[ellied]

I've a hen that is convinced she wants to sit on eggs, has given up after a day or so mostly but this time she's hogging the biggest laying box for a second day in a row and I'd really rather not leave her to it - not that I wouldn't like chicks but I imagine they'd all be males and I'd never rehome them, one cockerel is more than enough and I wouldn't have chosen to have one at all other than the circs.  Also while the cats are fine with grown hens free ranging across the smallholding, I am not sure they'd respect a wee chick..

She's a light wheat colour with a darker warren shade of head/neck, not sure what her breeding is, I've two of them.  I suppose I may have to just let her be but a couple of other hens have been in beside her and laid 2 eggs meantime and she's been fine with me taking those from in front of her, just won't shift to let me see/take what's under her.  The rest are laying behind/under bales or bushes more than in the boxes anyway so it isn't that, I'm just torn about whether to do anything to encourage or discourage her before it's too late.  May be asking for chick rearing advice if she doesn't give up again, I imagine it isn't safe to sell those eggs now they've been kept warm for a couple days anyway.

[in the hills]

No, I don't think it would be wise to sell them .... development will have started in a small way already.


If you don't want chicks, you need to take the eggs from under her ..... otherwise development will progress. If you are worried that she may peck you, then wear some thick gloves.


You could pop her in a small wire cage in your garage or somewhere else that is predator proof, to break her broodiness. It helps if the cage is propped on bricks to allow air to circulate beneath the hen .... the cool will speed up the process of deterring her to sit. Give her food and water as usual. I carry my cage outside and cover to protect from rain during the day so that the hen can see the others going about their business and bring her in at night to keep her safe.


If you want her to sit, it would be best to move her to a coop of her own .... otherwise the eggs she is sitting will be mixed up with new eggs laid by other hens and your hatch will not be successful.


Some of my hens will sit for long periods and lose condition if I don't pop them in a cage. Others give up and are not determined sitters.


Hope that helps 

[Bionic]

I had a couple of broody hens last year and at every chance I just kept removing them from the nest box. They finally gave up but it took a week or more.

[jaykay]

I stand a broody hen in the beck, to cool her off - literally. A bucket of cold water does the job too. Just hold her in with her breast in the water, for 3-4 mins. You may need to repeat once again, the next day.

It works far faster, and needs far less solitary confinement, than the wire cage method 

[sh3ph3rd]

she's been fine with me taking those from in front of her, just won't shift to let me see/take what's under her.

In my experience that means she doesn't have the instinct to be a good mother, if at all. A hen who doesn't roll eggs under herself is a hen who leaves them to freeze. Doesn't mean she won't one day be a mother, just that she's unlikely to ever be good enough. I have a lot of issues with mix-breeds wanting to go broody but being incapable of complete mothering.

I'd try the cage method, or even the water one, to get her to unbrood, sorta thing. Doubt she'll ever do more than be a pain in the donkey. LOL

[HesterF]

I've read about the cage method as well -. don't think I'd resort to cold water myself - but yes,something with an airy bottom so they can't get all warm and comfy.

I've five hens and they've all been broody this year - two are still in the nest boxes after over a week on fake eggs, waiting for the real ones to arrive. Once broody, they've all just sat and sat although I've not tried a concerted cage method and I'm happy for them to hatch (but it takes so many runs, the postman arrived with the comment 'another chicken run' on Friday). None of mine have been vicious though - I take them off once a day to eat and most have gone back again fine (I have one who is on two duck eggs at the moment having started with nine and gradually worked her way down). I don't think they'd ever break themselves - even if they had no eggs under them. My longest sitter hatched five eggs last Wednesday after sitting for 49 days (long story). Having said that, none of mine have lost much weight or condition either - in fact the first to hatch looked way better at the end than she did at the beginning.

H

[ellied]

Well she'd left them last night when I went to lock them up so I removed the eggs, only 2 of them, so I think sh3ph3rd has it about right.  This morning she was sitting in the same place and I booted her out but there were no eggs so she might have been just trying to lay one 

I'm not sure whether I could cage her or stick her in a bucket, I'd probably let her try and hatch some if she were that determined, but tbh I reckon if I keep taking the eggs she can either sit on nothing or get over herself in her own time.  2 wasted eggs isn't the end of the world when I can't sell what I have already..

Quite grateful that it sounds as if she isn't likely to persevere, I wondered if she was just building up to a real broody phase and then see it through and produce a dozen cockerel chicks 

[goosepimple]

Hens go into a kind of stupor and it's difficult to get them out of it, the longer you leave them the more they go into it so you have to kind of 'shock' them out of it, so agree with Jaykay, seen this method used by Hugh Fearnley-W on telly once and it seems to work best.  It's kinder in the end as the phase wears off quicker - if you muck about with egg removal and cages etc, it takes much longer for her to get out of her phase and her condition will be lost, best do it quick and she can get back to full laying power quickly 

[sh3ph3rd]

Glad she's un-set, that's good for you! She won't be laying again yet unless she hadn't stopped during the attempted setting.

I eat my hens that can't brood properly but won't stop. Some of them will die if they aren't stopped, but go back to brooding so frequently they never regain condition, and never lay consistently either, so they're a loss either way; so if I have a trouble wannabe broody who doesn't have the instinct, I cull, now. I have used some as makeshift incubators in emergencies, though, but of course that's taking a risk. One hen ate out the baby's eyes and brains! On a brighter note, I've had never-broody old battery hens suddenly decide to brood and raise chicks, and do it perfectly, too. But if they're lacking the rounding-up-the-eggs idea, they don't seem to ever manage the rest of it.