If you can keep your hen from settling down and getting comfortable, you can snap her out of her brood. Keeping her from her nest box can be quite effective. If you can put her somewhere that she cannot see her nest box for a few days, she might forget all about brooding. If possible, put her somewhere that she is close enough to the others in the flock that they can see each other. Ideally this alternate location will be uncomfortable, like concrete floor uncomfortable.
Just make sure she has food and water available. Another option would be to build or buy a simple cage with a wire bottom. The first thing that you will probably notice is that you will have a very grumpy hen on your hands. Below is a list of all the signs that your hen has gone broody. There are several methods for dealing with a broody hen. Some of these involve just accepting her broodiness or using her broodiness to hatch eggs.
Others involve breaking her broodiness - some methods work better than others when it comes to breaking a broody hen. Very Impressive blog!! I loved your blog commenting mistakes related article.. My chickens live in a large cage with a roof, rather like a mesh greenhouse. They have taken to sleeping on top of their coop, inside the cage. Be sure to keep the broody breaker pen somewhere with lots of natural daylight.
It is essential to keep her in the broody breaker pen until she is fully back to her normal self. You can always test this by letting her out of the pen and watching her. If she gets all puffed up and hightails it for the closest nest she can find, right back in the pen she goes! Otherwise you are starting back at square one. What To Do with a broody hen. About Our Feed.
Poultry Care Corner. Poultry Products. Whole Grains. Where to Buy. A puffed upbroody hen sitting on a clutch of eggs. When do hens go broody? A disgruntled chicken may hop back into the egg box once you put her down, so if she does, simply remove her from the nest and carry her around again. If after a few tries and a few treats your broody lady is still determined to nest, try my next trick: the cold water bath. Fill a sink or wash tub with a few inches of cold water and gently lower the chicken into the bath.
Please use common sense if you live someplace with freezing cold tap water, like I do in Oregon, and turn the faucet to refreshingly cool water instead. You only need enough water to cover her chest when she sits.
For good measure after doing Methods 1 or 2 above, I also lock my broody out of the coop; I do this when I know my other chickens have already laid an egg for the day.
Miss Broody will usually pace outside the door, crying, demanding to be let back in to nest. Before sunset, I unlock the coop so the flock can tuck themselves in for the night. The broody hen may make a beeline for the egg box. If this happens, transfer her onto the roost. The next morning, you might find her wandering around with her flock… or you might find her nesting again. Repeat the cold water bath, lock her out of the coop, and manually place her on the roost again that night.
If your chicken runs out to greet you in the morning and goes about her daily scratching and pecking, she might be back to her normal self. But keep an eye on her throughout the day, as I actually did find my chicken back in the egg box that afternoon. In my case, I used a medium-sized dog kennel. It came with a separate wire panel that could be attached inside to divide the space for puppy training. It also had a plastic mat underfoot, which I removed.
The goal of chicken jail is to make your broody as bored and uncomfortable as possible — no nesting areas, no warm dark cozy corner to hide in. In place of the plastic mat, I laid down the wire panel, which had a smaller grid and offered a little more foot grip. A sheet of hardware cloth also works well for flooring.
Place your chicken inside the kennel with plenty of food and water, and leave her in there all day and all night. She does not roost with the rest of the flock, nor does she get her own roost. I put the kennel inside our enclosed run, as it gets good dappled light and a soft cool breeze throughout the day mitigating her desire to nest. It offers protection from predators but still feels social, as my other chickens like to hang around it. In the morning, let your broody out and observe her behavior.
If she runs immediately to the egg box, back into chicken jail she goes. If she starts scratching the ground and interacting with the other chickens, success! It took my chicken two-and-a-half days of chicken jail before I was able to break her broodiness. When I let my chicken out on that third morning, she happily bounded out of the kennel and started dust bathing in the mulch.
She ate out of my hand again and ran after every mealworm I threw out. Just make sure they continue to eat, drink, and socialize, and watch for that first egg to pop out!
The No-Waste Vegetable Cookbook is my latest book. Garden Betty is where I write about modern homesteading, farm-to-table cooking, and outdoor adventuring — all that encompass a life well-lived outdoors. After all, the secret to a good life is Read more ». Kind of related question, I have a broody hen and have noticed she is beening very mean to the two other girls, when she comes outside. She is not 1 one hen as far as I can tell. I feel like the other two have become more afraid of me also.
Running or moving away from me, which is not normal for them. Do you have any advice? Thank you for the tips! For the jail, what do you do if it is not warm at night 20ss is it ok to leave them out all night? Will it work to just do during the day? For today I have just locked the coop and they are in the run. Also, I feel so bad for her because she is wanting to be a Momma.
Hope she gets happy again. Any advice for her to be happy and her old self? First of all 1 was broody thanks guys! However… Q1. The chicken who is getting picked on should eventually learn her place. They will eventually do what Muscovies do by instinct, but they will always remain friends with their momma and likely the whole chicken flock.
Hope this helps. Hi, I have amongst others 2 young Araucanas. They are around 6 months old. Both are great layers. They always lay in the same place — and then they sit on their egg for hours afterwards, getting quite aggressive if anyone approaches them.
Does this mean they are getting broody? They are still laying every day.
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