Hen is perpetually broody

[ChocolateMouse]

I just wait until they lay an egg, but if you put them back and they go back to brooding you know they're not broken and you should try again for 3-4 days.

 

[Chickachickboom]

Good answer. Makes sense. Logical. Thank you.

 

[Chickachickboom]

knowing why chickens act helps in fighting the behavious and making everyone unhappy, or going with the flow

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: ChocolateMouse covered it:

Quote: Laying and brooding behaviors are naturally mostly exclusive. Laying is a huge drain on the body's resources and if she were to keep laying while brooding she would rapidly starve to death. Brooding is almost a suspended animation state with a slower metabolism rate whereas laying is pretty fast. They may brood more and more towards the end of a laying period, when entering a brooding period, but generally just keep on the go until they're ready to set the clutch.

However it can take them a week or more after being broken off the brood to start laying again. So generally you will know she's no longer broody when she stops trying to brood. If you release her from the broody-breaking situation and find her in the nest within an hour, it's a good bet she's not broken. When she goes back to normal behavior one can guess she's broken.

 

[TwoCrows]

i have a related question i've been trying to get answered (sorry for hijacking). if you use the cage method to break a broody, how do you know when it's worked? i have a hen that i want to break, she isn't being terrible, gets up to eat and drink, but i don't have any roos, or room for any more chicks this year, and i want her laying again.

thanks

My girls tend to do a lot of "growling" during broodiness when you touch them, try to pick them up or even around the other hens when wandering around. So a good clue for me is when they stop this growling, then I know they are done with the broodiness. This growling also happens about a week before they actually start in with the broodiness, so I know it is coming on.

And as stated in the above post, getting back to laying does mean they are no longer broody, but that can be weeks or longer before they begin laying again.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Mine stop growling but not brooding within a few days. Day one of the broody buster is the worst, You put them in and you KNOW you have a broody hen! They scream and puff up like monsters and make the biggest fuss imaginable for me. Within a few days they settle down but will go back on the nest if allowed and a few days later they're normally laying again.



Day one in the broody buster usually looks like this for me!

 

[JD4570]

I have a perpetual broody. From about 8 months old she has wanted to set for the last three years. She does take a 2 1/2 month break in the winter but when it's warm enough she's back on the nest. Interestingly enough she comes out to eat, dustbathe, and she will not poop in the nest. . . .she goes to the edge of the landing in front of the nest and "launches" it away from the nest. I've tried every trick to break her, but she won't break. So I've decided if I can't beat her I'll join her in her effort. I'm going to put 8 to 10 Cherryegger eggs under her and let her have at it.

 

[Tacampbell1973]

I am not at all sure if this is connected, but my perma-broody hen I just found out two days ago is CRAWLING with lice. I feel like a crappy parent because I didn't know sooner, but in all fairness she only recently allowed me to pick her up and hold her. Also she didn't show any signs of lice ie. feather loss, itching, less egg production, nothing. I cleaned the whole chicken coop and run, and doused her 5 times (yeah it was that bad) and then hand picked as many bugs as i could off of her. I also put ash in the run where they dust bathe and amgetting some diatemaceous earth when feed store gets it tomorrow. Again, I don't know if this is why she has opted to sit in thenest box all day every day, but all that is there is a plastic egg and daily my other hen gets in and lays too. Bears mention that she has a broken beaktip and therefore can't delouse herself properly..

 

[rdehorney]

Yep we have one of those and cold baths didn't seem to faze her. One of our dear friends brought over some fertile eggs and she has hatched out chicks and is taking care of them but we are not convinced that once they are "weaned" she will not go back into her funk again!

Good luck with yours!!

 

[katsdar]

You could sell your roosters I ended up with too many and put an add in a local trader charged ten dollars and they are now kings of there own flocks, and some went to the pot not my pot.