Why is my hen still broody?

[Chickenaddict]

I have a black cochin bantam hen who has been broody since feb. She hasn't layed on or hatched ANY eggs in this time. Altho she makes for a great house broken chicken i really miss the eggs she used to lay for me. I have tried everything to break her of her broodiness but with no luck at all. Now shes getting chubby and lazy. I take her out of her box twice a day to go out in the yard to poop. She poops on command and will not poop in her box only outside. I'm concerned about her health and i want her to be the happy healthy hen she used to be. I think i babied her tooo much and shes become spoiled and uninterested in the rest of the flock. What else can i do?

 

[Davaroo]

Some hens are just like that. Really.

Did you "spoil" her? Well, I dont know what goes on in her little pea brain, but I suspect it has little to do with you.

I had a hen once that would never get off the nest. She had no belly feathers for all the setting she did. As anyone around here can tell you, Im many things, but guilty of spoling a chicken I'm NOT.

I wouldn't worry about it. If shes eating and doing her business, then this is normal for her. In the old days, any hen that "didn't pay her rent" was done for. Nowadays you can afford to be lenient.

 

[okiehen]

Get you a few day old chicks and let her be the mom she is wanting to be.

 

[emeraldquill]

I'm certainly not an expert on chickens but am rapidly becoming an expert on 'broody' thanks to my 2 silkies. Despite all the advice I was given here and putting them into action, I have resigned myself to the fact that when they want to be broody they will be and will only give it up when they want to!
My broody Mabel after 2 months (I'd given up weeks before even trying) just decided enough was enough....let me out please.
We have a tendency to try and interfere with nature because we want things to be a certain way. Chickens know what to do and when to do it, it might not benefit us but it's not suposed to. If she is eating and drinking...walking around when you put her out....I say leave her be. She might be a little chubby and a tad lazy...so what. I don't think we can determine the 'happiness' of a chicken really...as long as they eat etc and don't appear ill, we can safely assume they are content.
The eggs are another issue, but we cannot command they lay sadly, as with my Mabel....she is a pet and the eggs if and when they appear are an added bonus!

 

[Davaroo]

According to Henderson, Cochins are naturally good brooders. Sounds like she's doing her thing.

 

[Chick_in_Indiana]

I read in one of my books to put icecubes under them.

 

[ibpboo]

You could try the ice cube thing, I've also heard dipping them in ice water to break the broodiness. If it happened to work, they will just get broody again in a short while anyway. The only luck I ever had was buying babies and giving them to the hen. Then she was happy, raised them and after few months, became boody again. a couple times I got fertilized eggs from a friend for her to hatch. I now have a broody silkie and a broody game hen. The silkie at first didn't want anything to do with the babies I had, but when the got a little bigger and started sleeping with her at night, she decided to get up, but now she is back to broody. And the game hen has been sitting since end of March or beginning of april, so I asked the feed store and they said chicks are to arrive the 20th, and I may just give that a try, if it doesn't work, I raise them in the house.

 

[fivebigreds]

put her in a seperate coop away from anything that looks like a nest for about a week.