How to Break a Broody Hen

[ThePaulsRanch]

She's really serious. I don't suppose you would want to get her some fertile eggs to hatch.

No, we have chicks already. : ) Question though, if we were to put eggs under her, how would she protect her chicks? We would obviously need a place to seperate her and the babies from the others. But I have always wondered how Mama hens protect her chicks from getting pecked on by the others.

 

[bruceha2000]

If you are going to let her incubate eggs you really need to have a brooding area where the other hens can't get to her nest. Unless she is head hen and NO ONE messes with her, the others may kick her out of her nest and lay an egg in it, then she can return. You really don't want non fertile eggs being incubated for up to 21 days. Plus, you want the eggs to hatch at ground level so after the chicks hatch there isn't an issue of her getting them to food and water without dropping out of an elevated nest box.

As far as a hen protecting her chicks, don't worry about it. They turn into the Hen from Hell when they have chicks to protect. None of the other girls would dare mess with her or them. I had a batch of chicks from Meyer that I stuffed under Zorra in 2015. She is a big Black Australorp but was mid way in the pecking order. Soon as she had chicks even the 2 Anconas (#1 & 2) waited until her back was turned and ran as fast as they could to get past her. I've seen her more than double her already large size when she was fending off potential threats to her chicks. Even the Tasmanian Devil would run from that.

 

[ThePaulsRanch]

If you are going to let her incubate eggs you really need to have a brooding area where the other hens can't get to her nest. Unless she is head hen and NO ONE messes with her, the others may kick her out of her nest and lay an egg in it, then she can return. You really don't want non fertile eggs being incubated for up to 21 days. Plus, you want the eggs to hatch at ground level so after the chicks hatch there isn't an issue of her getting them to food and water without dropping out of an elevated nest box.

As far as a hen protecting her chicks, don't worry about it. They turn into the Hen from Hell when they have chicks to protect. None of the other girls would dare mess with her or them. I had a batch of chicks from Meyer that I stuffed under Zorra in 2015. She is a big Black Australorp but was mid way in the pecking order. Soon as she had chicks even the 2 Anconas (#1 & 2) waited until her back was turned and ran as fast as they could to get past her. I've seen her more than double her already large size when she was fending off potential threats to her chicks. Even the Tasmanian Devil would run from that.

How funny! I can imagine that watching that would be quite the experience. Hatching fertile eggs under a Broody will be our next "adventure." Thank you for your help and info!

 

[kokosmom2]

Thanks for this thread! I've got a year old Buff Orpington that went broody last week. I got her out of the nest box and put her in a dog crate in the basement a few days ago but put straw in there. After reading all 117 pages of this thread today, I put her in another dog crate outside that I elevated with buckets...will add a 2x4 tomorrow for a roost. As soon as I got her in there....holy moly...what a load of poop she did...and it smelled terrible! She paced and paced for a couple of hours. Now she's settled down. I am so hoping this works. She started doing this the day after I put my (18) month-old chicks in an area in the coop. It's like those chicks made her hormones turn on.

 

[kokosmom2]

My broody isn't broody anymore. Three days in the broody buster, and she's back out in the chicken yard with the others

 

[Don Alejo]

Yes, my lovely Goldie who would demand to be petted went quite broody and "growled" and consider attacking me, all this with an empty nest yet. I moved her to a place where she had food, water, and a place where she could see her sisters but could not return to the flock. She was quite happy to soon return and no more broodiness. She has even forgiven me to the point of already.accepting a "little" affection .

 

[josh117]

My year-old Buff Orp decided to go broody for the first time. We were on vacation for a particularly hot week. Maybe our chicken sitter didn't remove the eggs from the nest frequently enough, or maybe our hen just heard voices from above. Whatever, she spent about 10 days being broody until I built this little gem we call the Chicken Jail. One piece of advice I can give: be sure the broody hen in "jail" can not see her normal coop! She tried for an hour to jump through the wire to get home. As soon as we blocked her view with a sheet of plywood, she calmed down.

 

[kokosmom2]

So after my BO went broody, the other BO went broody and then to top it off, my white leghorn did! I had about 3 weeks of nobody in jail but as of yesterday, one of the BO's is broody again and in jail again. I am tired of this and I want them to stop. *sigh*

 

[bruceha2000]

Wish I could give you hope in that regard @kokosmom2 but my experience with broodies is if they are they are and they will be whether I like it or not.

 

[mrspeete]

Is it normal for them to act terrified when they are in the broody breaker? Mine isn’t acting grumpy or “broody” she is acting like she is scared and doesn’t know what’s going on. Breaking my chicken momma heart