be a problem when the hen doesn't have complete instinct --- either lacking the instinct to mother the chicks she hatches despite brooding them, or continuing to brood when the cutoff point/hatch point is long passed. There are many, many variations and degrees of brooding and mothering ability. Some hens will continue to brood nonstop until they kill themselves, they're not too common but not unheard of. I think these ones possibly stay in the hormonal state and don't snap out of it. Brooding is a different hormonal state to others, she lacks a normal appetite when brooding due to this state and doesn't need to eat anywhere near as much as normal, nor drink as much, etc...

Whether a broody will bite or not depends on the hen. Most of mine don't bite. I've culled hens for excessive biting on the nest when they're stupid enough to also bite their babies. If it's just me, then it's acceptable to a point, but if it's their babies and anything that moves copping it as well, then that's the limit.

 

[The Mother Hen]

Thanks for the new info! I am actually new to broody hens, but have read some thing online and I just gave info that I know from experience. Thanks for adding that info, it has even helped me as well! I actually found out that my broody hens get off their eggs by themselves, so I've stopped moving them and been letting them get off on their own time. The chicks should hatch very soon, possibly next week!

 

[chooks4life]

Great for you to have published a book. Best wishes with that and I'm sure it'll be useful to someone.

There are rules about advertizing on this forum though, you might get in trouble if you're going around plugging in random forums. There's at least one thread where people tell others what items or services they have for sale, it's best to do your advertizing there. Hope it goes well for you.