Is being broody a necessary thing

[Danielpn]

The way I understand it, broodiness is a hormonal thing. So my question is: when a hen goes broody, should she be given a certain amount of time to let nature have her way? Or should the broody thing be interrupted right away? I have a hen that has taken the broody thing to a new level. Almost two months now. I think she has just gotten lazy. She never pulled the feathers off her chest, and has never had eggs to lay on overnight. Other hens lay eggs around her, or lay in her nest very quickly when she gets off to stretch her legs, she often has two or three under her, but I doubt if she is producing any herself. She spent today in chicken jail, content on a two inch wide roost, but she was back in her nest a minute after being paroled for good behavior. As I said, I think she is lazy.

 

[abpatchy]

If you don't want them to hatch chicks you need to get her off the nest. It is not healthy for her to just sit, not eat as much... poop regularly. Eventually it would kill her.
Either give her some day old chicks or like you did, chicken jail (like a cage) to hopefully take care of the broodyness.

 

[Tonyroo]

Brooding is a normal process for all chickens but for the way people keep chickens it's not necessary.

 

[aart]

Or should the broody thing be interrupted right away?

IMO, Yes.
It's going to take more than one day in a crate to break a broody that has been sitting for two months.
She needs to be in the crate for 48 hours at the very least.
Let her out an hour before roosting time.
If she goes to roost, great.....if she goes to a nest, back in the crate for another 48.

 

[3KillerBs]

I had a broody who had been sitting for nearly 3 weeks and it took 4 days in the breaker to change her ways.

 

[Ridgerunner]

when a hen goes broody, should she be given a certain amount of time to let nature have her way? Or should the broody thing be interrupted right away?

What are your goals? What do you want to happen? If you want her to hatch eggs or raise baby chicks that's one thing. If you don't want either of those things I think she should be broken from being broody.

Before a hen starts laying eggs she builds up an excess of fat. That fat is what she mostly lives off of if she goes broody. That way she can spend her time on the nest taking care of the eggs instead of having to be out looking for food and water. A broody will lose weight while broody but it's supposed to work that way. Up to a point it doesn't hurt her.

Different hens store different amounts of fat. Different broody hens come off of the nest different amount of time to eat and drink. There is no set time that a broody hen switches from living off of excess fat to starting to actually starve herself. Most hens stop being broody on their own when they hit that point but a few don't. If they stay broody too long they can start hurting themselves. I don't know if yours is at that point or not.

There is another side to it. The longer they are broody the more excess fat they use. When they break from being broody they have to regain that fat before they start to lay again. This has nothing to do with her health. If you want eggs you want to break them early rather than later so they start laying again sooner.

She spent today in chicken jail

Personally I leave them in 72 hours before I let them out. They have food and water but nothing that can be confused as a nest. A perch is fine. It does have a wire mesh bottom to let air in under her. 72 hours doesn't always work but I don't feel it hurts them either.

 

[bill3607]

The way I understand it, broodiness is a hormonal thing. So my question is: when a hen goes broody, should she be given a certain amount of time to let nature have her way? Or should the broody thing be interrupted right away? I have a hen that has taken the broody thing to a new level. Almost two months now. I think she has just gotten lazy. She never pulled the feathers off her chest, and has never had eggs to lay on overnight. Other hens lay eggs around her, or lay in her nest very quickly when she gets off to stretch her legs, she often has two or three under her, but I doubt if she is producing any herself. She spent today in chicken jail, content on a two inch wide roost, but she was back in her nest a minute after being paroled for good behavior. As I said, I think she is lazy.

I just this past week broody broke a pullet. It was my first and I was kind of wondering the same things as you, so I started a thread for some advice on it and got some wonderful help from some members.

It was recommended to me to wire crate/cage her making sure that the cage was elevated and with something to roost on. Of course, make sure she has water and food and move her and the cage to the run during the day and coop during the night. I did this and let her out a short time before roost time, and it worked like a charm. She ate and drank a little and up on the roost she went. That was 3 days ago and she is still doing well with no sign of broodiness at all.

I have no fertilized eggs so she was not going to hatch anything. However, I did not mind her being broody until I asked and found out it could be detrimental to her health. It was a fairly easy thing to do, at least this time, and without a lot of time consuming work.

I think I might could have let her out sooner than the 3 days and 3 nights. I did noticed the change taking place somewhere on the second day, but decided another night and day to be sure was better than possibly having to re-cage her again if it was too soon.

 

[Bryce Thomas]

The way I understand it, broodiness is a hormonal thing. So my question is: when a hen goes broody, should she be given a certain amount of time to let nature have her way? Or should the broody thing be interrupted right away? I have a hen that has taken the broody thing to a new level. Almost two months now. I think she has just gotten lazy. She never pulled the feathers off her chest, and has never had eggs to lay on overnight. Other hens lay eggs around her, or lay in her nest very quickly when she gets off to stretch her legs, she often has two or three under her, but I doubt if she is producing any herself. She spent today in chicken jail, content on a two inch wide roost, but she was back in her nest a minute after being paroled for good behavior. As I said, I think she is lazy.

I let my silkie hatch some eggs under her and she was good. When it was day 27 I picked her up and she was VERY under weight. I knew she was going to die later that die or the next day if she did not eat immediately. I took her off the nest and put her into the crate and had her in my house. Once she was eating and drinking for 48 hours I put her back. There was some pecking but the next day all was good.