Strange Behavior

[timothyyoung]

I need some advice. We have a Blue Cochin hen, she is 7 months old and had been laying eggs. The days are getting shorter and colder and she stopped laying, but she now also does not come out of the nesting boxes. She will sit in a box for pretty much the entire day, this has been going on for about a week and a half. He is eating, when she does come out. She will not go to the bathroom in the box, she will hold it all day until she finally comes out and moves around. When she comes out she will hop around, forage and take dust baths for about 30 minutes, then she runs back to the coop and will get back into a box and spend the rest of the night in there. If we didn't take her out she would be in there for 23.5 hours of the day, or a far as we can tell when we see her anyway. Any thoughts or advice? Is she just lazy?

 

[sourland]

She is broody. She wants to incubate eggs and hatch chicks.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

You've got your yourself a broody girl.

She is young, I suggest breaking her. And let her set next year if you want her to hatch or raise adopted (sexed) chicks for you.

 

[sylviethecochin]

If you have a rooster, you're probably well on your way towards having chicks. If you don't have a rooster, break her of it, because hens will starve themselves to death on a nest.

 

[Better Than Rubies]

How do you break a broody hen? Will some refuse to be broken?

 

[cassie]

As others have said, your hen is broody. If you don't have a rooster, break her up. I used to put my setting hens in a wire cage with no bedding for a few days. Cochins are very determined setters. I once had one try to hatch a box of iris bulbs.

 

[sylviethecochin]

A cochin may very well refuse to be broken. Silkies and cochins are both pretty bad about that. And some people just don't have the heart to do it.

Probably the most humane method is putting her in a wire-bottomed bedding-free cage with or without a rooster (preferably with) and keeping her in there for a few days until she stops trying to set. Repeat as necessary.

Another method is to buy some chicks and put them under her at night. She'll raise chicks for you, and you get the benefit of having her start to lay again after a few weeks, instead of months.

The other methods usually involve dunkings in cold water and keeping her in a pen with a light on at all times and no bedding.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

How do you break a broody hen? Will some refuse to be broken?

A wire bottom cage in the middle of the run is how I do it. Some girl will easily break in 2 or 3 days while it has taken 2 or 3 weeks for others. But if you let them sit uninterrupted it can go on long enough for them to lose condition. My girls will incubate air! Their legs become shaky. Plus they are occupying a box other girls might wanna lay in. And they are cranky. Plus not producing eggs. It usually takes a week or 2 before they return to lay after being broken.

There's just too much maturing for a girl to do still at that age is why I would BREAK her. She will do much better after her body has reached it's full robustness and her mind simmered down from the teen perspective a touch.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

A cochin may very well refuse to be broken. Silkies and cochins are both pretty bad about that. And some people just don't have the heart to do it.

Probably the most humane method is putting her in a wire-bottomed bedding-free cage with or without a rooster (preferably with) and keeping her in there for a few days until she stops trying to set. Repeat as necessary.

Another method is to buy some chicks and put them under her at night. She'll raise chicks for you, and you get the benefit of having her start to lay again after a few weeks, instead of months.

The other methods usually involve dunkings in cold water and keeping her in a pen with a light on at all times and no bedding.

Why preferably WITH a rooster?

I would never do a cold water dunk, that's just cruel. And I would also be hesitant to do the light, let me tell you why...

As far as the light goes, I agree that being lighter will help break sooner since laying is hormonal and effected by light. However having lost a non prolific layer to egg binding when she came out of broody breaking... I would consider it to be putting a greater risk. But maybe that's paranoia speaking.

ETA: my broody's will go all crazy mama on anybody stuck in with them.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Why preferably WITH a rooster?

I would never do a cold water dunk, that's just cruel. And I would also be hesitant to do the light, let me tell you why...

As far as the light goes, I agree that being lighter will help break sooner since laying is hormonal and effected by light. However having lost a non prolific layer to egg binding when she came out of broody breaking... I would consider it to be putting a greater risk. But maybe that's paranoia speaking.

ETA: my broody's will go all crazy mama on anybody stuck in with them.

The rooster keeps the hen moving.

And I consider both the light and the water too be too reminiscent of forms of torture for me to be comfortable using them. That said, they are options and I'm hardly going to condemn people for using them, especially when I know that a hen can die on the nest--I found one bantam hen up in our barn-top once, on rotten eggs, weighing several ounces less than she should have. She made it, but it was close.

Personally, I think there's nothing more adorable than this.