My Broody chicken has no feathers on her breast

[SMP73]

I noted my Jersey Giant chicken appears to have gone broody. She has been on the nest for 2-3 days now. Before this started I did note her walking around with all her feathers puffed out and her wings held out from the side of her body. I went to put her in a dog kennel today to try to break her broodiness and I noticed she has zero feathers on her breast. The skin is intact, but this is my first flock so I'm fairly new to all this and I'm not sure how serious this is. Right now she has been placed in the dog kennel. She is completely fluffed up with her wings out to the side. Appearing to make herself larger?

 

[kwhites634]

Does she have eggs she's on?

 

[ChickNanny13]

That's "normal", broody will pluck breast feathers to keep the egg warmer/humid. The "dog kennel" ... Is is a wire cage? It should be wire cage, remove the tray & add a piece of welded wire 1 x 2 to the bottom of the cage were the tray sat. No bedding, just food & water, have it off the ground so that air is circulating under the cage, kept in the coop.

 

[SMP73]

That's "normal", broody will pluck breast feathers to keep the egg warmer/humid. The "dog kennel" ... Is is a wire cage? It should be wire cage, remove the tray & add a piece of welded wire 1 x 2 to the bottom of the cage were the tray sat. No bedding, just food & water, have it off the ground so that air is circulating under the cage, kept in the coop.

Thank you, I guess that does make sense. I was pretty freaked out when I saw her naked breast :0 The kennel is in the coop area. They have a fenced off area with a small coop that they sleep in at night. The kennel can't fit in the actual coop, but I placed it right next to the coop. My chickens usually roam the whole yard during the day and I lock them back in their fenced off area at night. Any incite on why she is fluffing herself up? It appears she is making herself look bigger.

 

[SMP73]

Does she have eggs she's on?

I removed the eggs yesterday, but she wouldn't budge out of the coop.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Yes, she's fluffing up to look bigger to intimidate you to leave her nest alone.
IF the kennel is the plastic ones, it's not going to work, you need a wire cage with no bedding just food & water. Remove any eggs, broody will stop laying eventually and got into the setting mode, hence cut back on eating/loose weight.

 

[SMP73]

Yes, she's fluffing up to look bigger to intimidate you to leave her nest alone.
IF the kennel is the plastic ones, it's not going to work, you need a wire cage with no bedding just food & water. Remove any eggs, broody will stop laying eventually and got into the setting mode, hence cut back on eating/loose weight.

Thank you so much for the replies. You've been very helpful. Yes the kennel is wire. I hope to break her soon.

 

[lazy gardener]

The kennel also needs to be in a predator safe area. Any predator can reach through the wires of a kennel to attack her.

I break my broodies by placing them in a chicken tractor for the day, then let them back into the coop to perch for the night. Before allowing her back into the coop, I block off the nest boxes. It usually takes 3 days to break a broody in this fashion.