Obsessively Brooding Hen

juncus

Hatching
10 Years
Apr 5, 2009
4
0
7
OK,

I've got a hen who is brooding and will not leave the hen house (or even the nest for that matter) unless we pick her up and physically take her outside. We remove the eggs everyday and she remains there even with no eggs under her. She has worn her feathers off if her underside. I'm a little worried about her and wondering if this is typical behavior. She is quite small and we believe she is a Cochin/ bantam cross. Suffice it to say we are new to raising chicken, have had some in the past but have never seen one this dedicated to the nest.

Thanks for any help you can give.
Juncus
 
Sorry I can't help you. I'm going through the exact send thing and we are still pretty new to taking g care of chickens. This hen has been brooding for 4 days now and I'm pretty sure she's not sitting on any eggs.
 
I have a cochin that does the same thing. You just have to be persistent and keep taking her off the nest and removing eggs. Is she still eating/drinking? They will eat and drink less and may loose a little weight, but is she at least eating and drinking enough to not be starving?
 
If you have fertile eggs, shove a few under her! The feathers are a nesting thing. They use them for the nest, and it keeps the eggs closer to her skin so they stay warmer. If you're going to break her, it will take more than pulling her off the nest occasionally. Mine will try to hatch other eggs, golfballs, the floor and etc. when she is taken off the nest. I'm not trying to break her, though, just cleaning and restocking feed and water in the enclosure.
 
I have a Cornish hen who is obcessively broody also. I have to keep her on shavings not straw, and can't give her a box to lay eggs in. If I do those two things she continues to lay fairly regularly.
 
well, it's good to see the bald stomach is normal, cause my son was quite alarmed when he saw it on mine! Chickn gave me 4 fertile eggs today and the cochin scooped them right up, I agree, you should do the same...get your chicken eggs, not scoop them up!
wink.png
 
Yes she is eating and drinking a little, but not to the extent i think she should. I'll kick her out at least once a day to make her get some exercise.
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I have just been going through the same thing with my little Golden Laced Cochin Bantam. She was so broody and NOT coming out of it no matter what we did.

For the last couple of days, i have been locking her out of the coop for several hours. I put the food and water outside. I even went so far as to lock her out of coop and run when the other girls needed to have the coop opened to lay eggs. I just put her in the yard.

She wasn't happy at first, and I thought it wasn't working until today.

Today I went in and did my coops spring cleaning, hauling out all the old shavings, adding new. Cleaning the shavings out of the nest boxes and adding new.

This seems to have done the trick! She has not gone back to the nest all day and has been outside happily scratching and pecking with the others!

Good luck!
 
If you take her out of the nest, and put her in a wire bottom cage, you stand a better chance of breaking the brood. The cool air circulating under her will cool her body and throw her out of it. Its how we break our Silkies.
 

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