Is broody contagious?

Wrooster

Songster
9 Years
Apr 13, 2013
163
63
161
Northern Florida
When hens have gotten broody in the past we've waited it out and they got over it but this is too much. It started with the Speckled Sussex several weeks ago followed by the Leghorn and now there's 4 of them. Sticking your hand in there takes guts with all those sharp beaks defending non-existent eggs. More importantly, with 12 hens we're down from 8-11 eggs a day to half of that and this isn't good for the chickens or us.

The nesting box has 2 removeable partitions. In the picture both have been removed. The partitions haven't made much difference.

I tried blocking off the nesting box at night for a while when we had only 2 hens sleeping in it. As soon as I started leaving it open at night again we had 3, then 4 of them.

If we have to put 4 hens in chicken jail it's going to be a real PITA. I have 1 pet cage and can improvise one or two more but it won't be easy.

It doesn't look like I have an alternative. I'm going to isolate the Sussex and start working on something for the others. In the meantime here's what 4 sharp beaks waiting for me to get closer looks like:
 

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Broody can be contagious.
Keep taking them out regularly to break them. Put lots of enticing things in the run/outside to encourage them to leave. You can try closing the coop door for a few hours.
Once you find a cold egg you know you have done it!
 
I've been caging birds one after another. It does seem "contagious" because some of the non-broody birds respond to the sound and actions of the broody, and then end up broody themselves, so I just keep breaking.
 

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