How to Break a Broody Hen

[bruceha2000]

Thanks for posting this info. I am a rather new flock owner and have encountered my first broody lady. I thought I might be able to have her hatch some other fertile eggs of mine, but she doesnt consistently sit in the same nest. She is always in a nest box, but a different one from time to time. I have been using a bunny hutch with bedding as additional nesting space, looks like im clearing the straw out and sticking her in therenfor a few days.

Wrong time of year to be hatching eggs unless you want to be ready with an incubator and/or brooder if she isn't up to the task.

 

[chickchick duck]

what breed is best to be broody.well what breed is the easer to amke it broody

 

[MMSculpture]

Hello. Thanks so much for all of this information. I'm currently dealing with a broody silky hen. She's about 6 months old and she started sitting in the nesting box day and night about 3 weeks ago. At first I thought she was sick and that she was going to die. I was very worried about her and I just left her alone and hand fed her hoping that she would get better. Then I realized she was just being broody. So up until today I have just been taking her out of the coop and chicken run into my back yard and letting her and her best buddy run free range in the back yard which has no access to the nesting boxes. But at night I was letting them back in the coop. As soon as I open the door she just runs into the nesting box. She started getting skinny and a full three weeks went by - I was hoping after 21 days she'd be over it. She's not over it. So I just put her in a large dog crate up on some bricks with food and water and a roost in the yard. She's terribly unhappy. She kind of freaking out. Squaking, pacing, and she's so tiny I don't want her to get hurt in the cage. Her little feet slip through the holes and it seems so uncomfortable. I feel bad for her in there.

I'm going to see how she does in 24 hours. I hope this helps. She's such a sweet little gal I don't want to make her hate me or hurt her.

 

[nina1marc2]

Hello. Thanks so much for all of this information. I'm currently dealing with a broody silky hen. She's about 6 months old and she started sitting in the nesting box day and night about 3 weeks ago. At first I thought she was sick and that she was going to die. I was very worried about her and I just left her alone and hand fed her hoping that she would get better. Then I realized she was just being broody. So up until today I have just been taking her out of the coop and chicken run into my back yard and letting her and her best buddy run free range in the back yard which has no access to the nesting boxes. But at night I was letting them back in the coop. As soon as I open the door she just runs into the nesting box. She started getting skinny and a full three weeks went by - I was hoping after 21 days she'd be over it. She's not over it. So I just put her in a large dog crate up on some bricks with food and water and a roost in the yard. She's terribly unhappy. She kind of freaking out. Squaking, pacing, and she's so tiny I don't want her to get hurt in the cage. Her little feet slip through the holes and it seems so uncomfortable. I feel bad for her in there.

I'm going to see how she does in 24 hours. I hope this helps. She's such a sweet little gal I don't want to make her hate me or hurt her.

My silkie mix went broody a while ago and yesterday she started being broody again. I did the same thing. I allowed her to go free range all day without getting into the nesting box. Tonight she went in to sleep and instead of perching with her friends she started laying in the nesting box. I put her up on the perch with her two friends and she is staying there. Tomorrow morning I will remove her and put her into her broody pen (which is a plastic medium dog crate that has drilled holes in the bottom). I will leave her outside with her friends so she can see them and allow her bottom to cool off. I put a little waterer in her broody pen along with a bowl of feed. I add sunflower seeds into her feed to allow her to bulk up on protein. I also put two wooden blocks into her pen to allow her to perch so her feet are up.

I hope that helps. I have notice silkies are great mother hens. I might have her hatch some babies if she keeps doing this.

 

[MMSculpture]

Thank you. This helps. I just went out and put a nice block of firewood in her crate for her to stand on. I popped her up on it and she stayed which leads me to believe she liked it. It seems more comfortable that the wires too. I also covered the back side of the crate behind her with a blanket so she wouldn't get to much draft at night and in hopes that she'd feel more secure. She's a bit frail right now I don't want her to get sick. And I put the crate in the chicken run so she's close to her friends.

I will see how it goes. Thanks for the support and advice.

 

[MMSculpture]

By the way I tried giving her a bath in cool water about a week ago. It did not work. She's serious about this broody business. I probably let it go to long.

 

[nina1marc2]

By the way I tried giving her a bath in cool water about a week ago. It did not work. She's serious about this broody business. I probably let it go to long. 

I tried the bath thing too and it didn't work for her either. It's cold where I am so I won't do that now anyways. It took 5 days last time to break her and during those days I tried to free range her two of them (but she kept trying to go back into the nesting box) and the last three I left her in the pen. No breaks except to clean it out and refill her water and feed. That did the trick. I did move her into my garage at night because it is so cold and covered the top and sides at night. I left the bottom open to allow her bottom (hormones) to cool off. I would bring her out in the morning to watch her friends be free. She didn't like that and I think it helped her hormones change.

I do give her some cracked corn, sunflower seed, chopped carrots, and meal worms to make her eat more while she is in the pen. Otherwise she tends to not want to eat out of stress and favorite foods help.

 

[shgreen1]

So I have a hen who has gone broody. She is showing all the typical signs, puffed up feathers, staying in the nesting box, etc. I've tried moving her out and putting her back with the flock and taking the eggs, but she keeps going back. I'm not all that concerned about loosing the egg production, we have more than we can use and give away anyway so I don't feel it necessary to "break" her but I have a question. Will it naturally end on its own? Does this do any harm to the hen letting her be broody without any eggs hatching?

 

[bruceha2000]

So I have a hen who has gone broody. She is showing all the typical signs, puffed up feathers, staying in the nesting box, etc. I've tried moving her out and putting her back with the flock and taking the eggs, but she keeps going back. I'm not all that concerned about loosing the egg production, we have more than we can use and give away anyway so I don't feel it necessary to "break" her but I have a question. Will it naturally end on its own? Does this do any harm to the hen letting her be broody without any eggs hatching?

Probably, eventually. Incubation is 21 days so if she has a calendar she might get off in 3 weeks ... or not.

But I don't think it is good for them. Even without forage opportunities, laying in the nest all day isn't healthy (for chickens or people). If you want to see what happens (and I have no idea) weigh her now and once a week thereafter and make sure she isn't losing weight. If not, then she is eating and drinking enough, I guess her health won't suffer. I don't know if breaking them fast results in them going broody less often that waiting them out. Or the other way around.

 

[nessili]

I was curious about that too. We've stopped fighting our Silkie's constant broodiness and are just allowing her to stay in the box all day (there are 3 other nesting boxes, so the other hens don't mind). It's been below freezing here almost daily and I know she's awfully cold, so staying in the hay-filled box makes sense (last night our bantam Cochin crawled in there with her, sort of). She's not lost weight yet that we can tell, and still comes out to eat and drink. Also, come spring, we're hoping she'll help raise the new day-old chicks we're getting, so I want to see how long she stays broody naturally.