Hen won’t leave nesting box

[Canal Chicks]

Hi I have a hen that refuses to leave the nesting box, she hasn’t laid any eggs in a week and she steals other hens eggs. She chirps, growls, feathers up when I take her out to get some water and food. She eats, drinks hangs out for a little while with the flock, then back in she goes. She doesn’t have pasty butt and acts completely normal. Can someone tell me what’s going on? She’s my alpha hen... thank you.

 

[imnukensc]

She's broody.

 

[Canal Chicks]

She's broody.

I figured that, but why isn’t she laying her own eggs? I keep taking the ones she steals. Can you break a hen from being broody?

 

[heatherwk]

We had a broody hen for a while. I saw on here that someone put them in "chicken prison" so literally crated them with food and water until they kind of broke out of it, I don't know if its recommended to do this but a lot of people agreed with it from what I saw. We didn't know what to do with ours but she did stop in the end.

 

[imnukensc]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/do-broody-hens-stop-laying-eggs-when-setting.164897/

 

[JedJackson]

Once they go broody egg production stops. She will set on any eggs-- they don't have to be her own. And she will set with no eggs at all under her, so taking away the eggs won't work. The easiest way to break them of broodiness is to put them in an elevated cage such as a rabbit cage, with food and water, of course. The idea is to get air moving around her underparts, which are bare in broody hens so their skin can make contact with the eggs and keep them warm. It will take a few days at least.

 

[aart]

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop with fed and water

I let her out a couple times a day(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Feed and water added after pic was taken.