Why do you break a broody hen?

[GD91]

Was just wondering why people do break broody hens.... of course its an understandable issue if the hen in question is wasting away on the nest with no fertile eggs, or she just won't move even after hatching the eggs.
Even pet owners could sell the chicks or send them for slaughter.

Our method is let her be happy, have her chicks & then sell or cull for the pot to:

A) feed us & our other pets &

B) Keep the population under control.

I did read about breaking broodies but to be honest, most of the methods sounded like some sort of torture (Just voicing the words of my friend & DH when we were looking it up). Personally, I prefer to let nature take its course & reap in the rewards of more daughters laying eggs & more meat on the table.

I have to remember, these are animals with their own minds & therefore often unpredictable. I don't want to try to mold it to suit me.

So I do the nicest thing..... I let her be happy, love her chicks & then when she has long lost interest in them, then I bop them off unless they carry wanted traits.
My birds are classed as "working" pets.

Btw, I'm not trying to push my opinion on anyone, that is the last thing I would EVER want to do. Trust me, I know how annoying that can be & how sometimes a miswritten post or likewise can make the post seem condescending etc.

I just thought I'd write my views & hear yours out of curiosity. What thought / reason upsets you when your hens brood?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If my hen goes broody at a time I don't want, can't handle more or too close to winter chicks I break her. I don't have a flock that is only self perpetuating, I have a flock I'm selectively breeding from. With this I have chickens of varying stages of growth and limited places to house them in summer. Yet to have a hen go broody while I was incubating or obviously I'd mark and give her the eggs.

I use the cage on blocks method to break the broody. It works very well in only a few days and I can't see how it's torture. She'd be on the nest that entire time in the dark. Instead she's out in run in a cage sitting there in sunlight viewing the rest of the flock.

 

[JennaLynn122]

Just want to say that I'm jealous of yalls broody hens. Mine won't do it and I wanted one. I broke and got a bator

 

[donrae]

It's always been my cardinal rule to let a broody raise chicks. I would have said I'd never, ever break a broody, ever!

Until last November. I had just finished my last round of chemo and was still only allowed limited contact with my animals. I had a little bantam cochin go broody and had to break her. Almost broke my heart! But, I was already imposing on my family to care for the animals I had, bringing in more would have been irresponsible. Plus, housing would have been an issue as I was pretty maxed out on coop space. My health also prevented me from butchering, so roosters are just mouths to feed. It just wasn't the right time.


That said, I've ordered 5 dark Cornish hens with my spring order, just cause they're supposed to be such good broodies and can handle more chicks at a time than my little bantam ladies

I do think folks need to think more before they just give broodies eggs. GD91, you use your extra birds for meat. So many folks here won't do that, and we get frantic posts about "what do I do with all my roosters?". Folks just won't believe there's no forever green pasture free range predator free home with abundant hens and no fighting for every rooster they hatch out. Any animal owner needs to think things through before breeding. A broody hen is no different than a dog in heat--just cause her hormones are telling her to reproduce, doesn't mean she should.

 

[GD91]

This is all very good & interesting

I too think more people need to realize they either need to have good homes ready or be prepared to butcher. Roosters are, sadly, inevitable.

Yes, I do have to butcher most of my "extras". And I've seen the posts desperately seeking new homes for roosters to.

They are advertised as for sale first (any profits go towards improving the flocks housing etc) but if they haven't gone by butcher age (which most of them haven't) then I have to do what I refer to as a "cull". I keep my flock small & have lots of extra housing though.

If I just let my birds breed & kept every chick..... Omg, I'd have drowned in chickens a long time ago! There would just be an arm poking out at the keyboard, desperately typing on BYC "Please help, what do I do with all these extra chickens!??"

And I'm very sorry to hear about your chemo

you have best wishes & sympathy from me.

My interest is my flocks welfare. I've had some adorable roo's. A lot of people would not have been able to butcher them, but I did. I loved them & treated them as individuals during their lives. You don't get over it just like that, but you do move on at about the moment you put them in the fridge. Then its just like something you bought at the shop, it looks nothing like your favorite roo anymore.

Also, I'm a bit of a softie, broody hens are brought indoors & one is broody in the living room right now on 6 eggs.
I try to make sure they don't lose too much weight & I can monitor them more closely indoors, praise them for their efforts & give them treats on the nest etc. But I only have a small flock as stated so its rare to have more than 1 or 2 broodies at once.

And I also don't agree with breeding animals like dogs & cats. All mine are spayed & micro-chipped.

I should probably note though that I made the decision on being mentally prepared to butcher before I went into the whole chicken / rabbit / quail thing. I read from older members on this site that at one point or another, it will be necessary to kill a chicken.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Any animal owner needs to think things through before breeding. A broody hen is no different than a dog in heat--just cause her hormones are telling her to reproduce, doesn't mean she should.

THANK YOU!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

If you don't create them in the first place, the issue of what to do with them (and your apparent objections to what others choose to do with their flocks) is no longer an issue.

 

[blucoondawg]

Some feel a responsibility to the breed they produce to only produce the best examples and help the breed progress, they would rather cull them than send them off to produce more poor examples of the breed. As you may know it is getting tough to find good examples of many breeds, this is due to hatchery breeding and people refusing to cull. This is not the only reason but it is my reason, though I prefer to raise them up so I get some meat rather than kill them young, but I have room to do that, some don't.

 

[Cluckysnap123]

Some just want for pets, like me. I like creating color mixes with my chickens, and just because it's a "poor example" doesn't mean it isn't a good chicken.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Curious, clucky, are you a supporter of allowing free breeding of all animals - say, uncontrolled reproduction in cats and dogs? I mean, after all, surely *someone* will take all those unwanted, unplanned for animals that are created, right? It isn't as though countless litters end up in shelters where they most likely end up being euthanized - or that they could be prevented by practicing responsible animal guardianship by not creating animals willy-nilly in the first place.