Hen will not stop going broody..ON NOTHING!!

[FlockofFun]

I have a hen who is not the brightest crayon in the box. While her intentions are good, last time I let her hatch chicks, she was a terrible mother. Pecking her chicks on the head, leaving them behind, it was a mess.

So now she insists on going broody, on nothing! She has not layed an egg in weeks, and I am afraid she is going to starve herself to death going broody. We always try to pick her up and make her eat, but I still dont think that she is eating enough.

Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!!!!

 

[keljonma]

If you do a search, you will see there are lots of ideas on this board for breaking a broody hen.

The way that works best for us is to remove the hen from the hen house. We bring her into the infirmary, which is our laundry/mud room. There she has a bench to sit on, a chair to roost on, food, water, grit. NO nesting material what so ever! We only let her outside in a penned area, so she can't get back to the hen house and nest boxes in the barn. But the flock can still see her, so if she is away from the flock for a long period of time, she isn't pecked on too badly. We feel this is more humane than dipping her in cold water or hanging her in a cage.

If she's been broody a week, it takes about a week to get her broken. The longer she's been broody, the longer it will take to break it.

Being broody is hard on a hen. Feed her extra calcium (yogurt with oatmeal and layer feed is good) so she doesn't start to leach the calcium from her bones.

Good luck!

 

[scooter147]

I have a old dog crate (wire) I have it suspended about 2 foot in the coop. The hen is on wire only.
I simply place the hen in this cage with food and water and in about a weeks time she has been broken.
I will tell you I have hens that this simply doesn't work on and they go right back to the nest boxes.
My hens are pets so I don't sweat about it too much I just let them be.

 

[scooter147]

One more thing, I do remove broody's from the nest in the morning when I feed and in the evening when I collect eggs and feed. They usually go outside and drink, eat and dust bath.

 

[fivebigreds]

I have seperate coops for my huge broody collection.

 

[Windy Ridge]

Quote:

 

[BirdBoy88]

I have a white Leghorn Hen that is the same way.. she the worst mother a chicken can be... i let her hatch out 2 sets of eggs and each time i ended up having to take the babies and raise them myself and she always go's broody it had got so bad that one point she felt light as a feather when i took her off the nest.. so now i don't let her set on anymore eggs she's done!

So now when she go's broody i take her out the pen and put her in my special pen for broodys where there is no nest boxes and the whole pen is set up to where they only can eat drink and sleep ..and about after a week she slaps out of it and is back to her self

 

[FlockofFun]

I think she may have snapped out of it. Yesterday, she was up with all of the other chickens, running around the yard. She is such a goof. She is a frizzle and looks terrible right now, I hope that she grows her feathers back!