Just started being broody, should I give her access to nest box to lay?

[My Three Chicks]

Hi. I'm a 1st time chicken mom and have raised 4 girls who are a little over a year old now. I'm dealing with broodiness for the first time with my Olive Egger! (I have no rooster or fertile eggs so need to 'break' the broodiness).

She sat in the nest box for 7 hours the day before yesterday until I realized she could be broody (she laid in the evening that day).

Then all the tell tale signs yesterday...fluffing feathers, pulled out chest feathers, walking around clucking. I managed to distract her enough...carried her around..closed up nest box (gave access to other girls as they needed for laying).

She seems to be ok this morning so far but I did notice last night she pulled out more chest feathers. She's with her sisters now being 'normal'.

My question is:
I know she would normally need to lay this morning. Should I let her in the nest box to lay? I'm afraid she'll just go back to her broody behavior if I let her! But if she needs to lay, I don't want her to not have access to the nest box!
Please tell me what to do!

 

[aart]

I know she would normally need to lay this morning. Should I let her in the nest box to lay? I'm afraid she'll just go back to her broody behavior if I let her! But if she needs to lay, I don't want her to not have access to the nest box!
Please tell me what to do!

Let her be for now.
I wait until they are staying in the nest at night before putting them in a broody breaker crate.
These are the signs I go by:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?


My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire(1x2) on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

After 48 hours I let her out of crate very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate for another 48 hours.

Tho not necessary a chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor, gives the feet a break from the wire floor and encourages roosting.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Broody hens don't lay once they are fully broody to my knowledge. I had a broody hen recently and she laid her last egg while she was still in the indecisive stage of sitting on the eggs a lot but also coming out regularly to eat - and she didn't mind being shooed off the eggs. Once she was glued to the nest box and really angry at being removed, she wasn't laying anymore. If yours is at the angry stage then I wouldn't worry about her laying any more eggs until she's over being broody.

 

[rosemarythyme]

As far as laying, I break broodies really promptly so they often still have an egg in the system. They'll just lay it on the floor of the broody breaker and I retrieve it from there. One egg on the floor won't ruin them to using a nest box properly once they've come out of the broody cycle.

 

[Saveria]

You can also get some fertile eggs and put them under her. I usually have my broody hens prove to me that they won't lose interest by letting them go through a cycle without eggs first.

I never heard of olive eggers having an inclination towards broodiness, that's interesting. I guess it depends on their parentage.

 

[My Three Chicks]

You can also get some fertile eggs and put them under her. I usually have my broody hens prove to me that they won't lose interest by letting them go through a cycle without eggs first.

I never heard of olive eggers having an inclination towards broodiness, that's interesting. I guess it depends on their parentage.

Unfortunately I can't have more chickens and not looking for a broody. I live in the city with a max allowance.

Yeah I know I was so surprises too that my Olive Egger would go broody since I've read the same thing!

 

[My Three Chicks]

I wanted to provide an update on my broody Olive Egger since we are finally passed her broodiness! In fact she was quite easy to break. Took 2 days of keeping nest box closed and carrying her around whenever she's start trying to get inside.
After 2 days she acted 'normally'...no more trying to get into nest box or sitting in there, no more clucking, or raising her feathers and getting upset at others near her. However, she did continue plucking out her chest feathers which made me a little worried because her belly is bare but I didn't know how to stop her anyways since she did it overnight while roosting.
Then today - 12 days after 1st sign of broodiness - she finally laid an egg again! I was surprised how long it took for her to start laying since I got to her on day 1.5 of broodiness and she was easy to break. Anyhow I just wanted to share my experience in case it's helpful to anyone in the future!

 

[Saveria]

That's great. Thanks for posting an update, super helpful for anyone else in the same position.

So glad you don't have to deal with a broody hen anymore!

 

[My Three Chicks]

Broody hens don't lay once they are fully broody to my knowledge. I had a broody hen recently and she laid her last egg while she was still in the indecisive stage of sitting on the eggs a lot but also coming out regularly to eat - and she didn't mind being shooed off the eggs. Once she was glued to the nest box and really angry at being removed, she wasn't laying anymore. If yours is at the angry stage then I wouldn't worry about her laying any more eggs until she's over being broody.

She's not at the fully 'angry' stage yet. She'll let me take her off the nest with only some objection and only lightly pecked me once.
That's why I'm unsure if she would already be off laying or not...
Not sure if it would do more harm or good to let her in in case she's just in to lay. (I know there's no clean cut answer so thank you in any case!)

 

[Saveria]

We tried the bath method on our die-hard broody orpington, but it didn't work, and then we just felt cruel and worried afterwards.