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Broody Hen Considerations

 
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My understanding is that a hen may go 'broody' where the hen instinctually tries to incubate hatch eggs.

Chickens breeds can help indicate if hens tend to go broody or not. For example, my Buff Orpington 'Betty' is known for broodiness.



This is my first time dealing with a broody hen so I am very green with this.

I currently evict 'Betty' from the nesting boxes in the afternoon to get some free-range time. Besides fluffing up and clucking at me, she starts to eat/drink/forage and act normal.

Is broodiness something that should be discouraged? How would you go about doing that?

Thank you in advance for your replies.
 
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Hi Timothy,
I am far from an expert, but I have dealt with them a bit. I think the only time to encourage broody-ness is if you want her to hatch eggs. Otherwise, it is good to get past it as quickly as possible. The only things I did to discourage them (because I only had spots for 5 broody hens, and I had 8 that wanted to), was to move them off the nest, take their eggs, and move the nesting boxes around. Trying to make it inhospitable. I have heard that dipping a broody hen so that her breasts are in cold water for a little while can snap them out of it. I have not tried this method.
 
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My hens like to sit on their eggs; the kids just shove them out of the way to take their eggs and the chickens seem to go about their day doing chicken stuff. Is there anything "bad" or "wrong" about a hen being broody? Is it a problem that needs to be corrected for some reason?
 
Matt McSpadden
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When a hen is broody, they do not lay eggs, and they eat and drink a lot less. Because of this, I highly recommend either letting her sit on eggs, or do what you can to break the cycle. I don't think letting a hen stay broody without the fulfillment of hatching chicks is good for the chicken. Nor is it good to have laying chickens who are not laying. If the chickens are your pets... its a little different. But if you have chickens for laying eggs... and they are not laying eggs, then that can be a problem.
 
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I currently have 4 hens that are broody and I’m missing getting more eggs, so I plan to try to break them out of it. I have heard of 2 suggestions on this front: put them into a separate area with no eggs or nesting boxes, or dunking them in cold water to lower their temperature. I don’t currently have a separate area; it’s on my to-do list. Dunking them seems “mean” but on the other hand it’s over 100 degrees this week so maybe it’s time to try it!

I’ve previously always let the hens do whatever they want, but 4 broodies at once, for a long time, has hit my limit!
 
James Bridger
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Matt McSpadden wrote:When a hen is broody, they do not lay eggs, and they eat and drink a lot less. Because of this, I highly recommend either letting her sit on eggs, or do what you can to break the cycle. I don't think letting a hen stay broody without the fulfillment of hatching chicks is good for the chicken. Nor is it good to have laying chickens who are not laying. If the chickens are your pets... its a little different. But if you have chickens for laying eggs... and they are not laying eggs, then that can be a problem.



Interesting. I'm still getting about 8 eggs a day from 9 chickens, so maybe mine aren't really "broody", they're just sitting around being lazy.
 
Timothy Norton
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I could see the 'cold' dunk method being a convenient time to use Epsom salt and clean up any dirty feet/body the hen might have.

I too think its a bit 'mean' but I understand the reasons behind it. I'm just a softie haha. I personally have never been a fan of an unexpected cold plunge!
 
Matt McSpadden
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I'm not saying that a dunk in cold water is pleasant, but which would be more "mean"? A dunk in cold water and then its over, or letting her expand all that energy for weeks and not hatch any eggs?
 
Juniper Zen
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They’re not laying eggs and all they do is sit on the nest… how much energy are they expending? 🤔
 
Matt McSpadden
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Juniper Zen wrote:They’re not laying eggs and all they do is sit on the nest… how much energy are they expending? 🤔


Well, of course they are not running around to use energy that way :)

I just mean all the hormonal changes going on, the fact that they will eat and drink a lot less. It takes time and energy to recover from that.
 
Timothy Norton
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Matt, you bring up a good perspective! Thank you for that sincerely.

The hens are trying an exercise in futility which is fueled by hormones. We are all chicken tenders and sometimes have to do things for the overall wellbeing of our flock that the ladies aren't the biggest fan of.

I do have to say, broody poops are the worst. You don't want to accidently step on one because it will wipe you out! Not that I have any experience on that matter or anything...

 
Juniper Zen
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I dunked my five (thought it was four, but actually five!) broody hens into a bucket of cold water, up to their shoulders, yesterday in the late afternoon and again this morning. This evening all five were back on the nesting boxes.

They’ve gotten more tolerant of me reaching under them to pull out eggs over time, because I usually don’t bother them much. I don’t want to risk making them aggressive because now I keep dunking them every time I open the nest boxes. I’m going to stop doing that, and try to find time to build a nestless, eggless broody-breaking pen.
 
Timothy Norton
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Broody Hen Update.

After snatching her off the nest and putting her into the pasture once, anytime I approached her in a nesting box she would get up and wander away before I could get to her.

Today is the second day that she has not been broody. She is back out with the flock running all about.

I started collecting eggs twice a day instead of once, I think that was the trick. I have the convenience of time so I couldn't imagine having to manage a large flock with multiple broody hens!
 
Juniper Zen
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Juniper Zen wrote:I dunked my five (thought it was four, but actually five!) broody hens into a bucket of cold water, up to their shoulders, yesterday in the late afternoon and again this morning. This evening all five were back on the nesting boxes.



I’ve been meaning for months to return to this thread and give an update. As I posted earlier, I had dunked the five broody hens in cold water twice, on consecutive days, then I had stopped because they were getting scared of me. They were still sitting in their boxes for the next couple days, and I had deemed this a failure… but by the third or fourth day after, I was no longer catching them sitting. So either it really did work, just with the results taking a few days to manifest (and it makes sense that their bodies wouldn’t be able to switch gears immediately), or they were running off when they heard me coming (possible, but I would have expected them to not still be sitting that evening or the day after), or it was a massive coincidence (possible, but unlikely).

I think that if I once again have several hens brooding at once next year, I will try it again (for science!), but if it’s the normal just 1-2 hens at once, I’ll let them be.
 
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