Hen won't leave her nest

[dtobin]

We have 3 chickens who lay daily, no rooster. One of our chickens has decided to not get off the nest or even out of the coop. I have to nudge her to remove the egg from the nest and the other two have stopped laying. She'll peck if I try to remove her and click in a growling manner. What's up with this behavior? Help!

 

[luvchicks8]

shes broody

 

[dtobin]

Can they become broody even if there's no rooster to fertilize the eggs? Does this stop eventually?

 

[Catstar68]

No rooster necessary to have a hen go broody on you. If you want chicks, now would be a good time to order some fertilized eggs!
If you don't want to do this then there are some good threads on here on how to break a broody.

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
No rooster needed. No eggs needed. No nothing but a nest w/some bedding needed...LOL. All broody hens are different (in ref. to your 2nd question). She may give it up after a week (not fully broody...just thinking about it)...she may give it up after a month (since it takes that long for eggs to hatch - and hers didn't, maybe because she's sitting on a golf ball or maybe you removed her eggs...lol)...or she may decide that, by golly, she ain't leaving until SOMETHING hatches under her.

Many hens will lose a LOT of weight while being broody due to not eating properly (since they rarely leave the nest). So if you're not going to give her fertilized eggs to sit on (you're not wanting chicks), then either give her 3-4 weeks to see if she snaps out of it or try to break her.
When my GLW girl did this, I gave her about 3 1/2 weeks. I would boot her off the nest 2x a day to force her to eat/drink/poop. Then I still had to battle her over a weekend to keep her out of the coop (except at night, which I would physically set her on the roost). By the end of the weekend she was back to normal. If you want to break her now, you can keep her in a dog crate or pen WITHOUT bedding for a few days. It's best if you can elevate the crate, so air can circulate under her. Obviously she will still get food/water. Hope this helps...

 

[CammieSilkie]

ALL chickens get broody, rooster w/eggs or not. some breeds rarely get broody, some get broody all the time. Just wear long sleeves and put on gloves and pick her up. take the eggs, and no harm done. she may get mad, but hey, they will never hatch anyway. Or you could let her have her fun and let her stay on the eggs, but if you do that, they may get a little old and rotten in the process \\: bahahahaha dont worry this is all perfectly normal.

 

[mamamary]

One of my blackstars seems to want to be broody. She seems "puffed up" and doesn't want to get out of the nest. I take eggs from underneath her and she will get up walk around and then go right back to sitting in the same nest. Tried moving her on an egg in a different nest, and she won't stay anywhere but the first nest. One of my other chickens comes in the nest and starts pecking the egg, and eating it right underneath her. Got any ideas?

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Yeah, what they said......

&

 

[zazouse]

She's broody,

i have lots of hens that won't get off the nest even when all the eggs hatch.

 

[gmendoza]

My Partridge Rock went broody about 3 weeks ago and we didn't want her to do it because of the hot weather,but our white leghorn roo got his ..umm...game on and we have fertile eggs,so I put her butt into the brooder box with 9 yeggs under her.

Now peace is restored throughout the galaxy once again.