hens won't leave nesting box

[kerri]

HI All,

I am trying to determine if I need to do anything about my two bantams that will not leave the nesting box. Every time another hen lays, they go over and take to sitting on the eggs. The other hens have stopped laying in the boxes and are laying on the ground now. Plus, the two bantams have decided to stop laying. The bantams are now actually almost sitting on top of one another to get to the eggs. They haven't layed in over a week. I try moving them out, way out into the back acres. They just return to the coop immediately. Any thing I should be doing? We have no roosters. Thanks so much.

 

[scooter147]

They are broody. They are in the motherhood state of mind. Throwing them out of the nest box or taking them to the back 40 will not break them.
Here is what I do. I have a wire cage that I hang on the coop wall any hen that I do not want to go broody goes in the cage for a least a week. Provide them food and water of course but do not give them any thing to sit in or on or to roost on. They just need to spend some time in the wire bottom cage with their breast exposed to cooler temp, the sitting in a box keeps the breast temp. elevated.
Some folks on this board have had success dipping broody hens in cold water to decrease their temp but I have had no luck with this method.
If you do nothing eventually (it could be a month to two months or all summer) snap out of it.