Chickens what does broody mean

Broodiness begets broodiness. Before you know it, your whole flock could be on strike! As soon as you identify broody behavior, get to work on stopping it.

The longer a hen is broody, the longer it takes her to snap out of it. There are many techniques out there for how to broody break, but many of them are ineffective or even inhumane. The best, easiest for both of you! A broody breaker pen is basically a wire bottomed cage. It can be a rabbit hutch, a dog crate, or something of your own construction. It will need to be raised off the floor, to allow air to circulate underneath.

Your broody hen will live in the broody box with food and water, but no bedding. Broody hens prefer small, dark, private areas where they can snuggle up in the nest and incubate eggs. 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.

Supplement with tasty treats to encourage her to take some food. A soft scrambled egg, grubs and meal worms, chickweed from the garden, are all interesting tasty treats. You want to do what you can to keep the hen in good condition. The hens were broody and not a breed known for broody behavior.

But three hens were serious and kept setting. They would set on one egg, three eggs, no eggs, and kept jumping from one nest to another. They proved challenging and would not nest in a lower location. All three insisted on brooding in the highest nest boxes. It turned out that not only were these hens making questionable choices in nesting locations, they also chose to leave the newly hatched chicks behind, leave the nest and go set on a different nest box of eggs.

Luckily we check our coops a few times a day and the chicks were foun d and taken to a brooder. Even hens that do not have a rooster in the flock can go broody. Some broody hens are quite mean when they set on eggs. The disruption can leave you with less eggs than you normally collect every day. Also, the broody moms would collect all the new eggs every day leaving us with no eggs!

One day I decided to mark all the eggs that were being set at that point. Each had a mark put on them using a sharpie marker. Any other eggs that did not have the mark, were new and could be collected.

For some, not getting as many eggs is an issue. 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. Then let her out and — sure enough — when I followed her I found a nest full to the brim of her eggs easy to know they were all hers because they are blue.

I have removed all the eggs now, at least I know where they are going forward.. The question is whether this behaviour means they are either broody or about to go broody? Hello, I have a Buff Orpington Patty that went broody last month and is now doing it again this month. Locking her out of the coop during the day seems to do the trick, or it at least did last month.

Today I had some time to sit outside with them today and I noticed that my non-broody australorp chased Patty out of her nest and sent her outside the coop. They have a run I let them out into during the day. Then the Australorp Laverne kept running back and forth to guard the nesting boxes. If you have a new flock or recently changed or added to your flock , the hens may just be establishing or reestablishing their pecking order right now, and it sounds like Laverne is vying for the spot of Alpha Hen.

I would try chicken jail during the day only, let her roost at night, then move her back in jail in the morning. Your broody hen advice is so welcome as we have been a bit stumped. I have just locked out all hens during the daytime hours to keep them out of the nest boxes. Yes, there are still 2 laying so I guess they will find another spot in the chicken run to lay their eggs. I am not around all day to monitor when the two lay their eggs to then lock out all the rest.

A logistical puzzle for those of us not home a lot during the day. Thank you. All the feathers will grow back over time. Just continue to give your chickens a well-balanced diet with the proper amount of protein. Can I start with chicken jail from the beginning.

Two of them are doing and the same breed. They are 8 or 9 months old. Yes, you can start with chicken jail. My skyline has just hopefully completed her broody rehab successfully! After two days of just purely removing her from the nesting box to no avail it was straight to jail!

After months of having three of my eight layers being broody most of the time and only getting eggs a day, I am starting my chicken jail program. I am using an animal trap up on blocks as my jail. The hen will have plenty of room to move around and get plenty of air circulation. Wish me luck! Thanks for the info, even though I have 3 boxes for my 2 chickens, they want to lay in the same one. When I tried to move the broody one she was pissed. Everyone is happy the next morning.

The hen will continue to brood for a week which keeps the tiny chicks warm. Provide chick starter and water. Can this affect egg production?

Our fairly new hens are down to half what we were getting two weeks ago. They have a shady coop area, but still HOT. The other chickens have moved to an alternate nesting box.

If there are no eggs, is this still consider broody? Hi Rajni, Yes she can still be broody even with no eggs there. I would follow the advice in this article to stop her being broody. After reading this, i determened she is broody.

And when i try to move her out, she goes right back. If you can tell me the broodiness rate of these other breeds, please tell me. Hope you can give me advice. Hi Brian, The water method can be very effective- we discuss a variation of this within the article: technique 4 the frozen vegetables. It works on the same premise as it attempts to quickly reduce the temperature of the chicken to break the broodiness.

I have a uniquely obnoxious broody hen problem. Daisy got under the house and all we have is a 6 inch high crawl space. She is at least 30 feet from the one entrance.

I have seen her in her yard literally 1 time all summer! Or should I put food and water under the house? WIll she go back to being normal and come out on her own once it cools down in the fall if she lives that long?

Have you tried getting one of the large telescopic poles, that should be able to reach her to get her out… Claire. I have a Jersey Giant hen who keeps going broody. I broke her once by separation in another coop with no nesting boxes available, for 3 days and after about 2 weeks she started laying eggs again for a couple days and then she went broody again.

Now I have her in a wire dog kennel. My questions are: do I leave her in the kennel at night? Do I let her out of the kennel for a break to dust bath, eat etc.? I do have water in the kennel for her. I am just a bit perplexed on how to take care of her in the dog kennel and to protect her and to not stress her out.

Thank you. Hi Shirley, The first time you use the kennel, she will probably be broken before nightfall so return her to the coop.

In terms of food and water just make sure she has some in the kennel with her… Claire. My hen jusy decided that if I blocked her from the nesting box she would hide in a dark corner on the back porch.

I thought she and a fox met up but instead she has 10 eggs under her.. I have read everything you have on what to do about my girls when they stop laying.

Thanks Stephanie. Best of luck, Claire. I have been told that my broody hen will accept the day old chicks I have ordered for her at about 21 days from going broody. It was suggested that I place them under her at night and take the eggs away. Do you think this will work. However if the broody hen turns on the chicks and starts to attack them you need to be prepared to raise the chicks yourself until they reach around weeks old before you reintroduce them to your flock, Claire.

Hi there, Thank you very much for your article on broody chickens, it was very interesting and informative, however, there is one sentence I cannot agree with. One looks like the one in your second photo sitting on the clutch of eggs , and the other like the ones on the third photo but she is also a green layer, I presume a hybrid. I take her out of the nesting box a few times a day and make sure she eats and drinks and sometimes take a dust bath even.

But she will never stay out of the box for long, even though she has no eggs to sit on because I remove them as soon as the others lay them. As she has lost a lot of weight I am feeding porridge and canned sweet corn in addition to their grains.

Since she shows no signs on wanting to snap out of this, I will try the frozen veggie method today. She is so obsessed with her breeding, that when I take her from the nest she will not stand on her feet for the first few minutes but will lay in the soil, looking for straw that has stuck to her feet when picking her up from the nest, pushing it under her belly. After drinking and maybe a dust bath she will march straight back to the nest until I pick her up again.

Hence, I keep my fingers crossed that the frozen veggies will do the trick. Thanks for all your advice. Regards, Annette from Germany. Hi Annette, Thank you for getting in touch and sharing your experiences. Hi, You seem to be the only site that is active that may know how to handle this puzzle. We have a silkie that has been laying on an egg for the past few weeks.

We have dated the egg and expected it to hatch any day now. My mom usually takes care of the eggs and chickens and when she went to shut all of our chickens in the egg was under Fluffy, the silkie, as expected. Not too long ago she went to let the chickens out after being at work for half the day and the egg is missing. No shell no chick no nothing. Fluffy already is sitting on a different egg that has no date and the others are already roaming around like they usually do.

The coop is secure ie no holes in it all locks work and no borrowed holes from any other animals. Any advise on what happened? Hi Stephanie, This is very strange.

I have a question: was the mom silkie and chick in the coop on their own or with other chickens? I put 2 store bought eggs under her i know they wont hatch and she turns them. Turned out I had left the decoy eggs in the boxes too long to get them started and she was trying to hatch them!

Took the fake eggs out of the nest and she laid her first egg two days later. Love this site. Just started 2 days ago.

I cried and cried thinking something was surely wrong with her…then remembered the whole broody thing and have since calmed down. BUT this is her first laying season — she is about 8 months old and we are in NH where the weather is going to be getting quite cold. Now — I see lots of options for breaking her of this broodiness — but I also see talk about letting her have some chicks!

Can I buy day old chicks and coax her to take care of them? Is it too dangerous, heading into the winter to consider this option? So today were going to remove her from the nest box and remove the eggs. Wish me luck! Should I be worrying? Hi Tracy, I would get her out of the nesting box and make sure she gets something to eat and drink.

Hi Claire, one of our older chickens has gone broody and been sitting on eggs for over a week. Now 2 of the newer chickens have pushed her off the nest and have also gone broody — both are sitting on the eggs! The older chicken is sitting next to the nesting box.

Am I best to break the broodiness of the 2 new chickens and put the old one back on the nest? Yes, we are happy to have chicks! After one chicken goes broody, I wonder what causes the others to do the same? Hi Lee, How many nesting boxes do you have? I would be tempted to hatch with the older hen- simply because they are less likely to abandon the eggs before they hatch.

Well, we put the two new broody chooks in a cage and popped the old one back on her eggs. By morning she was sitting next to the 4 nesting boxes again, so I gave up on the eggs she was sitting on.

Later in the day though, we found her with two chicks she had hatched. I have a mature Hen that does not lay eggs anymore. Her friend another hen has recently died. We gave her veggies, yogart and she still doesnt eat it… any advice? Hi Claire, Thank you for your blog. Picked the broody hen up out of her nest today. Thank you so much for the site it is superb. Hi Claire, Thanks for creating this site.

I have some old hybrid layers 16 months and a Rhode Island red. The red had gone broody for 3 months now despite all effort to break her. Now, one of the hybrids is broody too. Can I put both birds in the same wired cage to break them? We recently got 5 hens. They all use the same nest box even though we have 4 boxes. One of the hens has been sitting for two days now. I just move her and get the eggs out from under her.

Yesterday, I got 5 eggs which meant all 5 laid an egg. Today, I got 3. I normally get 3 to 4 eggs a day from the 5 hens. Hi… My Hen has 15 eggs already but still not started sitting on her eggs. I dont know when my hen will start to sit on her eggs. Thanks, Henry. What a great site to have stumbled upon! Will remove her 8 eggs regardless. My hens lay at different times of the day up until early evening. My broody hen is in her first laying cycle.

I collect all the eggs through out the day or when I get home from work. Any suggestions? We have to resort to the broody buster every time. Most are cured after 3 days but on occasion some have to go back in the same day. I have 3 x Pekin Bantams — no cockerel. I lock them out 4 days out of 7 due to being at work on the other days and not wanting the 1 layer to get destressed about not being able to lay My question….

Two months ago we got 11 hens, different breeds and ages, from a person who was moving. Now one hen is broody and stays in one of the nesting boxes all day for the past 3 days, and fights us if we try to get the eggs.. They free range with our alpacas during the day, but come into their pen and sleep in the closed up coop at night.

Thank you so much! So glad I found this site!! I have 31 Rhode Island hens that were perfectly givend 30 to 28 eggs for about 6 months. Now I have a broody hen for about two months. I have tried almost everything. I am going to tried the cage solitaire to see what happens? Thank very much for your all advice! The best blog ever! Thank you Claire! We picked up the hen, picked up the straw and feathers she had used to create a nest, and moved it all into the igloo.

It was nearly dark, so once she was in there, we closed up the entrance and hoped for the best! We will hope and pray this all works out… :O. After reading all of this, I have a new mission. Right now I have the brooder separated from the others. Is that good or bad. They are only separated by chicken wire, not completely out of site from each other.

Hi Sheila, This is ideal, you want to keep your broody hen separate during this time. Let me know how you get on, Claire. I read your article with interest as I have had a broody hen for three and a half weeks.

She is eating very little and not now even very interested in treats. I am going to try frozen veg tomorrow. But how do I force a chicken to eat? I wonder how much longer she can go on like this. Hi Terry, You need to make sure she still eats and has water. If she wont eat you will need to remove her from the nest and then get her to eat something.

Thanks Claire. I have been feeding her with scrambled egg and grated cheese and sometimes yoghurt. At first she would eat from a small pot whilst on top of the coop.