Please help my sanity. How much resting is normal for a broken broody bird?

[mintyivyy1]

Hi all,

Feeling at the end of my rope with my first flock. It’s always something! Any advice appreciated.

1 yr old salmon fav hen, flock of 8 hens and one rooster. Plenty of space, organic green mountain coarse layer feed, free choice oyster shell and grit.

She went broody for about a day last week and we broke it very fast by continually moving her off the nest and closing it off. Next day she was normal! Hasn’t laid since then, though.

She always has been a hen that enjoys sitting down and watching the world go by. When do I worry about her sitting and resting? When is it cause for concern? I’m new to this and I’m just so stressed out and exhausted. Her crop is normal, vent looked normal, eyes and nose and mouth normal. No symptoms but just sitting more than usual.

Is this common after breaking a broody hen? She was only broody for a day. I can take her to the vet, but last time a hen was sitting a bunch and I took her to the vet, it turned out to be nothing at all. She

 

[Kiki]

Can you go out and take a clear video of her right now?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Normal for her not to be laying after broodiness, as they generally don't resume for 2-3 weeks. Is she otherwise eating and drinking? Does she react to treats that she likes?

 

[aart]

She went broody for about a day last week and we broke it very fast by continually moving her off the nest and closing it off.

IMO one day is not enough to determine broodiness, unless you are experienced and have seen it multiple times before.
She could have been nest sitting because she didn't feel well or was being bullied or is just a 'lounger'.

My go-to signs of a broody hen:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does 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.

 

[azygous]

First of all, acting broody for one day isn't being broody. Usually, broody hormones develop over a period of a few weeks until the hen lays a final egg and begins to sit a nest.

I've had two hens this year demonstrate some broody symptoms and neither progressed to full broody state. Check her breast area for missing feathers. A hen going broody will be losing feathers along her keel bone to prepare for direct skin contact with prospective eggs to incubate.

Another sign that a hen is going broody is irritability, an almost constant low volume clucking, and you will often see the other chickens peck at her out of irritation with her behavior. She will also fluff herself up to twice her size and scream occasionally.

What your hen may be doing right now by lying down is to enhance her elevated body temperature by making close contact with the ground in order to reflect her body heat back at her body, thus encouraging the broody hormones. This is why if you wish to break a broody, you must remove all means of reflecting her body heat. Just removing her from a nest isn't enough to break her.

She needs to be confined to a cage with an open mesh bottom in order to circulate cool air under her, and this cools her temperature so as to interrupt the hormones.

 

[TwoCrows]

I have broken a few broodies in my day and I can tell you, they get depressed afterwards. Hormones confuse them when they are no longer on the same path to being broody. Lots of changes going on in her body, it will take her a couple weeks to recover mentally and physically. As long as she is eating, drinking and pooping well, she is probably OK. Probably still a bit broody.

 

[mintyivyy1]

Can you go out and take a clear video of her right now?

she was asleep but I can do today

 

[mintyivyy1]

I have broken a few broodies in my day and I can tell you, they get depressed afterwards. Hormones confuse them when they are no longer on the same path to being broody. Lots of changes going on in her body, it will take her a couple weeks to recover mentally and physically. As long as she is eating, drinking and pooping well, she is probably OK. Probably still a bit broody.

thank you, this is very helpful. she is doing all of those things, but I wonder if she's a bit confused.

 

[mintyivyy1]

First of all, acting broody for one day isn't being broody. Usually, broody hormones develop over a period of a few weeks until the hen lays a final egg and begins to sit a nest.

I've had two hens this year demonstrate some broody symptoms and neither progressed to full broody state. Check her breast area for missing feathers. A hen going broody will be losing feathers along her keel bone to prepare for direct skin contact with prospective eggs to incubate.

Another sign that a hen is going broody is irritability, an almost constant low volume clucking, and you will often see the other chickens peck at her out of irritation with her behavior. She will also fluff herself up to twice her size and scream occasionally.

What your hen may be doing right now by lying down is to enhance her elevated body temperature by making close contact with the ground in order to reflect her body heat back at her body, thus encouraging the broody hormones. This is why if you wish to break a broody, you must remove all means of reflecting her body heat. Just removing her from a nest isn't enough to break her.

She needs to be confined to a cage with an open mesh bottom in order to circulate cool air under her, and this cools her temperature so as to interrupt the hormones.

Understood, but believe me-she had all of those symptoms. She stopped once we removed her from the nest repeatedly for a day. She clucked and clucked and even howled when we closed off her nest box and blocked the nest boxes in the coop overnight. She is a young hen (just turned one) so this could be the first "broody-ish" experience she's had.

 

[mintyivyy1]

IMO one day is not enough to determine broodiness, unless you are experienced and have seen it multiple times before.
She could have been nest sitting because she didn't feel well or was being bullied or is just a 'lounger'.

My go-to signs of a broody hen:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does 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.

Yup, she had all of these symptoms--"ticking bomb" clucking, extremely pecky when we got her off nest, obsessed with getting back in. I said below that maybe this is the first time she has experienced these hormones--young bird--and we are figuring it out. She has not laid since that egg. When we blocked the nest boxes overnight she was VERY upset. The broody-ness is less my concern that this sort of tired behavior I'm seeing now, which may be connected.