My chicken has been trying to lay eggs for over a month

[krazychick28]

I dont know whats wrong with my chicken. For over a month she has been broody and just sitting in her nesting box trying to lay an egg and whenever I check for an egg she doesnt have anything under her. Could this be the sign of a disease? Or does my chicken just want to be like everyone else and have kids?

 

[chicmom]

Hello!

When a hen goes broody, she quits laying......The broodiness is sort of a hormonal thing with a hen....giving her an extreme desire to hatch eggs. She wants to be a mama.

A hen will go broody even if there isn't a rooster around and there are no fertile eggs. And she will sit in the nest box, even if she doesn't have any eggs to hatch.

Maybe you could give her some fertile eggs to hatch?

 

[krazychick28]

I did give her someone elses eggs before, because the other mama hens were killing their babies, but than she would sit on the eggs for maybe half a day and than get up and socialize with the other chickens.

 

[silkeysandra]

What I do to get my silkies out of their broodiness is I slowly lengthen the time they have to be out of their cage/coop. I will take them out and close their coop door so they can't reenter but others can. I sometimes have to shoo her out a couple times a day, take her to something more interesting and slowly she quits. usually takes about a week. bummer. You just have to stay at it, provide fun things for the girls to do outside and hope for best.
I provide a baby pool with sand for dusting, several shallow wading pools in the shade, they get chopped veggie treats in the afternoon, frozen liter bottles in the heat of the day to lounge beside, all the bugs in the backyard to eat and extra petting if they want.
Part of the reason I make my broodies get out asap is that they lose their pecking order when they stay gone from the flock for so long and I have had fights break out over who knows what. As long as they are out with the girls for some time each day, they pretty much hang onto their place. Just keeps down the drama!