Hens going broody, Needing advice & questions answered plz!

[oliviaandjosh4]

My fiance and I are new to keeping chickens so we are needing some advice/ questions answered.

Ok so first during Memorial Day weekend our New Hampshire hen went broody after acting funny a few days prior. At first we thought it was pretty cool as I have read not all hens will go broody, so we were going to let her hatch them [4 eggs]. But then she got to where if another hen laid an egg in the nesting box beside her she would get up and sit on that egg and then another hen would lay on top of the other eggs so she would move back to them and we just decided forget it we will just put the eggs in the incubator [where they are now]. We decided this mainly because we don't want to hatch a bunch of chicks and it was just gonna get confusing. Anyways, to break her broodiness we have her in a dog pen by herself with no nesting box. Well she has been in there for a few days now, and starting today our black sex link hen has started going broody. She was on the nest for about 5 hours today so we decided to take her off and move her in with the New Hampshire. She was sitting on a ceramic egg that we had put in there so they would know where to lay [we haven't had them too long,plus we have added 2 new hens to the flock].

So I'm wondering, does one hen going broody make the other hens want to go broody? & does broodiness come with different seasons or no? Are there other factors that effect broodiness other than a nest box with eggs? [I removed the ceramic egg to prevent anymore broodies.]
Also how long should we leave her in pen w/o nesting box?

 

[LRH97]

Basically, a hen will go broody when her hormones tell her to. It does vary by breed (i.e. Silkies go broody A LOT and Leghorns go broody pretty much never), but the individual bird is really what it comes down to. I find most of my hens go broody in mid spring or sometimes the fall. There's sometimes that one that wants to be a pain and go broody in the dead of winter though! I have always let my hens hatch their eggs (I've either ordered fertile eggs, or I've hatched my own depending on the number of roosters I had at the time) so I don't really have experiences of breaking broodiness. Hope I helped some!

 

[Jajika]

I've heard all kinds of routines to break broodiness. Some sound down right mean, like putting a broody chicken in a wire cage. Good grief.

I've removed eggs from some that I feel have been broody long enough. Although sometimes that doesn't even work.

I do take them out of the coop a couple of times a day to force them to run around, drink and eat, trying to break the spell. It's nature, though..at least you know they are very healthy if they are brooding. One thing to be thankful for as annoying as it can be sometimes.