Worried about broody hen

[ChickenCanoe]

...

In my experience, I have never had a broody die on the nest. Not saying it couldn't happen, but I have never seen it. I leave my broodies alone - I have food and water where they have to get off the nest to eat and drink. I don't want to encourage them to stay on the nest and poop in it. Unless you are watching your broody 24/7 and seeing that she's not getting off the nest, she most likely is. They tend to want to be secretive in getting off the nest and going back to it. I have watched broodies sneak around, taking the "scenic route" back to their nests after getting off for their daily constitutional. If they know I'm watching them, they never go directly back to the nest. I have come to the realization that my chickens know more about being chickens than I do. If they couldn't take care of themselves, they'd be extinct by now.

X10
I think some people obsess about every move a chicken makes (or doesn't make). They are more like their ancestors with all their instincts intact than many realize.
That includes reproduction without extinction. Millions of years reproducing without human intervention - it just doesn't make sense that we would need to intervene now.
I'm amazed at the number of people who recommend forcing a hen to get off the nest daily (on their schedule), rather than letting the hen choose. Some years I'll have one or two setters, some years it will be 10 to 15. I've never had a sitting hen that didn't get off occasionally (on her schedule) to defecate, eat, drink, stretch, scratch around and dust bathe.
Sometimes I let them sit in a nest with the rest of the flock. Sometimes I'll move them into purpose built broody apartments that are about 3'X5'. I put a water fount and feeder in there and basically forget about them for the next 3 weeks. Normally, I'll open the door in the morning in case they want to go out for a dust bath. I've discovered that they don't necessarily get off the eggs every day but it usually is. If they choose to skip a day, that doesn't mean should pull them off the nest. Sometimes it is first thing in the morning, sometimes mid-day, sometimes they skip a day. If you don't have a surveillance camera on the nest, you won't know if you missed their daily excursion.
After well over 100 setting hens with no problems, I really don't believe there could be that many hens intent on suicide. Perhaps if their quarters are so small (like a rabbit hutch) they may think, what's the point.
If there really was a hen hell bent on a hunger strike that she would die without my intervention, I don't want her here to reproduce her kind.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Well if a hen sits on eggs for so long and doesn't lay she can get the eggs stuck inside her. But this hen should be fine as long as she doesn't sit for to long. Good luck!

A broody hen doesn't ovulate and she won't ovulate for at least about two months after her eggs hatch. There are no eggs to get 'stuck' if ovulation hasn't occurred. She is a full time mom of her new charges and if she were to go off to lay an egg, the chicks could be killed without her supervision.
It is evolutionarily important for ovulation to cease when hormones cause her to sit. If more eggs would come after she started sitting, that would result in a staggered hatch. After a couple days of hatching, she will leave the nest to care for live chicks no matter how many eggs are left and the embryos would die.

 

[bobbi-j]

X10
I think some people obsess about every move a chicken makes (or doesn't make). They are more like their ancestors with all their instincts intact than many realize.
That includes reproduction without extinction. Millions of years reproducing without human intervention - it just doesn't make sense that we would need to intervene now.
I'm amazed at the number of people who recommend forcing a hen to get off the nest daily (on their schedule), rather than letting the hen choose. Some years I'll have one or two setters, some years it will be 10 to 15. I've never had a sitting hen that didn't get off occasionally (on her schedule) to defecate, eat, drink, stretch, scratch around and dust bathe.
Sometimes I let them sit in a nest with the rest of the flock. Sometimes I'll move them into purpose built broody apartments that are about 3'X5'. I put a water fount and feeder in there and basically forget about them for the next 3 weeks. Normally, I'll open the door in the morning in case they want to go out for a dust bath. I've discovered that they don't necessarily get off the eggs every day but it usually is. Sometimes it is first thing in the morning, sometimes mid-day, sometimes they skip a day. If you don't have a surveillance camera on the nest, you won't know if you missed their daily excursion.
After well over 100 setting hens with no problems, I really don't believe there could be that many hens intent on suicide. Perhaps if their quarters are so small (like a rabbit hutch) they may think, what's the point.
If there really was a hen hell bent on a hunger strike that she would die without my intervention, I don't want her here to reproduce her kind.

Well said!

 

[aart]

Please explain. I don't understand the day 21 thing nor do I understand why not laying eggs for a month would be deadly.

This is what I have been trying to understand as well

I believe this is just a case of someone regurgitating things they have read without enough experience, context, or logic.
It's nothing new around here, tho it's one of the more far-fetched.

I have not been to the library in years! Do you have a library card, can you look it up

<gasp>I'm at my library at least weekly. I read incessantly. Just ordered the title from our state wide borrowing program online, hard to say when it will be here. Don't think I've read that one, I ordered a dozen or more when I first started, none really were worth paying for.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I believe this is just a case of someone regurgitating things they have read without enough experience, context, or logic.
It's nothing new around here, tho it's one of the more far-fetched.


<gasp>I'm at my library at least weekly. I read incessantly. Just ordered the title from our state wide borrowing program online, hard to say when it will be here. Don't think I've read that one, I ordered a dozen or more when I first started, none really were worth paying for.

LOL That's why I wanted to know if someone could get the book somehow and see how it was "worded". A lot of times things are taken out of context It happens.

Shame on me LOL

 

[aart]

Shame on me LOL

Well, nah.....But I'd go bonkers without the library.

 

[aart]

I have not read it, so don't know what "context" the material is referring to. I have not been to the library in years! Do you have a library card, can you look it up

So I borrowed this book via my state-wide library loan. Interesting that it came from one of the places I grew up...but I digress. It was published in 2018 so pretty recent, it's pretty with lots of lovely photos and graphics, the format is cute with the 'fact' or 'poop' verdicts.

The introduction cracked me up, talking about books, podcasts, websites, and forum members repeating inaccurate 'facts' over and over and over(had me saying "right on!") ...and this book was going to 'fix' that. That is all paraphrased..but captures the gist, but oh irony upon irony upon irony! I skimmed the rest of the book, reading some topics in more detail.....it's all about the same as all the other books, podcasts, websites, and forum members...some if it is accurate and pretty good, but some(most) of it is pure chicken sh!t(like you need heat to get eggs winter-SMH), despite most the 'facts' coming from DVM's or PHD's or MPVM's or DACVPM's.

Oh, and, I found no reference about what got us looking at this book in the first place:

they can get egg bound and die from sitting ....

Now granted, I didn't read every word of the book, but did not see any topic heading or index item about broody hens.

So I still posit that it's.....

I believe this is just a case of someone regurgitating things they have read without enough experience, context, or logic.
It's nothing new around here, tho it's one of the more far-fetched.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

So I borrowed this book via my state-wide library loan. Interesting that it came from one of the places I grew up...but I digress. It was published in 2018 so pretty recent, it's pretty with lots of lovely photos and graphics, the format is cute with the 'fact' or 'poop' verdicts.

The introduction cracked me up, talking about books, podcasts, websites, and forum members repeating inaccurate 'facts' over and over and over(had me saying "right on!") ...and this book was going to 'fix' that. That is all paraphrased..but captures the gist, but oh irony upon irony upon irony! I skimmed the rest of the book, reading some topics in more detail.....it's all about the same as all the other books, podcasts, websites, and forum members...some if it is accurate and pretty good, but some(most) of it is pure chicken sh!t(like you need heat to get eggs winter-SMH), despite most the 'facts' coming from DVM's or PHD's or MPVM's or DACVPM's.

Oh, and, I found no reference about what got us looking at this book in the first place:
Now granted, I didn't read every word of the book, but did not see any topic heading or index item about broody hens.

So I still posit that it's.....

So....I should mark it off my "must read" list if I ever get a library card