Two days ago when I came home from work I noticed a hen was in the nest box. I thought she was laying an egg since every now and then one might lay late in the evening. After two hours I noticed she was still in there and thought maybe there was a problem. I went to check and moved her to see if she had laid an egg or not. And there it was, Ms. Broody siting on her egg. I removed the egg. The next day the same thing. After returning from work I removed the egg and let her out of the nest. She drank water and ate and was anxious to go back. I initially closed the gate and try to lure her with treats but she was focused and determined to go back in the nest box. I let her in and went online to research. I took my “Raising Chicken for Dummies” book and searched for Broody Hens.
So what is a broody? A broody hen is one who gets the hormonal urge to sit on her eggs and thinks that she is incubating eggs to hatch. It doesn’t matter that there’s nothing under her, although sometimes there is. The book recommends to remove the eggs and just let them run their course until they give up. In a perfect world this would work great. However, reading other articles from Backyardchickens and from the Chicken Chick they recommend a broody breaker. Good points are made for breaking the broody hen early as broodiness can continue for more than 3 weeks, and can result in negative health consequences, as they eat and drink less. A broody hen will only come out of the nest box once or twice a day to poop, drink and eat. The Chicken Chick recommends setting up a broody breaker, which is a cage that is kept simple and uninviting for nesting. The hen is left there a few days until her urge goes away. I am giving my hen three days and will then move her to her broody cage. I can’t help feeling bad taking her to a broody breaker but I also do not want her to stay there for a long time if there are no fertile eggs.
