How to Break a Broody Hen

[henhouseScot]

It sounds to me as though you switched where this hen was with her fertile eggs. I have done that successfully at the very beginning of the setting cycle but NEVER near the end. Let her hatch them out where SHE chose to set on them so long as it is a safe place for her to be and where the nest won't get soaked by rain or run-off water. THEN move MommaHen and babes to the brooder cage.

I use pet carriers for my broody hens; it keeps other hens from adding more eggs to her clutch and it also keeps her in a small, secure, contained area during the broody session. At hatchout, I give her a clean and bigger pet carrier for a few days; then let them integrate into the flock again at MommaHens' choice. There's nothing like a Bantam for protectiveness of her brood!

We had a hen (Bantam, naturally!) steal away a nest on a shelf in our generator shed and we never found her until my husband went in to get a lawnmower part. He tried unsuccessfully to chase the hen out of there, then when he stood up; there were twelve little chicks on the shelf right at eye level, wondering whether or not to take the leap down to their mother on the floor. Thank goodness they hadn't jumped! I think that would have been a disaster. They were our "surprise! hatch" for that summer.

Good luck and let them Hens become MommaHens -- they're not THAt much work and they sure are fun to watch! Good luck in all chicken endeavors!

 

[Chicken Mummy]

Thats lovely, i'm glad people are really caring about their birds, they are so much more sensitive and intelligent than I thought.

 

[Chicken Mummy]

the chickens that is

 

[KingBardRock]

I had a hen that went broody on me for 3 months. She NEVER came out of the coop. My son would taker her out and she would run right back, We tried locking the coop up on her but then she found an egg to brood on in the hen yard. So, the thing that finally turned her was the good weather. During the winter I feed my hens inside the coop. In the summer I lower the amount of feed I give them daily so that they have to free range and look for food. The Broody hen (Which my family named screamer) finally realized that the food was no longer going to come to her and she had to go look for it. She is finally molting now and looks like she lost some weight, which is good since she used to be a VERY large chicken!! Hope this helped. If they have to look for the food they cannot sit in the bed.

 

[GemKitten]

Had two of my year-old girls go broody this spring. I let my Buffy raise a batch of day-old chicks to add to my laying flock, but I used the wire crate method to break my Aussie (didn't need more chicks this year and DO need eggs!). Unfortunately I've had to do it twice already. I've told her that I'll let her raise a batch next spring if she'll get back to the business of laying eggs this year.

 

[galanie]

the chickens that is

Sometimes the people are too!

 

[DOnSoCalOC]

Okay, so it has been 4 days now. We let her out after everyone has lay their eggs and she runs right to the group and participates with them...until...we open the door to the coop and she runs straight for it! We leave the door to the broody cage open and she puts herself in there now!

Last night we had company and forgot to open the coop door and put her into the broody cage. Lo and behold she was in the broody cage WITH our BJG cuddled up next to her! and the other three up on the roost in the run. I think it is definitely going to take a little longer to break her. Will update in a few more days...that will be a whole week. Well at least she is starting to make her "normal" clucking noises, eating, drinking, scratching, dusting, and hanging out with the rest of the girls...so we shall see.

Well I posted this about 3 weeks ago, on May 18th, and by the following Tuesday, May 22nd, she was broke of the broody instinct. She has been back with the rest of the girls since then and started laying again last week.

Thank you for all of your assistance in this area! Now I can help others.

 

[galanie]

Update on unbreakable hen. I let her have the babies 8 weeks ago, she weaned them at 5 weeks, started laying briefly and is back to being broody again

As I've said before, were she a good mom, I'd have been thrilled. But she's not. I have to put eggs in the incubator for her to hatch or she'll leave the nest 1 to 2 hours a day and let them die. Crud. But I suppose I got a week or two of laying out of her. Maybe next year, when she's older, she won't go broody as much. I hope!

At least she doesn't kill the chicks. So long as I introduce them at night an there is no disabled ones.

 

[margaretbird]

Thank you! will get cage set up for her, she's getting tired of me checking on her. I found her trying to share a box with another chicken who was really panting. I assume this is an over night deal in wire cage?! Am glad she is the sweetest hen I have, another might be more combative when I remove her to the run!

 

[jfishfam]

Right now we're dealing with 3 broody hens. 2 Fayoumis and a Hamburg. Only the Hamburg seems to know what to do. The other 2 are sitting on nothing and moody!!! We have been dealing with them for about a week. The temps are 90s - 100s right now too. We just separated the most aggressive Fayoumis into a rabbit hutch. Now to deal with the other two. I keep hearing mixed results with dunking them in water. Not sure what to do. I think we'll try dunking them. I hope something works, this is frustrating.