Broody hens

Two of my hens have gone broody, they'll sit in the nest boxes all day and refuse to move. They get pretty pecky when I try to move them.

Any ideas how to stop this? A coworker said to hang them in a gunny sack for a day.

Thanks in advance.

Kyle

Don't even put those girls in a dang sack all day.

That's so natural, what they're doing. They can't help it.

But you can help them to break the cycle.

Keeping them from accessing the nest will help. Nicely taking them off and having them walk outside and eat treats can help.

My coop had a partition with a door that could be closed or left open to the whole flock. Anyone who was ill, or introducing new ones, or hens with chicks, or breaking broodiness was perfect . No nests to sit in helped them forget their broodiness in that partition.

Do me a favor.

Stuff your co worker in a 50 lb feed sack all day. That would have me smile .

We have an old rabbit hutch that we use for raising chicks until they’re large enough to go into general population. We also use it to isolate broody hens. A week or so usually gets them out of their broodiness.

Any issues or ways to reduce the violence when putting the hens back in after isolation? I had a sick one earlier this year I isolated and nursed back, and the flock killed her the first day she was back in.

A wire bottom cage that's elevated so that they can't keep the ground warm under themselves breaks it in 2 or 3 days.

Mine knew each other well, and also, the partition I had in my coop, had all small wire so they could see each other all the time.

Depending on the girl's nature, it may take some escorting and watching them when you let her back to the flock. Make sure the re introduction has them room to move around and "talk " to get re acquainted.

Personally, I like that. Hours spent enjoying my chooks was happiness for me.

Buff Orpingtons by chance?

They've got plenty of room, the coop is 8x8 and the attached run is 12x20, and there is only 16 birds.

I like the wire cage idea, I think I have something that will work for that. I could put them in my meat bird tractor, its empty right now, but I'd rather leave them in with the general population to make re introduction easier.

Sharon, i figured the gunny sack idea would raise your hackles.

Barred rocks. I didn't get orpingtons because I have read/heard they often get broody.

Ruffled my feathers for sure ! Don't let Patrice see this , either !

Slipping them in on the roost at night can help as can pulling the boss hen out for a day or two.

Put half doz fertile eggs under each hen. Wait 22 days and they will be mama's.

My rooster went in the stew pot this spring. He turned into a mean son of a gun.

If you do the cage route, make sure it's up in the air, off the ground. As Wallace said, the air hitting their underside is what breaks them quickest. Which is probably the same concept as the gunny sack, LOL

I remember reading something about dipping their bellies in cold water to break them. Not sure how many times that would take.

I didn't mention that our old rabbit hutch that we use to raise chicks and isolate broody hens has a wire bottom. As mentioned above, lowering their temperature seems to work well.



I haven't had any issues returning healthy/formerly broody hens to the flock. Mine will kill sick/weak birds though.

I figured the hutches had wire bottoms. I've got some older dog kennels that I could add a finer wire floor to that should work.

Thanks for the ideas.

Maybe I'll gunny sack one for a picture, just for Sharon.

The idea is to lower their body temp. Hanging them in a cage will work, as the air circulation will lower their body temp. As does dunking them in a bucket of cold water, my preferred method. A more passive way of breaking them is to constantly remove them from the nest or limit access to the nest.

I'm interested in the dunking method. How cold is the water, how deep do you dunk them and how long? Are we talking ice bath here? Or just float them like a duck in a tub of well water. Thanks.

You heard that right. Small brown eggs and go broody at the drop of a hat. No more of those for me.

I built a 2nd, smaller 6 x 8 house that is used as a brooder, and garden shed the rest of the time. No nest. Just floor and roost bars. I put them in there by themselves with food and water, and about 5 days later, they snap out of it. To rejoin the flock, I just kick them out in the yard. They co-mingle for the day and go to roost when the rest of them at the end of the day.

Sharon isn't going to like this idea either. Just saying........

I just keep taking the eggs and don't worry about it. They get over it in 1-2 weeks and do fine.

We use a 5 gal bucket of cold water. No ice or anything like that. Just a dunk (not over their head) a few times. My girls don't really struggle, and when it s 110* outside, its almost like they look forward to it. I'll set them down, and they'll shake off. I want to get my broody hens back into production ASAP. So, I use this method as its been the one with the quickest results.

Thanks, That's my goal too, I'd like to get them back to laying sooner rather than later.

I can't seem to get broody hens. When I do they might hatch 1 and leave the nest.

I tried the dunking thing and it didnt work.I had good luck taking the hen off the nest and putting her outside and closing the door so she had no choice and joined the flock. Worked great.

I had two go broody this summer. I let them hatch their eggs, my incubator fried out so was happy they did. I have 5 new chicks to replace some older hens

When we have one go broody we grab her off the nest, bring her in the house and let her cool her jets
in a plastic dog crate that has a steel grate on the floor. Put food and water in dishes that hang on the door.
Put a towel to darken the crate for 16 hours a day and play a county and western station for 12 hours per day on a small
radio next to the crate.
After 2 or 3 days of this she will be broke and you will know every county song that ever existed.
Never had any of the other birds give her trouble when rejoining. We let our birds free range so
they are all out of the coop or run when reintroducing.

Zim

Put the isolation cage in the coop. They'll be visible in there all of the time and they won't be seen as an outsider when returned to the roost.

FWIW- I see broody hens as an opportunity to hatch out some chicks that I don't have to introduce to the flock nor run a heat lamp. I have two heritage RIR sitting on eggs right now.

Wonder if that's where the saying "madder than a wet hen" came from

I tried removing her from the nest box multiple times every evening and closing off the nest boxes at night. No luck. So today she went into solitary.

good luck

Nice looking hens, K Snow

Well, the kennel seems to have done the trick. She was just standing all day, so I let her out this afternoon. She hasn't been in the nest box yet.

Thanks for all the help.