Broody Chicken!
Help! Does anyone know how to ‘cure’ a broody chicken?
Molly (our cuckoo leghorn) has gone broody, and given her way would spend all day up in the roost area of our chicken tractor. The photo shows the roost with the access door open – she gets cranky and pecks me if I try to move her.
I’ve been putting her out every morning and blocking the entrance to the roost until evening, but then she just makes a hole in the ground and sits in that all day. She’s been broody since about Christmas Day, and hasn’t laid any eggs in that time. She isn’t sitting on any, either.
My dad said when he was a kid people would put broody chickens in a sugar sack and hang them from the clothesline, and that would soon sort them out. I’m not sure that would be accepted practice nowadays 
.
Please give me your (hopefully more humane) suggestions below!
Related posts
Broody chooks can be frustrating. A few suggestions for you, you can dunk her head in cold water. Just be sure it is a warm day so she will not catch a chill and can sufficently dry out before night time. Or else instead of a sugar sack, a wire bottom cage strung up up a shady tree may work. The idea with this one is to get the cool air on her bottom.
I hope she snaps out of it soon for you. Emily
Thanks for the tips! It’s a bit cold and wet here at the moment, so when it fines up I’ll give them a go.
When I was a kid we made a little round cage out of chicken wire and separated the chook from the others and the nest. After a few days (if I remember correctly!) she stopped being clucky. She’d been clucky for so long though, I kinda missed it.
Hi Manda! Thanks for the advice. I think excluding her from the nest is starting to work. Someone also suggested I put ice cubes under her, to make it uncomfortable for her when she makes a nest on the ground. Might try that as well.
We recently tried locking our broody chook out, getting eggs as soon as they’d been laid, and even a separate little home for her with air coming up to stop her being warm and comfy – but this seemed a little cruel so we packed her off to visit a friend’s chooks for a couple of weeks. The change in scenery worked, and she’s come back with all broodiness banished.
I’m finding the same thing, Kathi – all the cures seem to be around making her uncomfortable, which seems a little cruel. I didn’t try the dunking and ice, because we had some cool weather and rain. Once that passed, she has been leaving the roost during the day, and only coming back for a sit occasionally. I think she’s snapping out of it. Still not laying again, though
.
Hi Darren
We have serial broodies here. At first, we tried to snap them out of it by using the method of putting them in a cage with a wire bottom, with water, and leaving them there to cool down. Some breeds though, will just keep on an egg laying-broody-moulting-egglying-broody-moulting cycle and so we’ve decided to go with the flow and leave them. I’m all for having breeds that need preserving so we have mixed in a few standards (our latest chick is a Rhode Island Red) to keep egg production up when the others inevitably go down. I’ve thought about loaning her out for people who want to hatch chicks and actually that’s what Lucy C from Blue Mountains Menagerie did. It’s just in their nature after all – as a broody woman myself I’m sympathetic!!
In the end we pretty much just left her to go through the broody process in her own time. She seems to be back to normal now, although the egg-laying hasn’t returned yet. It wouldn’t be so bad, except that she’s our only layer! Hopefully the silkies will get their act together soon
.
That is rather strange for a leghorn to go broody! aA good family trick is to make her hungry all the time only feed her once a day when she is desperate in a uncomfortable coop she will soon be of the idea !
Good luck ps did she copy it off the silkies!
@Miles: She’s only gone broody the once, but she does stop and start laying every month or two. I’m planting some rocket to feed her – I read somewhere that it will help keep them laying.
what is the rocket u will plant 4 broody chickens? Chickens are broody but not laying any
@beth: Not sure where you’re from, but what we call ‘rocket’ here in Australia is usually called ‘arugula’ in the US. It’s a peppery lettucey type plant often used in salads or as a garnish.
Hi I have 4 hens and they were all laying nicely until Henrietta decided to become broody, now they seem to have all stopped laying, I think I will try the trick of kicking her out of the laying nest during the day to see if that makes a difference, she really has upset the other girls!
@Teresa: The broody one often gets cranky and won’t let the other hens in to lay – either that, or she grabs all their eggs to sit on. If you can, separate her from the rest until she gets over it, or provide the others with alternate laying boxes.
We have one broody hen (cochin) who has decided to do her brooding in the other hens favorite laying box. They have other places to go, but they are mad at her for being in their favorite and have pecked all the feathers off of her back. There is snow on the ground here and we have a small city lot, so a lot of these suggestions won’t work for me. I am worried about her safety and would love any tips on this subject.
I had a broody hen, she would collect all the eggs laid and sit on them, but the other hens did not bother her. I decided to purchase some fertilised eggs, which she eventually hatched, I separated surrogate mother hen and chicks until they were about 7 weeks old at the same time surrogate mother hen started laying again. They are now altogether and getting on well. Your hen probably needs to be separated and given a fertilised egg to sit on to get it out of her system. Hope this helps!!
@Rian: I love cochins, they’re a magnificent looking bird. We’ve got Brahmas, which are similar, and I’d like to eventually add some cochins to the flock. The only thing I can think of to help you is to move the broody hen to another cage, if possible. I hope it works out for her.
@Teresa: I had wanted to do that, but we didn’t have a lot of space at the time for extra chickens. She eventually got over it. Now we’re on a larger block and have a rooster, I want her to go broody but she won’t! Isn’t it always the way?
I made a washing tub of ice in the freezer, then i put the chicken’s rear end on the ice for about half a second. She may get angry and peck you so be careful, but it worked. As Emily said, try to do it on a warm day so that she soon warms up again.
Yeah all of a sudden 2 of my silkie chickens have gone droody and have been attacking me and laying lots of eggs. She has just totally change like even walking out in the backyeard she runs for me and starts acting me and even my dog and other chickens and she clucks alot as well please help i dont know what to do to get her back to normal!
sorry my mistake broody** not droody and my little silkie chicken has changed colour as well
@Tiana: Sounds serious! I’m trying to picture an aggressive silky while keeping a straight face
. We have a pair of black silkies – they look like a pair of novelty slippers when they sit together! I can only recommend that you try isolating them in a wire cage off the ground, so they can’t get comfortable and keep sitting. Apparently it only takes a few days of that treatment and they’ll be back to normal. Don’t forget to keep up the food and water during this time.
Leave your response!
Subscribe to Posts
Upcoming Events
Categories
Blogroll
Blog Vitals
Archives
Meta
Councils
Recent Comments
Most Commented
Tag cloud