my "broody hens"

[seagirl]

I have two hens that are going in and out of being very broody. they will both sit in the same nesting box for a couple of weeks at a time and "hen screaming" at anyone who comes near and then for no reason they just quit and start all over a few days later. is there something that I should do? its always the same ones

 

[aart]

Either give them some eggs to hatch....or break them of being broody.
What breed and how old are these birds?
How many in your flock total?


My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a few bricks right in the coop and I would feed her some watered down crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.

 

[Wanex]

Seagirl, give each hen a different nestbox and give each one of them their own eggs, and see what happens, maybe they're not confortable with each other, who knows.

 

[seagirl]

they are both barnyard variety and are about a year old, we have 29 hens total but are hoping to hatch out some more! these two are named the sisters because they are always near each other, whenever I try to put them in their own box they move to be with each other leaving the eggs and dividing the ones in the box that are both in now. its so strange but kind of sweet.

 

[Wanex]

That sounds unique and cool as well .

 

[aart]

Maybe rig a double sized nest box so they can sit close to each other?

If they won't sit the required 21 days, you should break them.