My chicken could be brooding

[HappyChickens1245]

hello BYC, I come to your aid again for my cuckoo maran. She is 2 years old and we got her 2 months ago. She has been fine we let our chickens free range around our backyard. She’s been brooding for almost a week and hasn’t moved out of one corner of the coop. Is it brooding? Is there something wrong? How do we get her active again. Thank you and I hope for some answers and solutions.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Where does she normally sleep? There are a lot of different signs she might be broody but my real test is if she spends two consecutive nights on the nest instead of her normal roosting space. A typical broody might spend practically all day on her nest, will come off the nest once or twice a day to eat, drink, poop, and maybe take a dust bath. When she is off the nest she usually walks around fluffed up and making a regular "buk buk" sound. Some can be quite defensive of their nest but I've had hens just laying eggs peck me if I stick my hand in there. If you take a broody hen off her nest and drop her onto the coop floor or the ground she often just sits here for a while before either rushing back to the nest or going off to eat, drink, and poop. It takes her a while to come out of her trance.

I've had hens do all these things and not be broody enough to trust with eggs. I've had truly broody hens not do all these things, just most. That's why I have the two night rule before I give her eggs.

If you determine she is broody do you want her to hatch eggs or raise baby chicks or do you want to break her from being broody? We can help you with any of those.

 

[Grits&Eggs]

When mine went broody, I couldn't get her out of the nest box with normal daily activities or scratch and treat feedings. She looked normal, but, she chased the others out of her nest box (it is a large box with a curtain separating) she would squalk loudly when other came near. I removed the others eggs three to four times a day and took all the golf balls out of the nest boxes, after 4 weeks she finally went down with the others for "breakfast" - sigh, was stressful