Mrs Boss is broody. How to stop a hen being broody
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chickens | 121 comments
Mrs Boss is one of the original bantams that we bought three years ago. A bantam is a breed of small chicken. As you can see from the photo she is white with pretty black and white feathers around her neck. She reminds me of the portraits of English cavaliers sitting so proud in their lace collars. She also has feathered feet.
When she arrived she was boss, ticking the other hens off if they stepped out of line. But gradually the others fought back and now her demotion is final. She is right at bottom of the pecking order and has a tough time.
Mrs Boss is broody at the moment. This means, as Danny says, “She’s in the mood to raise a brood”. Bantams have a natural tendency for broodiness but this has become a life mission for Mrs Boss. In a way it’s understandable. She can sit in the dark gloom of the nesting box away from the pecking and bullying. The only problem is that if a hen is broody, she does not lay eggs, and Mrs Boss’s small white eggs are the sweetest of them all.
How to stop a hen being broody is fairly simple. If you can prevent her from settling comfortably, she will stop being broody within a week or so. Some hens are fine again after thee days in the broody coop; Mrs Boss is a long termer. The trick is to construct a cage with a floor made of large wire mesh (at least 1″ squares). Put the cage on bricks so that the floor is suspended, keeping the bricks to the outside edges so that she can’t sit on them. Find instructions here on how to make a broody coop. Provide a small drinking fountain and feeder within the cage and pop her in. She will not be able to settle comfortably on the wire mesh floor and within a few days will get over her broodiness.
Mrs Boss hates the broody coop. When we give the other hens treats, such as corn or kitchen scraps, she leaps up and down in her cage in a fury of frustration and rage until she’s given her share. When she has served her time and is released, the first thing that she does is have a long luxurious dust bath.
Tips and tricks:
- When a hen is broody, the comb on the top of her head changes colour from red to pink. Check the colour of her comb every day when she is in the broody coop. When the comb is red she can be let out of prison and will not immediately return to the nesting box, except to lay an egg. It took me ages to work this out.
- If you have a broody hen and don’t want to go down the broody coop path, she will probably remain broody for the entire summer. Every morning and evening, it’s vital to lift her out of the nesting box, or wherever she has settled, so that she can eat and drink. Broody hens can starve to death if ignored.
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Hello!
I wanted to thank you for your excellent advice about using an anti-broody coop. I have three beautiful Pekin bantams and one of them had been broody for six weeks. We spent ages moving her off the nest box only for her to immediately run back in again, regardless that there were no eggs to sit on! If we shut her out she would run round and round the run trying to get back in, then flatten herself down in the grass and go into a “trance”. The second the coop was opened again she would race inside.
I came across your website and waited until the weather forecast sunnier weather, and on saturday in went broody Myrtle. As expected, she was not impressed and flapped about and squawked, but after three days she was released from the “torture chamber” (as my husband named it!) Straight away she ran and flapped round the garden and has gone back to being her normal self. I am so pleased! I felt mean putting her in the cage but it is so great to see her doing normal “chicken” things again in the garden with the other girls…instead of wasting her time sitting fruitlessly in the dark.
Thank you very much!
Kind regards,
Vicky
Mrs Pepper has begun laying again after her broody episode and 10 days off.
Dawn, I do hope Lottie is showing signs of recovery. I lost one of my 4 hens when i’d only had them about a month. She was very lethargic for a few days and would only eat if I gave it to her by hand. She then stopped eating altogether. On the final day she went downhill very rapidly and sadly died. She was my tamest hen and I still miss her. Wendy
Hello Dawn
I’m at a loss. Just don’t know what to advise.
Sometimes a chicken will not thrive. It has nothing to do with you (you have chickens that are clearly healthy) but like everyone who sees a creature struggling, you think that you can make a difference. And you can. Make sure that she has easy access to food and water and that she has the softest bed imaginable.
The sad fact is that you probably cannot make a difference vis a vis her condition. Vets are trained to treat reportable diseases in chickens not the niggly conditions that can kill a chicken but not anyone else. She is eating a little and this is a good sign but drinking is far more important.
You could try a little sugared water or glucose and water to give her a boost. Drip a little from your fingers onto her beak to give her the idea.
From the facts that you have already told me it could be that she was ill when you bought her and sadly she might not make it.
If this is the case, make sure that you tell the auctioneer what has happened to Lottie. He might be a little more wary of the seller in the future.
When we bought our first six hens there were two lavender pekins in the flock. The first keeled over and died the next summer. The second the summer after. They just looked peaky and died within a couple of days. They are buried in the garden and I still miss them.
Hi Jane
Thank you for getting expert advice and coming back to me on Lottie – I got her from a livestock auction and was refused contact details of the seller when I asked for them as I wanted to know whether the hens we were buying had been vaccinated.
Since my last note to you Lottie has deteriorated considerably, she has become really lethargic, is not eating much at all or drinking she just seems to want to sleep. I have taken her to the vet who has given me some antibiotics and is looking into whether further worming medication should be given(in addition to the Verm X). The other two hens are absolutely thriving so the vet does not think it is worms or mites.
I have tried putting food close to Lottie and moving Lottie to the food but she only takes a couple of pecks at the grain or bread (I have tried other foods but they just leave it – I gave them some wild bird seed yesterday but it remained in the feeder).
Any advice you can give would be really appeciated as I hate to see her deteriorating like this, wasting away and hardly able to get in and out of the hen house and I am fearing the worst.
Thanks
Dawn
Hi Wendy
If she has got over her broodiness she will come back into lay sooner rather than later. It’s impossible for me to predict exactly when as this depends from hen to hen. As she is young, you shouldn’t have to wait long.
Mrs Pepper is a duck feathered welsummer purchased at POL in March. She has laid well since the day she came to live with us and usually lays about 6 eggs a week. She laid for 10 days without a break and became broody towards the end of that. She has now had 5 days off and shows no sign of being broody now. Many thanks.
Hi Dawn
I asked the chicken experts and thay couldn’t come up with an instant solution. It’s hard if you can’t see the hen.
Lottie just might be a hen that is never 100%. It might be worth contacting the person who sold her to you. Write down the defects befor you ring so that you have them to hand.
Don’t reject her out of hand. She might blossom in the future but ring your breeder – it’s important that they know that they have sold you a hen that might not be quite ‘right’.
Hi George
There is nothing wrong with your hens.
They are just not ready to go broody. Some hens never go broody. Why are you leaving the eggs?
A hen doesn’t need a nest of eggs to go broody.
Eat the eggs while you are waiting! It could be some time.
If you want a hen to go broody and raise some chicks, find a breed of hen with a tendency to go broody and cross your fingers that this will happen. Out of four hens with a tendency to go broody we have only one that regularly goes broody!
Hi Jane
Great news. I they have been out and about for a couple of hours you have cracked it!
The loss of feathers on the Barnvelder’s neck is probably tied up with being broody (soft feathers to line the nest). So no need to worry on this score I think, but I’m no expert. If it continues then possibly seek medical advice.
Hello Wendy
The shopping trolley adaptation is awesome. Top marks for ingenuity!
I have no idea when Mrs Pepper will start laying again. Is she a laying breed? How old is she? Was she laying regularly before she went broody?
I am new to keeping chickens and since Mrs Pepper became broody a week or so ago I have found your website very helpful. Mrs Pepper has spent 3 nights in a wire shopping trolley which my son found vandalised and dumped on the road side. It made an ideal broody coop! She has now been out of her broody state for 4 days but when will she start laying again? Many thanks for your help.
Thanks so much for your advice. I have let them out (after 3 days) and so far they haven’t tried to go back into the nesting box – although it has only been a couple of hours!)
They have both had a good long dust bath but I’ve noticed that Beryl, the Barnvelder, has lost all the feathers from her throat/neck area. The area isn’t red or sore. Is this normal?
Thanks
Jane
I have 2 hens and i rooster. They roam the yard and roost at night in a wire cage. I feed them good chicken pellet and lots of water. My problem is after one month only one hen lays eggs, 2 a day in the same spot under a thee in the tall grass. She never sits on the eggs up to 15 eggs just sit there.These hens are not young,aprox 1 year old or older. The rooster monts the one hen 5 or 6 times a day, but that hen never seems to lay eggs.WHATS WRONG WITH MY HENS?????
George in Lowgap nc