How to Break a Broody Hen

[nina1marc2]

thanks for replying..i left her in the cage last night ..i seen this morning she had dumped her food over and her water was froze ..i took her out and i thought i had broke her ..she went straight to the feeder and started eating ..then she hoped up on the perch ..by the time i was done feeding them, i seen she had snuck back over to the nest box ..i pulled her out of the nest and put her back in the cage ..she wasnt happy at all about that ..lol..but shes gunna have to learn the hard way i guess .or maybe its me that has to learn the hard way ..lol..either way its gotta be done ..i'll give it a couple more days and see how she does..thanks again..

Your very welcome. I hope it works. They can be stubborn little hens but such good moms.

 

[wny egger]

Your very welcome. I hope it works. They can be stubborn little hens but such good moms.

one more question if you dont mind ..how long or when should i let her back in the nest or how long before she starts laying again ..shes staying out of the nest now ..
i did notice when she went broody her comb wasnt as red as it was when she was laying..and the other girls combs are a nice bright red..i guess being hormones it will prolly change back when shes ready to start laying again ..i sprayed her foot with blu kote when i noticed her going broody ..just so i could tell it was her ..i have 11 columbian wyandottes and most look just like the others.i should get I D bands for their legs ..

 

[nina1marc2]

one more question if you dont mind ..how long or when should i let her back in the nest or how long before she starts laying again ..shes staying out of the nest now ..
i did notice when she went broody her comb wasnt as red as it was when she was laying..and the other girls combs are a nice bright red..i guess being hormones it will prolly change back when shes ready to start laying again ..i sprayed her foot with blu kote when i noticed her going broody ..just so i could tell it was her ..i have 11 columbian wyandottes and most look just like the  others.i should get I D bands for their legs .. 

I have a welsummer and golden laced wyandottes and they rarely go broody. When they have their combs do go pale. I can usually track when they will start to lay again after they molt by how red their combs go. The one hen I have that goes broody all the time is a silkie mix and she is mostly black with a tint of brown. I can't see her comb and waddle due to many feathers covering her face. I watch her closely and try to catch her broody behavior as fast as I can. The faster you catch the behavior the faster they will start to lay. Ironically she just tried to go broody two days ago and I locked her out of the nesting box and made her free range all day. It stopped her from going broody right away. She hasn't laid in two days. It will range from 5days-2 weeks of no laying depending on how fast you broke her of it. Sounds like she is broken from what you explained. I would give her a while. I do notice their egg size tends to change after they brood.

 

[Over EZ]

I am always grateful for the wonderful advice offered by BYC. My year old buff Orpington turned broody over the weekend. Since I did not have a wire cage for "broody Trudy", I replaced the bedding in her favorite nesting box with a metal jelly roll pan. With temps in the low 30's overnight I didn't think she would find it very comfortable. Sure enough, I found Trudy on the roost this morning and she has been happily socializing with the other girls.
Hope this is helpful!

 

[lostnstars]

Ok so I have a hen that's been broody for a month now. At one point I took her out of the coop and closed it so no one could go back in. She flew on top of the coop and made the LOUDEST a commotion for an hour straight.

It was really annoying and I'm sure my neighbor's didn't love it either. So I gave up and let her back in. My question is for those of you that have tried an elevated wire bottom cage, were your hens horrendously noisy the entire time she was in there? I'm about ready to eat her! This week another has started going broody. They are of course BO's and they are about 10 months old.

 

[bruceha2000]

Ok so I have a hen that's been broody for a month now. At one point I took her out of the coop and closed it so no one could go back in. She flew on top of the coop and made the LOUDEST a commotion for an hour straight.

It was really annoying and I'm sure my neighbor's didn't love it either. So I gave up and let her back in. My question is for those of you that have tried an elevated wire bottom cage, were your hens horrendously noisy the entire time she was in there? I'm about ready to eat her! This week another has started going broody. They are of course BO's and they are about 10 months old.

Broody for a MONTH?? Have you been making sure she eats and drinks? If not, you won't have a problem much longer.

Mine are not particularly noisy in the broody box. In fact they sit quietly except when I go into the barn by their coop in the morning or at night when I give the girls scratch before roost time. My box sits in the coop on top of the parallel roosts 4' off the ground and other than when the sun is in the west, it is fairly dark in there. That may have a calming effect. You might want to cover the box part of the day, that is what people do with pet birds in the house.

You need to get them in the box ASAP when they go broody unless you have fertile eggs you want them to hatch. The longer they sit being broody in an empty nest the harder it is to break them. Their hormones say "sit here until there are chicks" and if that doesn't happen, they just keep on keepin' on. They don't understand it any more than they understand why they eat grit and oyster shell. They just "know" they need to do it. If they won't leave the nest, if they flatten down when you approach, if they growl when you approach - IN THE BOX! They will do the same thing to other chickens if they ARE in the nest to lay, that is the "keep away, I'm busy" reaction and does not warrant a trip to "broody jail".

 

[lostnstars]

She's been broody for at least a month. I take her out every day or so and place her by the water. She immediately drinks. Then she'll slowly go back around the coop and get back into the box. She has to go by the food dish to get back in the coop so she'll usually grab a couple bites and then hurry back in. I can't believe an animal would starve itself to death like that. Freaking chickens.

I will try the wire cage and see what happens. When I locked her out of the coop she wailed and made the chicken alarm non stop. I was watering the garden and gave her a spritz with the hose but that didn't stop her at all.

 

[bruceha2000]

She's been broody for at least a month. I take her out every day or so and place her by the water. She immediately drinks. Then she'll slowly go back around the coop and get back into the box. She has to go by the food dish to get back in the coop so she'll usually grab a couple bites and then hurry back in. I can't believe an animal would starve itself to death like that. Freaking chickens.

I will try the wire cage and see what happens. When I locked her out of the coop she wailed and made the chicken alarm non stop. I was watering the garden and gave her a spritz with the hose but that didn't stop her at all.

Nope, locking them out of the coop just makes them nuts! I did that to one of my Anconas because she was harassing the girls in the nests (the ones she DOESN'T even use). I thought she was going to kill herself trying to get back in.

With regard to the broody box, I forgot to mention that the door opens down and rests on the roosts. If I forget to close it when I let a (hopefully) former broody out, some of the girls will go in to sleep at night! I guess the "cage" feels safe or maybe they like it because they seem to like to be against a wall and a 2'x3' box has lots of "wall"

And even "more" safe, my Partridge Chantecler took to sleeping on TOP of the box for several days. The first time I thought she had been taken by a predator since she wasn't around at roost time when they get scratch and are REALLY insistent on getting it. I was hoping she just went too far afield and would be out side the barn in the morning. Nope, she was inside with all the other girls. Same thing the next night, no Laura at roost time but she was in the barn in the morning. The THIRD night DD1, my wife and I looked everywhere and somehow DD2 spotted Laura all tucked in the corner of the coop on top of the box. There isn't 7" of space up there. She has since returned to roosting with the rest of the girls.

 

[lostnstars]

My girls don't roost at all! We have some beautiful roosts set up but they don't care. I've even put them up there but by the next night they are back to the ground. Our coop is made out of pallets that are covered in plywood on the outside.
The chickens 'roost' on the bottom pallet board. So goofy.

 

[wny egger]

what i just learned from my broody this last few weeks ..they will go to the nest at any cost to them ..once they are caged let them stay caged..it may take as long as 2 weeks to break them ..the longer they are left to be broody the longer it will take to break them ..i no most laying hens like privacy when laying and they may want the same in the broody cage ..no nesting or bedding in the broody cage .you want cool air going up under their breast to cool them and change the hormones ..keep food and water avalible in the cage..grit and oyster shells ...i have 11 columbian wyandottes and it can be hard to tell which birds are brooding and whos laying, so i sprayed a little blu kote on their feet to tell who's laying and who's broody...it can be very tempting to let them out , so if you do stay and make sure they are not getting back up after you leave the coop..if they try and get up in the nest , put back in the cage ..mine tried and after anmother day in the cage she looked a couple times but did not get in the nest ..the combs got a light shade of pink instead of the deep red they are when laying ..i now have a better idea of whats going on when they are broody ..hope this little bit helps some one ..i learned most of this by watching the birds and of course from the great folks here at byc..i couldnt have gotten threw a lot of diffrent problums i have run into since i started keeping chickens ....