How to Break a Broody Hen

[bruceha2000]

The problem with my girl is she is feral all the signs point to broodiness no matter how much times i try to get her out of her nest she keeps going back she growls, peck at me her feathers all poofed up!!!.I can't catch her coz she is feral i don't have a wire cage to put her in i am seriously ready to give up... She's laying 1 egg per day whether or not she lays or not she spends hours on end in her nesting area and when i trying to collect her egg boy does she growls loud then pecks my hand as i try to remove her... Please help!!!!
Lila

You sure have a hard case there! Have you trained your birds to "chicken crack"? Black Oil Sunflower Seed (BOSS) and scratch are pretty much impossible for them to ignore. You might be able to get her into a more confined area where you can catch her.

so I stumbled upon a way of "broody breaking" that has worked better than the wire bottom cage or locking her out of the nests.

Worth a shot! If it is successful more often than not it sure would be easier and a lot faster than a buster box.

 

[Chaerie]

Had a broody jersey giant hen, read about the bucket trick which I didn't really like the idea of. So I put a milk crate over her and sprayed hose water through the crate to try to lower her body temp, left her in there for an hour or so to dry off a bit, and let her go in the coop. Worked like a charm!

 

[HollyWoozle]

I think I have just been lucky to be honest! She had been broody for maybe a week or so and my Mum just kept taking her out the box in the day and not making a real effort to fix it. Maybe it was a combination of factors - we have had a lot tougher time fixing broody hens before.

PS. I wasn't bragging about having found some magic fix... I assume it must've sounded that way from the responses. All I know is that she was broody before and she isn't now and so I am pleased.

 

[aart]

Upthread it said it lasts about 3 weeks. That seems pretty brief. Just wondering.

That's how long it takes to incubate chicken eggs.
A broody may not stop setting at that point unless she has hatched chicks.

 

[bruceha2000]

Upthread it said it lasts about 3 weeks. That seems pretty brief. Just wondering.

Incubation takes 3 weeks. The problem with a broody hen sitting on infertile eggs, fake eggs or just shavings is that she likely won't get off until they start to develop which of course they never will.

My understanding of the normal flow is for a hen to sit 3 days so the eggs have constant temp until she determines they are developing (how she knows I have no idea). After that she will get off the nest daily to eat, drink, poop, preen. About 3 days before the chicks are to hatch she will lock down on the nest until they hatch. That is how I treated the broody I was holding for the chicks that came 3 weeks ago. I took her off the nest morning and afternoon for treat and food time with the rest of the flock. She would stay out MAYBE 15 minutes then go back to her nest. I didn't take her out the day the chicks arrived and I put them under her the next night. Now she is happily raising the 6 chicks she "hatched" from 3 fake eggs.

Not real healthy to sit on a nest for 3 weeks and not eat or drink. In fact they wouldn't live that long. I let one go, with daily tossing off the nest, for 5 weeks. She still didn't break and ended up in the buster. Now I stick them in there as soon as they go broody because like you I have no rooster.

 

[Vanessabuffsnsilkies]

I have a broody silkie who was sitting in a nest box with nothing in it, I took her off constantly and she fussed and hopped back up there. I also dunked her into a bucket of cold water several times to see if that would work. Did feel guilty and brought her in the house and wrapped a towel around her...

but she still went back in the nest box on her imaginary eggs. I was looking into buying some fertile eggs for her...

anyway, one day she just appeared outside with everyone else and she's been back to normal ever since.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

The bareness on her breast is her broody patch, it's to have nice moist skin to nestle against developing eggs to provide humidity. That may also make it seem as if she is thinner than she should be, you don't have that cushion of feathers on her breast. But when they brood they don't expend as much energy so their appetite is diminished.

You may want to try to raise that cage up even higher, on sawhorses or lawn chairs or something, the trick is to create a nice airflow up under their breasts to re-set their dials. Leave her in there around the clock, not in direct sun but where it's nice & bright during the day. After 3-4 days let her out and see if she hurries back to the nest or is ready to roam with her flock-mates.

 

[ctomsheck]

I started raising chickens last summer wth my small mixed flock of seven; six hens and one rooster. Three of the girls love to fly over our six foot fence and lay in creative places. When my Cuckoo Maran started staying on her nest in the garage instead of rejoining the group at night, I tried bringing her in after dark every day for a week, and every night she was back on the nest. After almost three weeks of sitting, I went to the local feed store and bought three newly hatched chicks and put them under her after it got dark outside. The next morning around 5:00 we took her and her new babies to the hen house where she immediately settled in. That was about three weeks ago, and they have been successfully integrated into the flock. Now I have a flock of ten!

 

[galanie]

the chickens that is

Sometimes the people are too!

 

[galanie]

Your mistake was to let her out of the cage. You leave them in it 24/7 for around 3 days, don't let them out.

As to whether they can share a cage, that just depends on how well they get along. Put them both in and watch them.