Wow...Broody Light Sussex at only 7 months?

[4erika]

She's not even 7 months old yet and has only been laying for about 8 weeks. But she's definitely gone broody. I found her in one of the nests with 6 eggs. She had been in there for a few hours, and fluffed up and trilled when I tried to move her. I don't need a broody right now, so I scooped her out of the nest, took the eggs, and moved the empty nest so she couldn't find it. She kept trying to get back into it. I gave her a few worms to make her feel better, but I still feel a tad guilty. Poor little girl wants to be a mama. She's a sweet chicken. I fear she's going to be one of those hens that goes broody all the time. Does early broodiness signal that she's going to be a frequent brooder?

 

[Den in Penn]

Going broody when young doesn't mean she will at the drop of an egg. Its possible that she will be one to go broody. You just have to wait and see.

 

[sumi]

I had a hen that laid exactly 13 eggs before she went broody. She was not quite 6 months old yet. She did go broody often, but we encouraged her by leaving her eggs in her "secret" nests.
If you don't want your hen to sit now you can break her broodiness by putting her in a wire cage with only food and water. Broody hen's body temperature goes up and when they're in the cage it's very hard for them to maintain that, so after average 3 days they'll give up.

 

[4erika]

Darn it, she's at it again. I caught her just laying on the ground last night where the nest used to be. I put her on the perch with the other chickens. This morning, she was back in the same spot. I picked her up, petted her, gave her some worms...but she goes back to the same spot when I put her down. I'm just going to keep harrassing her until she gives up.