What's it mean for a chicken too go broody

[boomercide]

I have been reading up on my wyndot and it says once they start lying they can go broody what dose this mean?

 

[nchls school]

I have been reading up on my wyndot and it says once they start lying they can go broody what dose this mean?

Going broody means that the hen is trying to hatch eggs; she wants to raise chicks. When broody a hen will stay on the nest leaving only for short periods of time to eat, dust bath, and to exercise.

 

[boomercide]

So do I take the egg out from under her or is that bad too do I have no roosters so they will not be fetal at all

 

[appps]

Yes take the eggs as normal, depending on the bird she may grumble or try and peck you when you do, most of mine just grumble a bit. The silly thing is they will still keep trying to hatch that egg even though it's no longer there. The urge to hatch is so strong they will sit happily for weeks and weeks on nothing more than a pile of straw.

When they are sitting they only go out to eat for a short period once tr twice a day, because of this they will slowly start to loose weight. That is fine if at the end of three weeks some chicks are going to hatch so they know it's time to stop and start eating again but without the chicks they just keep sitting for weeks and weeks more getting skinnier and skinnier. If you have no hatching eggs under her it's kinder to "break" her broody behaviour before the weight loss starts.

To break a chicken from being broody there are as many methods as breeds of chickens but they all boil down to one main and super important point. You cannat let them on the nest DAY OR NIGHT for 3-4 days or she shows no further interest in it. If you let her on at night to sleep, it won't work. If you let her on and keep taking her on and off during the day, it won't work. It has to be totally off 24hrs per day.

I have a seperate small pen I usually use but it's got chicks in it at the moment so my last broody just got this

Just a few tomato stakes and some plastic wire up one end of their run and the nest box blocked at bedtime so she could still sleep on the roost. Took 3 days to break her.

 

[nchls school]

So do I take the egg out from under her or is that bad too do I have no roosters so they will not be fetal at all

Two choices here. 1. You can get some fertile eggs for the hen to hatch and raise. Or 2. Wait a week and lock the hen away from the nest so she stops being broody and goes back to laying eggs. If I do not want more chicks I usually let the hen brood for a week or so and then lock her in a pen with a rooster so she goes back to laying eggs. This takes a while (a week or two), but usually results in the hen no longer being broody.

 

[boomercide]

Is there a way too stop a hen from going broody in the first place? Do all wyndots go threw this? Or is it a hit or miss thing? And is this breed more likely too do this type of thing? In planing on getting 6 more hens in the spring too give me a flock of 12 I was thinking of getting 6 more of the dots silver and gold but would I be better off with a different breed?

 

[appps]

I don't know about that breed but yes some are more prone to it than others. Silkies are notorious for going broody all the time, some other breeds notorious for never going broody. You could try the breed section to help work out which would be better for you.

No there isn't anything you can do to prevent it.