Comments on: Broody Chicken!

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:57:59 +0000

@Christine: Giving her some fertile eggs would be a wonderful thing for her. I’d put about 6-8 normal-sized eggs under a bantam. Good luck!

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:52:13 +0000

Hello,

We also have a broody chicken. She's a Bantam cross and she's always been inclided to be a little broody at times. However not this bad. She's bad to the point that she will nest anywhere and doesn't care if our other chicken lay on top of her head. We've been isolating her from them but this too has failed to work because she will nest on the bottom of the hard cage. We're thinking about giving her some eggs to raise. Any suggestions on how many a teeny little chicken could handle?

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:05:58 +0000

@Beth: There are plenty of solutions to try in the comments above, but at the end of the day it’s going to be a constant battle if your hen is prone to broodiness. You could source some fertile eggs and let her raise a clutch of chicks. Failing that, it might be better to get a new hen of a breed not prone to broodiness and get rid of your old hen (assuming you’re not overly attached to her!).

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:45:45 +0000

Help! My Buff Orpington keeps going broody.!! She did this about a month ago. I separated her, in a pen by her self for a bout 5 days, and it worked, but here she is doing it all over again.? It is a real pain for me to separate her from the rest, as I only have the one coop. Whats the best way to cure this??

By: Cathy

Cathy — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:23:49 +0000

Thanks, Darren, for the advice. I might have moved her before the chicks had hatched, so I’m glad you said not to!

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:49:20 +0000

@Aaurora: I got her from a show breeder who is active in the local poultry club, and that’s what he told me she was. I don’t know enough about the various breeds to positively identify her myself, although I think the white bit on the ear is one of the things that tells you she’s a leghorn. Barred plymouth rocks don’t seem to have that. If you do a Google image search for both “cuckoo leghorn” and “barred plymouth rock”, you’ll see that they do look extremely similar.

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:25:18 +0000

@Cathy: I’d let her stay there until the eggs hatch. I’ve tried moving a hen part-way through incubation before, and she abandoned the eggs. Once they hatch you can move her to a separate cage.

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:21:43 +0000

@Alix: It sounds like she’s broody, especially if she stays on the nest box during the day.

By: Aaurora

Aaurora — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:00:45 +0000

Hey i love your post and everything but i suggest that you look up a leghorn chicken because im pretty sure she is a barred pymouth rock. Wish you well that all the eggs hatch!

By: Cathy

Cathy — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:15:35 +0000

I have 4 chooks, astralorps, I think and 1 keeps going broody. I finally decided to get some fertilized eggs for her to sit on. I prepared a separate cage with nest but “broody” decided she didn’t like it and escaped back to the other nest. These nests are around 2 feet off the ground, too high for baby chicks. Miss “broody” won’t sit anywhere else. I already have the eggs. What should I do?

By: Alix

Alix — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 09:40:49 +0000

My chicken, Jelly (funny name for a chicken but) shes been sat in the nesting box for at least 20 hours! Last night i lifted her up to put her on the bars to sleep(she did peck me) and when i checked on her in the morning she was back in the nesting box, i dont know how old they have to be, but Jellys not even 1 year old yet! Shes just come out of the nesting box but i think that might be because one of my other chickens may have shoved her out. Is she broody? I dont know:/ From Alix Age 13

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:45:50 +0000

@Carla: I’m in Australia too, and some of my chooks are just finishing their moult. Hopefully your chooks will get back to work soon!

By: carla

carla — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:37:59 +0000

Thanks Darren – have checked the yard and cant find a stash so dont think they are doing that. Its possible 1 is in moult – this morning there were a few white feathers about although I didnt think they did that till winter (im in Australia).

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:55:20 +0000

@Carla: They do stop laying when they go broody, but if they’re not sitting on the nest all the time then they’re not really broody! Hopefully it’ll just take them a few days to get their laying systems started up again. Is it possible they’re going into moult? Some of mine have been doing that lately, and stopped laying. Also check that they’re not hiding their eggs somewhere, especially if they’re allowed to free-range in your yard.

By: carla

carla — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:28:25 +0000

Hi,

I seem to have a variation of this problem…we went away for a week and when we got back there were 18 eggs sitting there which 2 of our 5 chooks were guarding.

We got rid of them but since then have been lucky to get 1 egg a day. its almost like revenge non laying?

They are happy and pecking about and not staying in the box, there just seem to be no eggs?

Thanks

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 06:27:44 +0000

I have 7 chooks, no idea what breed, theres 4 red, 2 white n one black. The reds are sisters and fairly grumpy, one is broody and she’s scary! When I try to rouse her out of there she inflates (puffs up) to three times her size and isn’t afraid to peck. We don’t have another cage to put her in or anything. I think she’s done it before and last time sorted herself out, hopefully she will this time! The whites and black are lovely, but the red ones are aggressive (maybe because they were there first)

By: jo

jo — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:00:03 +0000

I have a broody chook too. i am new to this and after 2 days it went broody, i havent had an egg for 5 days now from this one. i lock her out during the day but she just sits next to the door waiting to go back in. The others wont lay either, i have to sneak them back in after i have got the broody on out, then they lay 3-4 eggs (there are 4 good ones). Very frustrating, will try out some more of these ideas on here i think.

By: Darren

Darren — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:16:46 +0000

@Julie: I take it you’re in the northern hemisphere somewhere? Yes, you’ll have a lot more success raising chicks in the spring and summer, with warmer temperatures. If you keep your chickens somewhere warm and protected (e.g. in a polytunnel or barn), you may still have success now though.

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 09:03:27 +0000

i have a broody orpington i do want her to have chicks but it is really cold here now and likly to go down as far as -16 degrees as winter progresses. This will be too cold for chicks wont it? I idealy wanted to wait untill spring.

By: Darren

Darren — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 22:55:37 +0000

@Lynne: A neighbour of mine has a broody hen at the moment too. Instead of trying to “break” her, we’re trying a different method. I’m giving them some fertilised eggs to put under her. They’ll let her raise a little family, and I’ll happily take back however many of them they don’t want to keep. They certainly don’t want any roosters, and they only want 1 or 2 hens to replace their layers as they get older. But this way, we all win!

By: Lynne

Lynne — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:22:30 +0000

We bought our first two Isa Browns in January and one has just gone broody. At this stage I’m trying the Joneses method of kicking her off the nest and shutting her out after she has laid her egg. Both chooks usually lay an egg a day, luckily our other chook lays hers early. My chooks are quite docile, so I just lift the broody chook off her nest, she doesn’t peck, just makes some disapproving noises! The only problem with this method is I need to be home, so on the days I work I can’t shut her out until 5pm. I hope it will still work, as I don’t really want to buy a cage, also with only two chooks they don’t like being separated, they are always together and I think it would be quite stressful for both chooks.

By: The Joneses

The Joneses — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:43:29 +0000

Ours went broody a few time during their first 12 months with us, but only for a little while. Quite often they started getting broody if they were late collecting the eggs. We found the key was to separate them from each other, and keep them away from their nest during the day. It seemed to do the job and sounds a bit more pleasant than some of the other options, although free ranging can cause other issues. Here’s our chicken log as we jot down things which are happening with the girls: http://abundense.blogspot.com/2010/07/marjorie-and-penny.html

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:57:30 +0000

@Danielle: They seem to go into a trance and don’t need to eat, drink or poop much when they’re broody. They can lose weight and deteriorate a bit if it goes on too long, so it’s best to try to ‘break’ them if you don’t have eggs for them to hatch.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:45:33 +0000

my chicken is doing exacally the same as yours. its annoying because she dosent seem to be eating either. having to shut her out. :/

By: Darren

Darren — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:01:59 +0000

@Valerie: It's funny, lots of people tell me that silkies are the best mothers, but I've got two and neither has ever shown any interest in going broody. I was told they'd lay about 50 eggs per year, too, but they only laid maybe a couple dozen in the first year and then nothing in the 18 months since. All they do is potter around the yard looking like a pair of novelty slippers!

I did end up slipping some eggs under this hen, though. She broke a few, a few were not fertilised to start with, and none ended up hatching (some had dead chicks in them that never made it). Pity.