Topic: broody hen

[MissBaritone]

I only keep 2 chickens and 1 is very broody at the moment and will not come out of the house for more than 5 mins at a time. When you lift the nesting box lid she's in there quite happy, clucking gently away to herself. She's stopped  laying and I'm taking away the eggs from my other girl. Any ideas on how I can break her out of it

[grannyjanny]

I've got one, she is the Mother of the other 3 bantams that we have & she was teaching one of her daughters bad habits ;D. Goodlife recommends putting golf balls in the nest box. My 2 stopped before I sourced golf balls but I'm ready for next time ;). I did shoo them out constantly & Mother would run to the water, silly so & so ::).

[goodlife]

I only keep 2 chickens and 1 is very broody at the moment and will not come out of the house for more than 5 mins at a time. When you lift the nesting box lid she's in there quite happy, clucking gently away to herself. She's stopped  laying and I'm taking away the eggs from my other girl. Any ideas on how I can break her out of it

To break hen from broodiness you really need to make her uncomfortable/unable to sit in the next box..by either taking the bedding away or even blocking her entry into nest box altogether. For some girls this work easily...and then there is odd VERY persistent ones that not matter what trick you use, it won't work  ::)...and for those the golfballs come in handy..they can sit, and sit, and sit...and eventually they give up.....or you could give them fertile eggs and let the nature take its course and end up with chicks.
I've read some give their broody hen's bottoms a cold water bath.. :-X..sounds bit drastic to me. Some say that as long as there is no eggs to sit on, they will eventually get over it and return laying again..for that to work you need to be very quick to collect any layed eggs by other girls.

[sunloving]

Its hard to get them over it, but a bare nest box,and chucking her out all the time or closing the coop door in the day may work. But I find that it makes my other girls lay in secret places around the garden which is just as annoying.

When my girls are broody or moulting I use it as an excuse to worm them and give them ivermectin treatment to keep the mites off- these have egg withdrawal periods. So every cloud has a silver lining!

Good luck with her
x sunloving

[pumkinlover]

I used to put Blackthorn my little pekin bantam in the water baths at the allotment.
She would float on top looking like a black little duck and was quite happy, due to the amount of feathers she would float indefinatly!
Never stopped her being broody though, she was very determined.
Apparantly -or so I have read - the longer they are broody the harder they are to "crack" so get in quick!

[Hazelb]

my road island red was quite easy to 'break' ...chucking her out the nest box, taking eggs off her and keeping the pop door sut so she couldn't get in the hen house.

but my cochin  ::)  we had to resort to an 'anti-broody coup'  basically a wire mesh box on legs, with a perch rail and no box. ( cover form rain obviously! ) The idea is the cool air passing under her as she sits, cools her breast down and stops the broodiness.

The idea is that cooling the chickens breast (feel how hot it is) will switch off the hormones that causes broodiness. dunking their breasts in cool water workS the same way.