I have 9 hens living together. I have NO roosters. A few times this spring and summer I have not collected the eggs every day....I know, my bad! Anyway, now she sits in the box all day on the eggs. Everyone who goes in to collect the eggs, except for me, gets pecked. I just pick her up and have only been pecked once. She struts around with her feathers all up or she will go right back in the box once I am done. I have read many different ways to stop the broodiness, but am wondering if there is one that is better than another. I have also read that once they are go broody, they no longer lay eggs, is this true? Please help!
They will stop being broody eventually. Don't worry that she won't lay eggs anymore at all. Try keeping her from going in the nest box. Isolate her in a cage if need be. Still, if you don't care about having a hen not lay for around three weeks, you don't have to do anything. The thing is, sometimes there isn't a way to stop it. Chickens will be chickens, and you can't always do anything about it. God made them to sit on their nests until the babies were hatched, or it had been too long and they were showing no sign of hatching.
My Black Australorp went broody several weeks ago. She was impossible! Very chatty, different vocalization that usual, and it didn't matter if I took her far from the coop. She would just strut and buk buk her way back to the nest, all red faced. I ended up screwing in a piece of ply to cover both nests for about 2 full days. After exhibiting a bit of normalcy, I took down the board and things have been fine. The other girls decided to go on strike and not produce eggs while the board was up so I didn't have to worry about them. I figure if they would go, they would just do it in the bedding somewhere. She remained standing, trying to get in the nest all day, until it was bed time, which meant first to roost. I never got around to take note on how long before I saw eggs from her but I believe it was about 10 days... ten LONG days. Edit to add... I wanted to break her as quickly as possible, since some believe that if one goes, the rest may follow.
Thanks for the advise! I am worried that if the other girls notice, which I'm sure they have, that they will get broody. So from what I understand, she will come out of it once she realizes the eggs are not going to hatch. I collect the eggs daily...for the most part and she sits on some of them so I assume she is getting out of the box at some point. A year or so ago, more than one hen would go in a box at a time to lay their eggs, I wonder if that is what is going on. Ahhhh, the joys of hens!
