hen sitting on empty nest

[fopzuu]

My hen has started to go broody. She sat all day on the nest with three eggs. But when she went to the roost at night I took the eggs from her. The next day she sat on one egg for half a day, so again I took the egg. Last night I noticed that she was sitting in the nest and she is still there today. Well last night she was sitting on nothing. What's the deal? Don't they wait to sit until after they've laid a few eggs? And why does it seem that she can't decide what she wants to do? Help, I'm confused!

 

[TundraChick]

I have 2 BO hens sitting on nothing day and night now for about 3 weeks. I have not been able to break them. Just what they do....you can try removing her a few times a day, but it hasn't worked for me yet. I did have success breaking my broody Silie by putting ice cubes under her. Otherwise gets some hatching eggs and let her do what she is trying so hard to do.

 

[fopzuu]

Yeah, that's what we were thinking-just let her sit, but when she spent most of yesterday out in the yard we thought she was "over it". She's very aggressive when I try to take her out of the coop so I'll try the ice cube thing. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Red]

One of our BSL was broody for seven weeks, she wouldn't snap out of it but we already had one broody hatching out chicks in the broody pen and couldn't have another. She'd sit on eggs, no eggs, straw, wood, whatever...when she did finally snap out of it, it was like she had 'phantom' chicks. She would cluck to them and puff her feathers up and growl if we went too close to her...she'd even pick food up in her beak and drop it for her 'chicks'

She snapped out of it within a few days. For the past four years she has gone broody every summer...She's a sweet little hen, and I promised her if she wants to hatch chicks this year, she can!

Good luck with your broody, she'll get tired eventually

 

[faro]

I have a puller/hen who was sitting on an empty nest this morning. How do I know if she is a beginner egg layer or is struggling? She is almost 5 months old and an Americauna.