How to Break a Broody Hen

[Sunny Side Up]

Alwayswantedchicks, it seems that each hen has her own component of broody skills & preferences. Some take better to disruption during their set than others. It seems your hen didn't adjust well to the move and was more devoted to her previous location than to the actual eggs. Another hen may have handled the move differently.

If anyone ever must move a broody during her set, it's best done after dark, trying to keep things as similar & familiar as possible, and add extra shade or covers to the new location to make it extra dark for the next few days. Don't let the hen out of her new container, and if she does get out, bring her back right away. Sometimes a hen must be interrupted, if there is a parasite infestation in the nest or if the nest is in an unsafe location. Often it can be done without completely discouraging the hen away from the job.

And sometimes those eggs can handle a period of getting cold and still hatch, especially during the later part of the incubation. Even if they get cold you can still try to get the hen to take them back, or try incubating them yourself, you might get surprisingly good results.

 

[alwayswantedchicks]

Oh thank you thank you for the info as I feel quite sure somebody will surprise me again with a broody fit. This hen was sitting in a laying nest right next to the pop door-like maybe 2' away and about a foot or so from the floor. We have 20-counting her-nosy hens and 15 absolutely stupid guineas (that I keep making the 'they still very young' excuse for) that I was afraid would hurt her babies and that she would not get a moments peace due to them. If those chicks hatched in that nest and then fell out of the nest how would it get back up to mom hen. Can she pick them up? I know that's probably the dumbest question of the week but all this has me wondering since we haven't been there done that yet. Would they get too cold right next to the doorway? Should we have left well enough alone until the hatch and then moved them? The eggs - well 7 of them- are still setting in my kitchen. Surely they wouldn't make it now? My husband did crack one open this afternoon, out of my sight. He said it was just sortof a blob that didn't resemble a chick at all. Do you think they are all like that? Wouldn't it resemble a chick by day 18? Anyone know what's up with that? Cookie, the broody, has been out free ranging with the rest of the girls all day, and loving it. We've raked the leaves into piles and they're acting like crazy kids. Our hens are young too. They all hatched in mid-March, and we don't have any older hens to teach them how to be mom's, if that makes any difference. I'm going to check out the homemade incubator threads when I'm finished with this post. I have a cousin in Arkansas who has been nagging me to try it. He loves it.

Cackler, thanks for info too, here goes, I'm going to try it....Oh wow, that's so cool....

:,
ok, I could get carried away with this.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

When I find a broody hen who has made her nest in an unlikely place I try to move her & get her settled in the new place at the start of her set. Since most of my broodies are bantams I will move them one night, wait another day or two to make sure they're going to stick at the new location, then set them with the standard-sized eggs I want them to hatch for me. Another option is to place a barricade around the hen & her nest and leave them there. If it's in a place up high the chicks will probably be able to hop down for their first outing, then Mom will make a new nest for them on the floor. But if one accidently fell to the floor before Mom was ready to take everyone out, it would probably just yeep & yeep until a predator or its owner found it.

By the way, the only dumb questions are the ones you fail to ask.

 

[alwayswantedchicks]

Sunny, Thanks so much for that info. We had gotten kinda, ok real, excited about hatching babies and watching mom take care of them (thanks to reading all the cool threads in hatching). I would like to try again. Not knowing when we will have another hen go broody, since we don't have a rooster, we would have to get some fertile eggs for her. We blocked off the 'broody pen' so the girls, actually mostly the guineas, can't get to it and wreck it. That way whenever it happens again, we'll be ready to move the first night we're sure we have a broody. Is it possible to order and get fertile eggs to present to her in time? If we ever have two or more go broody at the same time we can divide off the pen even more, gives them less space each but still adequate space. However on the sensible side, I should break broodiness until late winter so they'll have a better chance? This will be our first winter with birds and the henhouse and lot is on a hillside. Heck, everything here is on a hillside. When it's wet the ground can be slicker than hogsnot. I cleaned out the henhouse this weekend, try to at least once monthly, and put straw and gravel down to help with footing. The henhouse sits off the ground about 24 inches to give them lots of space underneath. The ramp to the popdoor is about 8 feet long, not real steep. Wouldn't want mom and chicks to struggle with their environment more than they have to. My birds also free range. The fields are fenced with mesh and electric but overhead is open except the 800 sq' of chicken run attached to the house. We've never lost any to predators but I have seen a hawk swope down towards the chickens. The dogs were out and I think that spooked it away. Anyway, thanks again for everybody's help and thoughts.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

There's no telling when, if ever, your hens will go broody again. Some of mine keep going every couple of months or so, others have gone only once in their lifetimes. But it's good to have accomodations handy just in case. A little private cage is always handy to have, not only for broodies, but for sick or injured birds to have a place to go.

The next time you detect a broody hen let her set for a night or two to be sure she's going to stick to the job. Then move her (after dark) to the broody cage, and let her set there for another few nights. Then you can place the fertile eggs under her, removing whatever eggs she was setting upon. The hens don't seem to count the days of their set, they can set for longer than 21 days waiting for something to finally hatch.

A good Mama hen can keep her chicks warm in almost any weather. But she may be ready to leave them after only 4-6 weeks, so you'll have to have a brooder for the chicks after Mom goes back to the flock. It's up to you if you want to bother with keeping young chicks during your winter months.

 

[big mami]

I have a funny situation: a broody hen who is still laying an egg a day. After a few days of her monopolizing the nesting box and a night of sleeping in it, I finally put her in a wire dog kennel up on big planter pots. She has nowhere to nest, but laid an egg anyway this morning and it broke (don't know how) and fell through the cage on to the ground. I think my kittens ate it. Before putting her in the kennel, I knew she was still laying and would have to reach under her to get the egg each day. Since I can't put any nest into the kennel (would defeat the purpose), do I just have to lose the egg each day? I was going to keep her there for 3 days, but since she's still laying, should I try letting her out earlier?

 

[vtara16]

Will being broody hurt the hen?

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
They don't eat/drink very much while they are broody. They usually do fine when they have fertile eggs to hatch because when the chicks hatch after three weeks the hen starts eating and drinking normaly again. The problem is that when she doesn't hatch anything she may stay broody for months and get herself so run down that she's an easy target for disease and/or parisites. I think it's kinder and healthier to break them sooner rather then later if you don't plan to let her hatch any eggs or put any day old chicks under her.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
This technique worked for me...

 

[burmarosa]

Hi. I'm new to the forum. I've been raising chickens free range for years in Minnesota with good luck. Actually, too good. Banties are worse than rabbits and we've had the problem of too many chickens. Well, about two years ago we adopted a dog and after falling in love with her, she started "bringing" us our chickens. If the chicken struggled too much, we had to euthanise it. So we built a coop, fenced in a run and purchased some ornamental layer chicks. My problem is that one of the original, older hens went
broody a couple of weeks ago. I kept taking the eggs away from her and she finally gave up and is now out in the yard but doesn't look right. She sits with her wings drooped a little and kind of fluffed up sometimes. When I come close, she takes off and looks fine but doesn't seem as active as usual. I have seen her scratching and eating a little. This same thing happened to another hen in the past and she died. Can taking a broody hen off the nest make her ill? I'm not sure of her age, about 4 yrs I think. Last fall when she insisted on being broody I let her keep two eggs and she hatched and raised one chick. It gets down to the single digits, sometimes below zero here now so didn't want to let her do that this time. I guess it's posssible that she is weakened from not eating and drinking much for that time but shouldn't she be more hungry now? Sorry for the long post but the instructions said to introduce myself.