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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Hi Dawn
Nothing springs to mind about Lottie. I am meeting up with some chicken experts this evening and will ask them and get back to you asap.
Hi
Really appreciated the information posted on the unbroody coop, as a new comer to keeping chickens it was fantastic to find online advice. Dottie returned to her normal self after 36 hours in the coop. Which was a great relief as I found it really stressful.
I was wondering if you would have an more invaluable advice wrt to Lottie, who we have had for one month, we bought her as pol with two others, she has a smaller comb which has always been paler than the others and has not darkened like the other two. She is always the last out of the coop, eats less than the others and her left eye shuts quite often making her look squinty/sleepy. I have been hoping that she is a late developer but am becoming concerned that there may be a problem. I have been using vermix in case of worms and have not seen any mites. They all have periodic runny poo’s including Lottie and I am not sure how worried I should be about this. Plummage, growth and weight all seems to be fine.
Any thoughts on what if anything may be wrong.
Thanks
Dawn
Hello Jane
Don’t worry they will not have to spend weeks in the anti broody coup!
When I have let Mrs Boss drift into broodiness in the past – for a few weeks – the longest that she has taken to get over it (once incarcerated) is seven days.
I’d let them out after three days. If they immediately retire to the nesting box pop them back in again for another couple of days. Then try again. Keep on putting them back until they return to a non broody state once released.
Some hens are over their broodiness in a couple of days.
I’m lucky all my hens have combs that go pink when they are broody or off lay so it is easy for me to see when they are OK again. Have a good look at your Barnvelder’s comb. It could be that it is whitish, pinkish at the edges or not looking as brilliant red as normal. I had a West Indian friend and could always tell when she was off colour as her skin looked dusty.
Hi,
I have a Barnvelder and a Brahma, they both went broody about five weeks ago. I kept lifting them out of the nesting boxes during the day only allowing them back in from about 3pm. I tried dunking both their rear ends in water a couple of times a day. I kept this up for about a week. Nothing worked. On Wednesday I came across your site, from Google, absolutely superb, thank you. My husband has now made a broody cage as per your instructions. They went in it yesterday. Needless to say they absolutely hate it.
I notice that you say that the longer hens have been allowed to stay broody the longer it will take to break them. ( I naively thought that they would only stay broody for about three weeks!) Given the five weeks they were broody, do you have any idea how long it’s likely to take? The Barnvelder’s comb has been red all the time, although she stopped laying immediately. The Brahma’s, I would say, is pale red.
Looking forward to hearing from you and thanks so much.
Jane
Hi Tessa and James
When a hen goes broody she stops laying and she will put other hens off laying too.
Losing feathers from her chest is another (rarer) sign of broodiness. She is plucking them to line a nest.
The broody box is designed to be a short, sharp shock to the hen. She will be unhappy being broody without eggs, so a method that gets her out of the state as quickly as possible is the kindest way to go.
She needs to be in the anti broody coop 24hrs a day, for at least 3 days. Her comb will go red when she is ready to be released. If she is at risk being left in the anti broody coop overnight, you could move it onto your kitchen/ garage/shed for the night. You could put the other one in the box for the night too.
The main thing is to remember to give your broody every chance of getting out of the broody state asap.
Don™t forget to give her access to food and drink 24 hours a day.
I’d really be interested to here how this works out for you all!
Hi,
We have 2 hens – a Maran and a Fayoumi – we got them late last autumn and they settled in to the garden well, starting laying in December and January. Unfortunately (for us) the Maran has now gone broody…
For the last few days we’ve kept her out of the nest box as much as possible and, as we’d been led to expect, she is being stubborn and is simply sitting as near to the box as she can get. She is still eating and drinking and seems fine in herself when we force her to get up, if a little grumpy with us! We’re now going to move to a broody box but have a couple of questions I hope someone will be able to answer…
Firstly, she has stopped laying – I presume this is normal? (The Fayoumi’s laying has also slowed, I guess because her routine has been disrupted). The Maran has also lost some feathers from her chest – again, I assume this is a normal ‘side effect’?
And finally, when we put her in the box should we leave her there 24 hrs a day? We don’t have anywhere obvious to put the box indoors overnight but if she’s to stay in there I’m not sure it’s safe to leave it out – I imagine she’ll get cold, not to mention the risk of predators… I’m also concerned that the Fayoumi will be upset being on her own at night… Actually, could we put her in the box at night too?
Thanks!
Tessa
Hi Lisa
Your ex battery hens will need time to settle. Their entire world has changed dramatically! Also our weather has been a bit crazy too and this will effect them.
I’m no expert and I have no experience with ex battery hens but I doubt that all 20 could be going broody at once. Battery hens are layers with a tendency not to go broody (although a few will).
Give them lots of greens and layers pellets. In a few weeks time they will have settled in completely. Do you have a cockerel? If so this would have an effect on the hens too.
Perhaps someone with experience of ex battery hens will read your comment and respond.
Meanwhile, I’d love to hear how you get on.
Hi,I found this discussion really interesting, but am now very worried. I have 20 exbats that we collected about 4 weeks ago. For the first 2 weeks we were getting 6-12 eggs a day but for the last 2 weeks only 1 or 2 and some of those have been from my elderly bantams I had already. I thought to myself yesterday that the combs were a bit dull, dusky pink, looking, although they have never really been bright red. Could all 20 be broody or could they just be settling in to their new life?
Thanks Lisa
Hi Amy
The dog cage needs to be lifted along the edges so that the cage is suspended about an inch above the pallet. Then the hen has to work hard to stand and can’t settle. What you are trying to avoid is the hen being able to relax and really get into being broody.
It make take a few days for your hen to get out of being broody – Mrs Boss can take up to 7 days.
Ideally the crate should be outside as the darkness of the shed will encourage broodiness but the main thing is to raise the cage so she doesn’t feel comfortable. Perhaps the mesh is too small?
Hi!
I read your post a few days ago when I did a search for broody hens on google. I have recently got into having backyard chickens, and over the weekend one of them went broody. I put her in a large wire dog kennel set up on a pallet so air can circulate and gave her food and water. I had to put the crate inside of the chicken shed because of safety issues, so she really is not getting any sunlight at all. Is that bad? I put her in the crate 4 days ago and she still wants to get back in the nest when I let her out to stretch. How long does it take for her to stop being broody. She is a Buff Orp, by the way. Thanks.