How to Break a Broody Hen

[lilybart123]

I have a hen who has been "broody" for @ 10 days now. All chickens no roosters here. I remove her from her nest box once a day and make her go out into the yard with the other girls, she will scratch around for a bit, then head back to the nest box. If I close off access to the nest box she waits and screeches in the adjoining roofed run and attacks any of the other girls who happen to walk in, until she is let back into her box. I'm sure I'm doing this wrong, but the other girls need access to the boxes too, so after she attacked my sweet Jolene, I've just been letting her go back to her box and sulk. She doesn't get as mean to the others. I'm not getting any eggs from her at the moment, but we have plenty. Is it bad to let her just brood? When can we expect her to stop?
Appreciate any chicken wisdom here.
Laurel

 

[MattJohnson]

I officially have a broody Buf Orp. She has been on the nest now, pretty much constantly for 7 days. Fortunately, she lets me pick her up without much protest. So I took her out of the coop to free range with the other birds, see if that cools her down a little... I dont have a wire box, yet, probably build one this weekend.

Thanks all for the advice!

Matt

 

[Turkeytruff]

I've done this a few Xs. It's fine, as stated by galanie, if they get along.

If they don't get along it can be like a cage match.

I hope this works!

I have 2 of my 5 bantam hens being broody, one in particular acting like a puffer fish with PMT x 1000. She's even scaring my turkeys! Have just put her in a wire dog cage and will put the 2nd one in and watch to see that they don't kill each other.....

 

[polskituft]

put a ice pack under them

 

[Turkeytruff]

put a ice pack under them

thanks for this. We had a nice bit of sunshine inbetween the rain here today so I let everyone out for their FF and they all stayed out of the nest boxes! Until in the last 1/2 hour I noticed the 2nd one just went back in - so I chucked her back into the broody cage. It's stopped the puffer fish one though!

I may try the ice pack tomorrow under the other one ....

LOVE all these posts find them SO helpful!

 

[MattJohnson]

Well, I just built a broody hen 'timeout' cage. 20x36x36, 1/2" hardware cloth on the bottom, the cage is 1x2 welded wire (some kind of old pet cage my folks had in thier barn). Put my broody hen in timeout, she didnt like that much.... We'll see what happens.

MJ

 

[OHSpartan]

i have a BO that is showing broody tendencies. My 5-year old loves to collect eggs and pulls them from her nest when she gets off to eat. The next day, 2-3 eggs and a broody hen. We've repeated this cycle probably 4 or 5 times now. Should I disallow my kids from collecting from the BO's nest? I really don't want baby chicks right now because they will be harder to raise in the winter. However, I would like to have my BO hatch chicks in the future. I don't want to ruin her maternal instincts forever.

 

[Countrypunk92]

I like to let my Ladies to brood, Unless I need her for breeding.

 

[aldarita]

I have a success story that I want to share with you all. I am so very relieved that my 7 month old white leghorn is "cured" of her broodiness! I have 9 hens (all same age) and no roos. When little (and I mean very little) Ms Queeny stayed in the nesting box for three days, I panicked. Right away I went to my computer and read all the 218 posts on this subject. I bought a rabbit cage and with the help of my husband added a roosting rod, waterer and feeder and set it inside the big run. It had lots of ventilation underneath. Got ms queeny in (which broke my heart but I told myself it was for her own good) and let her there for three days. I covered the cage every night with an old tablecloth. The run has a metal roof and there is a half wall on the north side so she did not get very cold. I live in south central Texas and so far we have only had a small freeze which happened when ms queeny was in the cage.
I let her out yesterday morning and watched her, she went out to free range with the other hens. Came back to the coop about two or three times but came back out right away. In the evening when it was time to get in the coop to roost, she was very skittish and came in and out several times until she finally stayed inside. I went to check on her and I was so happy to see her on the roost (rather than the nesting box). Today she came out with the others and it looks like everything is back to normal. I truly hope that she stays this way for the rest of her life. I worried about her not coming out when she was broody, I read they don't feed well and get skinny and weak and are proned to illnesses. She is not a bantam but is the smallest of my girls.
All is well in my chicken coop/run and I cross my fingers that it will stay this way.
Thanks to this forum I was able to follow the advice of the experts and I will continue to read all about chickens. Thanks everybody for posting your experiences so all we newbies will know what to do.

 

[JKRopee]

Sunny Side Up, my GLW has been broody for about 12 days. We don't have roosters and don't want to try for chicks in the winter. She isn't eating much and it feels like she might be losing weight. Ugh. I wish I'd read your post 9 days ago. . . so my question is if I put her in a rabbit hutch in the garage, do I need to add heat/light since she will be alone? It's in the 40's to low 50's during the day but drops into the low 30's to upper 20's at night. Oh yea, the garage is not heated.