**Updated with questions. Can we revisit this thread?** Can you postpone broody behavior without b

[aart]

I'd either break her from her semi-broodiness in a breaker crate(see below).

Or if you want her to brood,
I'd separate her into an adjacent area with her own nest of fake eggs and see if she stays on the nest 24/7(with eat/drink/poop breaks).
She might settle in to seriously brood if she's physically separated from the flock.

Pasting my Broody Blurb:
You'll need to decide if you want her to hatch out some chicks, and how you will 'manage' it.
Do you have, or can you get, some fertile eggs?
Do you have the space needed? She may need to be separated by wire from the rest of the flock.
Do you have a plan on what to do with the inevitable males? Rehome, butcher, keep in separate 'bachelor pad'?
If you decide to let her hatch out some fertile eggs, this is a great thread for reference and to ask questions.
It a long one but just start reading the first few pages, then browse thru some more at random.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/496101/broody-hen-thread

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience went 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 and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day(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.
Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.

 

[Deltabwa]

I do want a broody, just not quite yet. I'm waiting for my young Ameraucana's to lay a few eggs first (1 laid her first egg today, yippee!). I also have a couple eggs I was going to order as I am prepared to hatch via incubator but if I could get a hen to do it, that would be ideal. However, I don't want her to be this way, leaving the eggs at night, obviously. So I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle of where I want to be.

Was your experience, when the pic was taken, long enough ago that she attempted broody again? Or did she go broody? That's a little of my concern, I really would prefer to have a broody hen hatch them if available. But, again, am prepared to incubate.

Thanks

 

[aart]

I do want a broody, just not quite yet. I'm waiting for my young Ameraucana's to lay a few eggs first (1 laid her first egg today, yippee!). I also have a couple eggs I was going to order as I am prepared to hatch via incubator but if I could get a hen to do it, that would be ideal. However, I don't want her to be this way, leaving the eggs at night, obviously. So I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle of where I want to be.

Was your experience, when the pic was taken, long enough ago that she attempted broody again? Or did she go broody? That's a little of my concern, I really would prefer to have a broody hen hatch them if available. But, again, am prepared to incubate.

Thanks

She, or her identical 'sister', did go broody again the next year maybe-can't remember exact timing....broke her too.
Both are now long gone to stew.

I prefer to incubate, have allowed one broody to set, because of the timing and population issues in my small flock.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If your bird is going to roost then she is not brooding. Might be another reason for it. Is she a favorite of the rooster? They'll hide out in the coop if over mated.

 

[Deltabwa]

If your bird is going to roost then she is not brooding. Might be another reason for it. Is she a favorite of the rooster? They'll hide out in the coop if over mated.

That's what I was wondering, what the reason was because she never did this last year. And no, she WAS the favorite but he is gone now. Now she is the only one I'm NOT seeing get bred. She, in fact, actually chases his young replacement.

She, or her identical 'sister', did go broody again the next year maybe-can't remember exact timing....broke her too.
Both are now long gone to stew.

I prefer to incubate, have allowed one broody to set, because of the timing and population issues in my small flock.

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ve been breeding my flock so the hens tend to go broody a lot. That means I break a lot of hens from being broody. That does not seem to keep them from going broody again. Some of them I may have to break three or four times a season.

Last year I had a pullet hatch in February. She went broody twice before winter, I broke her both times. That’s one reason I kept her, she went broody so readily. I’ve already hatched some of her eggs in the incubator. She hasn’t gone broody yet this year, but it’s early March. I’ll be amazed if she’s not broody before June.

Your hen is a living animal. No one can give you a guarantee whether or not she will go broody again. That’s just the way it is with living animals. It’s highly unlikely she’ll go broody when you want her to, they can be pretty hardheaded about that kind of stuff. But if I wanted her to go broody later on, I’d break her now. Try to get that cycle restarted instead of dragging on. If she really is broody I’d throw some of her eggs in that incubator too in the hopes she’ll pass broody behavior to her daughters. That’s how you breed a flock to go broody.

 

[Deltabwa]

I’ve been breeding my flock so the hens tend to go broody a lot. That means I break a lot of hens from being broody. That does not seem to keep them from going broody again. Some of them I may have to break three or four times a season.

Last year I had a pullet hatch in February. She went broody twice before winter, I broke her both times. That’s one reason I kept her, she went broody so readily. I’ve already hatched some of her eggs in the incubator. She hasn’t gone broody yet this year, but it’s early March. I’ll be amazed if she’s not broody before June.

Your hen is a living animal. No one can give you a guarantee whether or not she will go broody again. That’s just the way it is with living animals. It’s highly unlikely she’ll go broody when you want her to, they can be pretty hardheaded about that kind of stuff. But if I wanted her to go broody later on, I’d break her now. Try to get that cycle restarted instead of dragging on. If she really is broody I’d throw some of her eggs in that incubator too in the hopes she’ll pass broody behavior to her daughters. That’s how you breed a flock to go broody.

thanks. I do have one of her daughters Her daughter is actually the reason I have so many pullets coming into lay, lol so many be she will. Thanks