How to Break a Broody Hen

[dianeb423]

I read through your post and will try this. However, why would a hen go broody n not lay. She hasn't laid any eggs for three days now. However she sits n sits n sits ruffled and all even when I remove her. I take her out to free range n all she does after about 15 min is look to go back in. But no egg. Help

 

[bruceha2000]

I read through your post and will try this. However, why would a hen go broody n not lay. She hasn't laid any eggs for three days now. However she sits n sits n sits ruffled and all even when I remove her. I take her out to free range n all she does after about 15 min is look to go back in. But no egg. Help

Because there is some "I MUST SIT AND HATCH CHICKS" hormone that doesn't care that there are no:

• Fertile eggs
• Non fertile eggs
• Plastic eggs

They just HAVE to. That is why putting them up in a cage where they can't stay hot underneath breaks them. It is really the only thing I've seen with my chickens which makes no sense. Everything else seems to be instinctually known.

 

[dianeb423]

Ok thank you

 

[KrisCVT]

Can someone give me a quick reason as to why it is so bad to let your hen be broody? What happens if you just let them be?

One of my barred rock girls has been broody for the past 5 or 6 days....this past weekend I kept taking her out of the nesting box and putting her out with the other hens to free-range. Over and over. Then I shut the coop and run completely so she couldn't get in (everyone else had laid their eggs that day so no one was going to be going in until night time). Well, she started to go bonkers- going back and forth along the run. In a matter of 2 minutes she somehow stuck her beak in the hardware cloth and ripped the end off in her determination to get back into her nest box. I don't really know what happened: I looked up at her and blood was dripping like a faucet from the tip of her beak!!!

It took the next couple of hours (thank goodness for my husband) to calm her, apply pressure, and try and stop the bleeding. There was A LOT of blood. She was miserable and painful and would not eat. She wanted to eat but could not pick up food. She spent the next couple of nights in my chicken hospital in my house- I could only drip water and electrolytes onto her beak for her to drink. I put her back outside after 48 hours, and she scratched, took a dust bath, but cannot pick up food well because of that tiny bit of beak missing. She is slowly improving but I know she is not eating as much as she should. She also HATES me now and seems to distrust me...when she used to hop up on my lap.

I can't help but think that if I just ignored the broodiness, this wouldn't have happened. But I was home all day, and thought I could just keep her out of the nest box for the day to start to break her.

Do I still try and break the broodiness with a cage? Or let her be while she is still healing?

 

[dianeb423]

I too am unsure about this whole broody thing. I was asking because it has now been about 5 days and she isn't laying. Can that be detrimental to the hen?

 

[bruceha2000]

@KrisCVT
I think you partially answered your own question.

The bird damaged herself trying to get back to an empty nest. It is hormones talking, not thought.

In my experience, a broody hen with nothing to hatch will sit on the nest day and night for weeks, even more than the 21 days it takes to hatch chicks. They won't voluntarily come off to eat or drink. You can throw them out and they will eat a little, drink a little then start with the "broody cluck" and race right back to the box. They will "happily" starve themselves NOT hatching a darned thing if you don't throw them out. Some people think it is cruel to cage a broody to break her but I think the opposite. It is cruel to let them sit for weeks for no purpose, not eating enough or drinking enough for their needs. Now, if you have a broody and get some chicks, you can have the broody raise them. Then the broodiness serves a purpose. The "hatching" hormones drop when the chicks "hatch" or the hen can't stay hot. I had one that once melted not 1 but 2 freezer packs in series in the nest and was still HOT underneath. If they stay in the nest the hormones won't subside.

If you make a wire cage (mine is 1/2" hardware cloth on all sides, top and bottom) and have it off the ground, the hen can't stay hot underneath and the hormones will subside. Yes they will be fussy when you first put them in but when they see the food and water, they will make use of them. And yes they will pace back and forth doing the broody cluck. But they are safe and have food and water they will eat and drink because they are NOT on a nest. My girls, depending on how long I've waited to see if they are broody or working on an egg (since that can take hours), breaking takes 3 to 5 days and they likely won't lay an egg for about 5 to 7 days after they break. My regular broodies know where they are going when I approach the nest and will scream at me.

A typical BROODING hen (according to someone I know who has had hens hatching chicks for years) will glue to the nest for ~3 days when she decides she has a big enough clutch, then will get off daily to eat, drink, poop, then go back to the nest. The last 3 days are the same as the first 3, glued to the nest. That is the difference between a hen hatching eggs and one that has nothing to hatch; the former takes care of her needs, the latter will not.

 

[dianeb423]

I have heard dipping them in cool water can help. Anyone know about this?

 

[KrisCVT]

@KrisCVT
I think you partially answered your own question.

The bird damaged herself trying to get back to an empty nest. It is hormones talking, not thought.

In my experience, a broody hen with nothing to hatch will sit on the nest day and night for weeks, even more than the 21 days it takes to hatch chicks. They won't voluntarily come off to eat or drink. You can throw them out and they will eat a little, drink a little then start with the "broody cluck" and race right back to the box. They will "happily" starve themselves NOT hatching a darned thing if you don't throw them out. Some people think it is cruel to cage a broody to break her but I think the opposite. It is cruel to let them sit for weeks for no purpose, not eating enough or drinking enough for their needs. Now, if you have a broody and get some chicks, you can have the broody raise them. Then the broodiness serves a purpose. The "hatching" hormones drop when the chicks "hatch" or the hen can't stay hot. I had one that once melted not 1 but 2 freezer packs in series in the nest and was still HOT underneath. If they stay in the nest the hormones won't subside.

If you make a wire cage (mine is 1/2" hardware cloth on all sides, top and bottom) and have it off the ground, the hen can't stay hot underneath and the hormones will subside. Yes they will be fussy when you first put them in but when they see the food and water, they will make use of them. And yes they will pace back and forth doing the broody cluck. But they are safe and have food and water they will eat and drink because they are NOT on a nest. My girls, depending on how long I've waited to see if they are broody or working on an egg (since that can take hours), breaking takes 3 to 5 days and they likely won't lay an egg for about 5 to 7 days after they break. My regular broodies know where they are going when I approach the nest and will scream at me.

A typical BROODING hen (according to someone I know who has had hens hatching chicks for years) will glue to the nest for ~3 days when she decides she has a big enough clutch, then will get off daily to eat, drink, poop, then go back to the nest. The last 3 days are the same as the first 3, glued to the nest. That is the difference between a hen hatching eggs and one that has nothing to hatch; the former takes care of her needs, the latter will not.

Thank you. That does make sense. My broody hen was coming out each morning and eating and foraging.....the decrease in her weight can now be attributed to her beak injury so I feel like I made her worse (although today was the first day she actually ate mash enthusiastically and was able to pick up a few treats...and drink water on her own too). I will get a crate and "break" her...but I may give her a few more days to recover from her injury. I also thought about purchasing some fertile eggs to have her hatch..but my husband thinks it's just a sneaky way of getting more chickens!

 

[RiffRaff]

Anyone have input on whether it would work to slip a chick or two under her toward the end of 21 days? Maybe put a fake egg or two under her in the meantime?

We don't have a rooster and don't want to go beg a fertilized egg from a stranger.

 

[bruceha2000]

Sneaky? Oh no, you would just be letting the hen do her natural thing!