Odd Broody Hen

[MotherHen75]

My Orpington girl has gone broody, but i’m not sure what’s up. She doesn’t get off her eggs at all, to eat, drink or anything. I carefully pick her up and place her with her food. She eats and drinks and bathes in the dirt, but after she’s out of her ‘trance’. She just sits there, and fluffs up. A minute goes by and i move her again, she goes out of her trance and does her things. But when she goes back to the nesting box, she sits in the wrong one and fluffs up, i move her to the one with the eggs and she stays there, then the next day it starts again. What’s happening?

 

[LoveMyChickenBabies]

@Texas Kiki

 

[chickens really]

I always move my Broody Hens to a Brooder with nest and eggs. So she is private. I remove her every two days to do what she needs.

 

[aart]

My Orpington girl has gone broody, but i’m not sure what’s up. She doesn’t get off her eggs at all, to eat, drink or anything. I carefully pick her up and place her with her food. She eats and drinks and bathes in the dirt, but after she’s out of her ‘trance’. She just sits there, and fluffs up. A minute goes by and i move her again, she goes out of her trance and does her things. But when she goes back to the nesting box, she sits in the wrong one and fluffs up, i move her to the one with the eggs and she stays there, then the next day it starts again. What’s happening?

Pretty typical.
It can be best to isolate broody behind wire wall in coop, so she has room to get up eatdrinkpoop then only one nest to go back to.
They may only get up every couple days, especially at the beginning and end of incubation.
How long has she been setting?

 

[MotherHen75]

Pretty typical.
It can be best to isolate broody behind wire wall in coop, so she has room to get up eatdrinkpoop then only one nest to go back to.
They may only get up every couple days, especially at the beginning and end of incubation.
How long has she been setting?

today is day 3

 

[aart]

today is day 3

Just getting started.
Do you want her to hatch eggs... or not?

Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, doesn't she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

When I have a broody I wait until she's been in the nest most the day and all night for 2-3 days...along with those other signs I posted.

Then I put her in the broody enclosure with fake eggs in the floor nest, she won't like being moved, but if she is truly good and broody she will settle onto the new nest within a half a day.
Then I give her fresh fertile eggs and mark the calendar.

I like them separated by wire from the flock, it's just easier all around.
No having to mark eggs and remove any additions daily, no taking up a laying nest, no going back to the wrong nest after the daily constitutional.



If you don't want her to hatch chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about 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 couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) 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. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.
Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[MotherHen75]

Just getting started.
Do you want her to hatch eggs... or not?

Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, doesn't she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

When I have a broody I wait until she's been in the nest most the day and all night for 2-3 days...along with those other signs I posted.

Then I put her in the broody enclosure with fake eggs in the floor nest, she won't like being moved, but if she is truly good and broody she will settle onto the new nest within a half a day.
Then I give her fresh fertile eggs and mark the calendar.

I like them separated by wire from the flock, it's just easier all around.
No having to mark eggs and remove any additions daily, no taking up a laying nest, no going back to the wrong nest after the daily constitutional.



If you don't want her to hatch chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about 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 couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) 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. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.
Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.
View attachment 1714846

I want her to hatch eggs. We have been trying to encourage the hens going broody, made sure the nests were always fresh, gave them a chance to sit on the eggs before we took them.

When i put her down she flattens, but doesn't screech. She makes clucking noises and drinks, eats and dust bathes in a hurry to get back. Though this morning an Amerecauna was laying and they got mad at each other, I ended up putting pieces of cardboard between the nesting boxes so they wouldn't bug each other.

The Orpington, Rachel, (we named them after friends characters) is ALWAYS fluffing up no matter what. Just walking by, eating, drinking, running (it looks hilarious), or even just sitting on her eggs.

We have another coup, but its not set up yet. Its a bigger coup then we have now, so were probably going to move the other chickens in there, and leave the smaller one to Rachel. I will also block off the spare nesting boxes in the smaller coup so she only has one to go to. My chickens are free range, so the only reason for the coup is egg laying and roosting.

 

[aart]

We have been trying to encourage the hens going broody, made sure the nests were always fresh, gave them a chance to sit on the eggs before we took them.

IME none of that makes any difference....if a bird is truly broody she will sit on nothing.
Tho not having barriers between the nests could indeed be detrimental to a broody.

 

[MotherHen75]

IME none of that makes any difference....if a bird is truly broody she will sit on nothing.
Tho not having barriers between the nests could indeed be detrimental to a broody.

She does sometimes sit in a nest with no eggs, when the eggs are in the nest right next to her. She has a favorite nesting box apparently, she switched from the corner nest to the middle one.

 

[Lelilamom]

My Buff Orpington is always separated from the rest of the flock because they will pick on her until she's bloody. Been like that for years. She's seven years old now and permanently separated, but in the same coop and face to face so they always see eachother. A month ago, she laid an egg and wouldn't get off it. No clucking, not puffed up, just sitting for hours. I took her egg and put four fertile eggs under her and she took them right away. Within two days she discarded two of the eggs and sat on the other two for 21 days. She got up every few hours to eat and drink and relieve herself outside her nest and returned quickly. She rolled the eggs, talked to them and was very attentive, but never did the broody dance. After 25 days, I took the eggs away and she abandoned the nest. She has raised two clutches in the past. I think when Hens get older they aren't as intuitive and don't act the same.