Broody Time!

I often caught my hens in the act of laying. But, if you start to notice one sitting in the nest box without laying you may find your hen is broody. Being broody is when your hen decides she needs to incubate her eggs so that they can hatch (otherwise known as going into motherly mode!). Even if you pick her up from the box she will resist to move and may even 'wing flap' or peck (this is defence for her eggs)!  However, unfortunately for many keepers they do not want this. There are many reasons may you may not want this e.g. the eggs may not be fertilised, there will be a reduction in egg laying in your hen even after she has been broody, she is disrupting the other hens from laying, the cost of buying a broody box and finally you may not want to cope with a weak hen ( due to lack of food). When a hen is broody she will only leave her nest once a day for some food and water this is why you hen may not seem healthy or have a pale comb.

Symptoms:

• Cuckoo sounds from the hen
• Feathers fluffed out, more particularly around her tail
• Not wanting to move much and looking hesitant to dust bathe or dig
• Looking around to sit down
• Constantly sitting in her nesting box
• Laying no eggs
• Warmer weather (increases the risk)

So how can you prevent this?
Make sure you remove the eggs from the box every day then she will not have the temptation. This is also important to prevent the cracking of eggs which the hens may develop a taste for. However, it is harder to prevent broodiness in the spring/summer because this is normally their laying season.

How to stop it?
I often found one of my hens was broody, some breeds are more attached to their eggs then others. Many suggest to put a cool pack beneath the chicken to make it seem colder (therefore she might realise that it is to cold to lay). Some people suggest to even dip the hen in to some water (I do not know about this method because I have not tried it!). However, I found the easiest way was to shut her outside the nesting box during the day until she was clearly put off (until she was acting normal again), this normally lasted a couple of days. This did include nighttime where I would shut the other two chickens into the coop box and leave the broody hen in the coop run. This may seem very mean at first, but I found it was the only method that did the trick. Also, it is not nice for the other hens trying to lay their eggs in the same nesting box (causing overcrowding and crushed eggs).