Cochins have a strong tendency to turn broody every year during their prime egg-laying years, as do Buff Orpingtons, Buff Rocks, Brahmas, and Silkies. This is all fine and dandy if your chicken does have eggs to hatch, but sometimes, a chicken will sit on unfertilized eggs or even imaginary eggs. Warm weather and a hormonal imbalance, caused by no doing of the flock owner, will spur a hen to turn broody for weeks on end, waiting for non-existent chicks to hatch. Left unattended, a hen will stay broody for around 21 days, which is the time it takes to hatch a clutch of fertile eggs.
If they come near her, she might peck at them or screech at them. Broody hens are also at risk for getting mites and lice, because they stay in the nest all day where these infestations are common. This is when an easily preventable or treatable problem like mites and lice can turn fatal, as a broody hen will just sit and suffer in her nest. If your hen turns broody in the height of summer, a poorly designed or poorly ventilated chicken coop could cause the egg box to heat up too much, putting your hen at risk of heat exhaustion.
The easiest one to try first is to gently pry your chicken from her nest and put her outside with the rest of her flock. I throw out some treats, set her down on the ground, and encourage her to scratch and peck in the yard. I add a few logs, branches, or upside-down buckets as interesting new places to roost, put a head of cabbage out for entertainment, or just dump a bowl of kitchen scraps for the flock to fling about.
I keep a large bowl in the kitchen as my countertop compost, and empty it every day in the chicken run. 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. 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.
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. I have an omlet cube coop and the girls get on top of this before bedtime. Then she stopped eating from the pot and would only take food from my finger. Now she will eat hardly anything and her crop often feels empty or nearly empty.
I have occasionally seen her take a drink but not enough. She does get off the nest and seems to stay off for some time but still will not eat. I put down a two small bowls of porridge made with water for four hens. She had a little the first time but not interested after that. The others were not bullying or pushing her out. Yep — dunking for a minute in cold water seems to work for me. Hi, We have 4 light sussex hens. They are about months old.
They started laying about 6 weeks ago, laid for a couple of weeks and all 4 went broody. This lasted about 3 weeks. I tried covering the nesting boxes with mesh with no effect. They laid for about 2 weeks and now they are all broody again and have been for the last week. Any ideas please. My flock only comes inside the coop at night. One hen has sat up house in a nearby doghouse and she is sitting on at least a dozen eggs.
Can I leave her in the unprotected doghouse at night? Should I move her? If she can stay in the doghouse and you can make it secure, that would be the best solution. We had one go broody and no rooster, so we bought 2 chicks and placed under her at night. The guy said NOT to do this as Mom Hen would not nurture and would even kill them, but we had our own broody instinct. Adoption works! Hi all, I have 2 of my Pekin bantams that keep going broody.
I have shut them both out of their house in the day now so fingers crossed! If you have a broody hen separated in a dog kennel inside the coop and she successfully hatches chicks- how long should you wait to open the dog kennel door so the new chicks are subjected to the mature flock?
Then went back laid only 1 egg but stayed for 3 days.. If she is good?? Apparently the hen gets fed up of sitting in an uncomfortable position. Another method he suggested is to spray the hen with cold water — not drench her but enough to make he uncomfortable. Can you purchase a fertilised egg and then put it under a broody hen.
Do you have to separate the mum and baby from the other chickens even if the other chickens can also go broody. Would the chick be accepted or would it be in danger from the other hens. My girl has been broody for 26 days. Will it continue like forever? I have 2 eight month old hens who started brooding a couple days ago. They sit on top of each other in the same nesting box. I do not have a rooster and am not allowed any more chickens due to city ordinance. Thank you for the advice.
Hi Claire, We have Production Red hens that have just started laying and 2 of them have gone broody in the last month. I managed to break the first one but, this second one is very stubborn. I may have to resort to the broody cage. My husband and I are new to raising chickens. Our chickens are a little over 9 months old, and believe we have a broody Buff Orpington hen. She never tries to peck at me. When I put her down, several of the other hens, peck at her — and she pecks back.
As other owners have stated, she eats, drinks, and relieves herself and heads back to the nesting box. Please help! If so, what should we do? I have got seven girls three of them have gone broody, if I get some fertilised eggs and put them in the cope with all seven girls under the three broody ones will the baby chicks be okay when they hatch with the other girls.
I have 2 blue and black cochins. I bought 6 chickens last year. Make sure to place food and water in the cage as well but no bedding.
The wire cage is uncomfortable for her and will hopefully cool down her chest and vent area to reduce her broodiness like the ice cubes. Three days is usually enough time but it does depend on the hen. If you have any other queries about broody hens, check out our Hen Health FAQs where we have short snippets of information all about hens. Or, head to our Hen Examination Guidelines where we can show you where to find things like the crop or the wattle.
If you need to seek medical advice, click here to find your nearest Hen Friendly Vet. You can also call Hen Central on to speak to one of our rehoming assistants. Giving a gift today helps fund our Hen Helpline. It helps support hen keepers, giving them the best advice on how to care for their hens. If you have found our advice helpful, please consider giving a gift towards the hen helpline here.
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