They've all gone mad! Whole flock broody!

[ManOverBoard]

Okay, so we've been having some interesting and odd behavior from the girls. We've never had a broody before so we weren't sure, but we're now definitely sure it's being broody. We were excited about having one broody, but now all of our 10 hens are acting broody! It's like a bunch of clowns trying to fit into a clown car...a whole bunch of them will pile into the same nest, they start making all these crazy noises too! We've got 5 nest boxes, but they all want one specific one! I ended up having to move it to a more central location in the coop just to make sure there was enough air flow to keep everyone cool enough. We've even got a fan on them now. They all pile in there so high that it's a three layer lasagna of hens, and they all start heavily panting. I lift everyone out and try to get them focused on something else, but they all end up back in the nest. Eventually someone gets too uncomfortable and jumps out only for another one who hasn't gotten in yet to join the party. It's just madness! Some of the girls are starting to exhibit very pale combs and I'm getting worried that there stressing each other out. They're already in recovery mode from our rooster we just rehomed, but this is just too much. We moved the girls to a newer bigger coop and sent Slick the rooster packing to give the girls some reprieve, but they're definitely not getting it with all this broodiness.

How can we help these girls. 10 broody hens in one coop all at once is just nuts!
Again, we've got no experience with broodiness but it seems to be spreading like a bad case of the chicken pox in our coop!
Everyone's about a year old.
And this behavior has just exploded in the last week.
Advice? Please!

 

[LTAY1946]

Sounds to me like you need 10 nest boxes with doors and limit one hen to a box. Choose for them. Really I don't know the correct answer. I have 4 - 5 gone broody all at once but I've got 75-80 hens also. I have a problem keeping them from trying to set in rollout nest boxes.

 

[CoopBoots]

Wow. Mind if I inquire as to breed? That's pretty impressive and (as far as I know) unusual behavior for an entire flock of that size!

Depending on your coop setup and whether or not anyone is still laying, I'd prevent access to the nestbox area and potentially the entire coop. You might choose one to sit, or two if you can get them to settle in different boxes, and then keep the rest outside (but safe) for the rest of the day for 2-4 days. I've had success breaking this way but I also had my broody sleeping on wire overnight to keep her cool/hormones hopefully down.

 

[ManOverBoard]

Thank you for replying! I'll look into boxes with doors. I was hoping that just one of them would be broody, as we've got a dozen in the incubator and we're hoping she'd adopt them. But I don't think it would be safe now...

Sounds to me like you need 10 nest boxes with doors and limit one hen to a box. Choose for them. Really I don't know the correct answer. I have 4 - 5 gone broody all at once but I've got 75-80 hens also. I have a problem keeping them from trying to set in rollout nest boxes.

 

[BlueBaby]

What breed are they?

 

[ManOverBoard]

Wow. Mind if I inquire as to breed? That's pretty impressive and (as far as I know) unusual behavior for an entire flock of that size!

Depending on your coop setup and whether or not anyone is still laying, I'd prevent access to the nestbox area and potentially the entire coop. You might choose one to sit, or two if you can get them to settle in different boxes, and then keep the rest outside (but safe) for the rest of the day for 2-4 days. I've had success breaking this way but I also had my broody sleeping on wire overnight to keep her cool/hormones hopefully down.

We've got two buff Orpingtons and 8 black Australorps . Our big buff mamma was first to go followed by one of our Australorps. Id tried blocking it off, but then they started laying eggs in the floor of the coop and I was worried with the circus going on in there that an egg would get cracked and lead to egg eating. I like the separation idea. We've got mid fifties here at night. Do you think it would be too cool for the rest of the flock outside especially as they are missing feathers from our old rooster?

 

[ManOverBoard]

2 buff Orpington and 8 bkack Australorp

What breed are they?

 

[ManOverBoard]

Black*

2 buff Orpington and 8 bkack Australorp

 

[LTAY1946]

Thank you for replying! I'll look into boxes with doors. I was hoping that just one of them would be broody, as we've got a dozen in the incubator and we're hoping she'd adopt them. But I don't think it would be safe now...

You may have to create a door of your own. Even then when they do get out for a daily break they might still all try to get back in one box. I might try and eliminate that one nest they all want and see what they do then.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I think hens of various breeds can make their flock mates go broody, just as dominant roosters can make submissive roosters become more effeminate. They can influence each other’s hormones in ways I don’t think are well understood.