Why does a chicken brood

Hens are most likely to go broody in the Spring as the warm weather is a signal to them to hatch and raise chicks. A broody hen will occupy a nesting box and encourage other hens to become broody as well. While a hen is broody and sitting on a nest, she will put all her energy in to sitting on eggs, and neglect herself in the process.

She will only leave the nest to eat, drink, and relieve herself once or twice a day. She will become pale, lose sheen in her feathers, and lose weight. In hot weather, she can easily become dehydrated. While she can keep this routine up for 21 days, it is hard on her. At the same time your hen is brooding, she will not lay any eggs, and she may inspire other hens to go broody as well. Broodiness begets broodiness.

Before you know it, your whole flock could be on strike! As soon as you identify broody behavior, get to work on stopping it. The longer a hen is broody, the longer it takes her to snap out of it.

There are many techniques out there for how to broody break, but many of them are ineffective or even inhumane. As always, use your best judgment. Totally disagree with you!

Not inhumane at all!! Of course never in cold weather but most broodys go broddy in the warmer months anyway. Thank you for your detailed information re: broody hens. Hi there, your article is very informative. We have a sweet hen and she had been laying eggs up until 3 days ago when she started having these broody behaviors.

She laid her last egg that day. I put on gloves. Tonight she roosted on her own but now in her normal shelf. We took it up and she missed it terribly at first. Today she seemed more back to herself. Today she went out on her own. What a timely post! So glad to hear Iman is back to her sweet self. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Written by Linda Ly. And looking like our chicken had been constipated for days. What does it mean when a chicken is broody? What are the risks of a hen staying broody? Method 2: Give your broody hen a gentle! Method 3: Lock your broody hen out of the coop. Method 4: Chicken jail. Do you know what happens to a naughty chicken that stays broody? Chicken jail. This post updated from an article that originally appeared on June 12, Mindy Fournier July 10, at pm.

Thanks Reply. Erika Barratt March 11, at am. Maggie Parker May 6, at am. Ione Howell-Douglas January 16, at pm. Debbie May 11, at am. Malene July 22, at am. Jesse Lippman June 20, at pm. Linda from Garden Betty June 21, at am. Laura Pascoe January 27, at pm. Linda from Garden Betty March 1, at am. Harold Glatzer May 20, at pm.

Linda from Garden Betty May 23, at am. Linda Ly of Garden Betty December 30, at am. Viola Brignoni November 12, at pm. I followed your instruction and they worked perfectly!! Thank you so much. Linda Ly of Garden Betty November 15, at am. Happy to help! Tessa September 16, at pm. I meant to say 3 or 4 days. Linda Ly of Garden Betty October 15, at am.

They can be so stubborn sometimes, huh? David June 15, at pm. Linda Ly of Garden Betty April 28, at pm. Good luck with your broody! Woodfarmsllc30 March 15, at pm. Any suggestions Reply. Linda Ly of Garden Betty April 26, at pm. Jill January 4, at pm.

Sometimes they try to start a family outside the barn. The only exception is my guineas that insist on nesting in the vegetable garden. The garden is fenced and aside from the rabbits that have millions of babies and eat all my beans nothing else ever seems to go in there. There are a few other behaviors you can look for including the broody stare, the broody patch and, the least fun in the group, the broody poop. Broody hens have a very intense but blank stare. As you get closer you might get a warning brroooooo or a slight puff up in her feathers or she might attack your hand.

The point of being broody is to hatch eggs and obviously you need heat to do that. Ducks and geese take this behavior to the next level and fully line their nests with down and feathers.

Broody hens only get off the nest once or twice a day and they have to make that count. The smell will make anyone gag and it looks like someone filled a softball-sized water balloon with rotten green slime and aggressively threw it at the floor. Or wall, or unfortunate chicken that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only answer is babies. Is there anything cuter than a big old puffy hen with a tiny baby face sticking out of her feathers? The answer is no. Read more about Ordering Chickens Online.

But there is a way you can try to trigger broodiness, you might even do it accidentally. The best way to do it is to leave a pile of eggs. The other reason is I prefer giant fluffy heritage breed chickens like Wyandottes. Even with a whole box of eggs, there are chickens that will never go broody. I do know that the high production hybrid breeds have been bred to lose this behavior. When a chicken goes broody she stops laying and if your goal is to have lots and lots of eggs to eat and sell, broodiness is a bad trait.

There are breeds that are known for going broody and they are certainly a good place to start. In my experience, it comes down to the individual bird over the breed. Which of course you can not predict. Some of the top breeds known for going broody are Orpingtons, Silkies, Cochins, and Brahmas.

The majority of my successful broody moms are Wyandottes, Marans, and Easter Eggers. Blind Chicken was a BLR that raised a clutch for 6 consecutive years, she only stopped when she went blind. The hen that took over my mail-order guinea keets is also a BLR. Can I eat the eggs from under a broody chick? How long are the good? There were 19 under her from three chickens.

Have you ever cracked an egg where the hen started the incubating process. It can be disturbing to crack the egg and see eyes staring up at you. We had a maran hen sitting on eggs. We would remove the eggs and she would keep sitting. Finally, we took the Easter Eggers eggs, 10 of them, and placed under her.

She is black, Easter Eggers are brown and black, and the rooster is a Lavender Americuana. Each time we would gather the eggs, the maran would move to another nest where the other marans had laid. Note we have separate pens for all the different chickens. After a while of the hen mov ing from nest to nest, we decided to take the green, blue and pink eggs and put them in the incubator. We had 9 left as a snake got one. Eight of the eggs hatched and they came out black!

How this happened is beyond me. They do have a little lavender color under their necks. Maybe they will shed these feathers and turn brown and black like their moms lol. If anyone has any answer as to why they are black, please let me know. They pop out once a day for minimum rations and then go straight back to bed. I leave the box top open with a grill on top during the day and have tried locking them out of the nest box but they were so demented I had to let them in again.

They are very aggressive when I try to handle them. The third one is still laying nearly every day in her adjacent quarters. I have 12 golden Pekin bantams inc two cockerels. They go broodie as soon as hot days come in Spring off they go about 6 at a time. Tried every think including dummy eggs. So tried chicks. Then later ducks and then said enough. Sold the Muscovie ducks at 11 months all 8 of them mucky squirty ducks made hell of my hen palace and yards.

Glad when they went. This year God know what else to put under them? Which tip did you use because my little chicken vanilla has been brooding for a while I have no idea which way would be more effective. The only way I can stop my girl is the cage.

Very annoying really. Good mama, but at 4 weeks old she let them go and became broody again. She, and another hen are now getting the cage method as they other methods have not worked.

I have a hen that refuses to come out of her box 2 days we removed her and got all the eggs and she went right back in now 2 more days later I took her 1 egg and refused to let her back in she decided to go to a different box. Hi Valerie, Have you tried blocking all access to the egg boxes for a few days? Hi I had a chicken that hatched out chicks four times. The chicks would hatch and I would replace them with eggs. After the fourth time I just cleaned out the nest box. After a month she disappeared only to show up with chicks.

My 8 mo old Buff Orpington first went broody at 6 mos. By taking the egg from her immediately every day, she changed her mind. At 8 months she went Broody again. I decided to let her and gave her 2 extra eggs.

I have one hen, Doodles. Is she brooding because she instinctively needs someone. Can you purchase fertilized eggs where you know the sex? Claire It is not possible to sex eggs,YET. They are working on this in Holland I think, but have not perfected it. So just wondering about the answer to lucy question..

If you put fertilized eggs in with the broody hen when they hatch. Hi Sherrie, If you put the fertilized eggs in with the broody hen and she hatches them- then yes she will protect them. Hope this helps. Just buy some chicks and put them under the hen early in the night. By morning she will take them as her own.

I am putting some turkey chicks under mine. Even ducks can be put under your hen. Beats running an incubator. Good grief! But she DOES exhibit every single one of the characteristics of a broody hen! Poor thing! All she wants to be is a mom! Thank you for the great information! I get day old baby chicks from local feed store, know they are hens and sneak them under my brooding hen after several days… they have always taken the babies as their own.

I had my mom bring the hen around the corner and l put the chicks in after taking the eggs out, brought her back, she was delighted to see the babies. She has been a wonderful mother. Any ideas? So one of my girls has been broody for about a week. How long can she go like this? Hi Sherrie, Hens can be stubborn things and can go like this for weeks! You need to follow the advice in the article and get her out of the coop so she can drink and eat- otherwise she might get weak… Claire.

My little Lizzie May is a brooder. This is the second time she has decided to sit on the eggs allll day long for days on end.

I make sure she eats and drinks. I have done this several times a day and also I keep taking all the eggs away from her as soon as possible. After a few weeks each time she has snapped out of it. Good luck to you and your little girl.

We have 3 Peking Bantam chickens that are a year old. When we do she makes loads of noise and then seems a bit withdrawn from the other 2 chickens. We have no rooster but does this mean she is broody? Hi Michelle, It certainly sounds like it! Does she spend her daytime inside the nesting box as well or just in the evening? We do throw her out the box about times a day, and this has been going on about 2 weeks now. The other problem we have now is when she does come out, the other 2 chickens attack at her.

Is this normal? Have you tried the advice mentioned in the article? My girls also attack my broody when we take her out. I have a hen that hatched her chicks yesterday! I was wondering why her feathers were missing on her chest and underside.

How long will it take for her feathers to come back in and is there anything I need to do to help her heal? Hi Misty, She will normally pull her own feathers out so she can be closer to the eggs when she is broody! Now her eggs have hatched just give her a few weeks and they will grow back, Claire. Hi Emily, Are the two hens still broody? Have you seen them? I have a buff that has been broody 4 times in the past month And half. I have broke her 3 times but she just goes back broody so this time i am just letting her sit.

I do get her out of the nest when i feed and she will go eat and then back to the nest. What do you do with one that keeps getting broody? My Americauna hen has been broody for about 2 weeks now. I have tried taking her out but she goes right back to the box. Can that happen? I would try moving her to a crate now to stop her being broody. I had a broody hen who hatched several eggs along with a few that started hatching in incubator and I just put those in when they started to pip, then I took the chicks and put them all into a brooding box we made just for them.

While momma was laying on the eggs and I would visit often to check on her and everyone else and when I went in there I actually made sue she got something to eat and drink being she would not leave the nest and she actually would eat from my hand and drink from the bowl offered with water while laying on the nest and now eggs are all done and I took her out of the nest and took her out into their big yard we made for them with roost and shelter etc for during the day and she is doing great now… but also my roosters and hens follow me everywhere and they love to sit on my shoulder and talk to me etc.

I am first time chicken owner and got my chicks in april as day olds and would not change a thing about them or being a chicken mom. I have four hens and I have one girl that has gone broody three times! Every day we take her out of the box at least ten times and put her up on the roost. We only have two nest boxes and the girls will either lay in one that they have claimed or somewhere in the yard. One time I tried, however, and she just plopped down right in front of the box!

I have 2 blue americaunas,1 has been broody for 2 months now. I liked your idea of taking them out of the nest boxes there are 4 boxes , but with them locked out, what about the other 10 chickens that lay their eggs in the boxes? I would try the frozen vegetables or the broody buster! We have 2 hens. This has gone on more than a month now. I am just finding this website and will be trying the frozen veggies this weekend.

I would block the roost, but Ethel is still laying. Do I still block the roost or just try the frozen veggies. Hi Jenna, The frozen veggies will work on their own- no need to block the nesting area as well! Today we decided not to take her eggs and let her be. How many eggs can we expect? Should we separate her from the rest, it would be easy since the coop is large and I have a gate in between. Hi Missy, A broody hen will normally lay no more than 2 more eggs when she starts sitting- so however many eggs are they now is probably it now.

My Rhode Island Red has been broody for weeks. This week I decided isolation. I have her in a large crate with half covered for shade. I put her next to the other chicken run so they can still see her. We are finishing our 3rd day. My Dad use to tie a small paper bag with pebbles in it to the chickens leg to keep them from brooding.

Hi Tom, Thank you for sharing this! I discussed this issue with a guy I met in Nicaragua. Hi Steve, Thank you for sharing! This is a similar technique to the frozen veggies discussed above- it changes their body temperature. So glad I found you all , we are trying an ice pack in the laying ben , just kicked her out with the other chickens and gave them some fun goodies to eat , I feel bad for her ,but want the best for all our girls , I have a feeling we will be doing the wire cage , shes pretty grumpy right now , thank you all for the help.

Thank you so much for this blog, I have only had my 3 girls, 2Sussex and one Rhode Red since 10th May and the Red this weekend started pulling her feathers out and looking pretty scary!

She fluffed up her tail feathers and clucked loudly at me when I went to collect eggs as she refused to leave nest. I am now turfing her out of the nest every time she tries to go in, mealworms are a good bribe! I have removed the straw and opened the door to deter her, too. Today she is still broody but now having a dust bath. It also explains why I was only getting 2 eggs each day. Hi Janette, Thank you for your kind words! Thank you so much.

No more scary chicken but happy clucks again. Hi Estella, I think it is best to pull her off because being broody takes a lot out of the hen! Then when she goes broody again give her some fertile eggs to sit on.

Hi Michelle, This can happen sometimes and she will be treated like a new member of the flock. My favorite method of breaking a broody hen is to put her in a large dog carrier or a cage with straw. Then go buy two chicks at the feed store and put them under the hen after dark. Everyone is happy the next morning.

The hen will continue to brood for a week which keeps the tiny chicks warm. Provide chick starter and water. Can this affect egg production?