# Broody Hen Help



## DaisyMayFarm (Jan 19, 2013)

One of my hens (2ish year old Light Australian Sussex) has gone _very_ broody, and has been firmly on the nest for over a week, with only quick breaks for water and food. I don't have a rooster, so I obviously don't need a broody hen! I'll move her off the nest and into the yard, but the next minute she's on the nest. I can't close the coop up during the day, as I have 11 other hens and 2 ducks that need to go in and lay. Any ideas on how I can break her broodiness?


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

I would buy some fertile eggs! You can sell the chicks when they are several weeks old and probably make up most, if not all, the value of the eggs you lose.
Or sell her to someone who wants a broody hen.
Supposedly if you put her in a cage with a slatted bottom and no bedding, that will break her up.
Maybe I'm just softhearted, but that doesn't sound very nice to me. 
Broody hens are SO much fun!  Are you sure you don't want her to hatch chicks?


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## DaisyMayFarm (Jan 19, 2013)

milkmaid said:


> I would buy some fertile eggs! You can sell the chicks when they are several weeks old and probably make up most, if not all, the value of the eggs you lose.
> Or sell her to someone who wants a broody hen.
> Supposedly if you put her in a cage with a slatted bottom and no bedding, that will break her up.
> Maybe I'm just softhearted, but that doesn't sound very nice to me.
> Broody hens are SO much fun!  Are you sure you don't want her to hatch chicks?


Haha, positive! I now have 18 chickens and 2 ducks, since I brought home 6 chicks a month ago. I'm at max capacity!

Yeah, the cage idea isn't one I'm fond of.  I'm very soft with my animals; only positive reinforcement and clicker training for my Dachshund, I don't pinch goat ears (that'd be hard, anyway!), ect.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I read somewhere about dunking them in cold water (not all the way). Not sure if you can do that if it is still cold where you are.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Just go buy a chick from the feed store. Sneak it under her a night. She'll think it hatched and start caring for it instead of sitting. Make sure it's as young a chick as you can find.


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## Used2bmimi (Oct 3, 2012)

Good idea! I occasionally have a broody hen. I usually pick them up of the nest and put them in the farthest away part of the pen pestering them the whole way and not leaving until the "trance" seems to be broken. I do it each time I walk by. They usually come out of it after a week or so. Good luck!


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## mjs500doo (Nov 24, 2012)

Three things work:

1-Constant pestering her. Literally. Moving the nest everywhere, plucking her out, locking her out of the coop, making the nest higher, constant removal of the eggs, I mean literally bothering her. 

2-Settling her in with a batch of eggs. Sometimes broody hens don't have it cemented in their head that they need to stay with the eggs for that long, and actually will give up on their own, others sit and hatch. Always have a backup method (hen or incubator-just in case). Last year my broody hen quit at day 19, and were just starting to peep. Thankfully I checked during the night and she was up roosting, never returned to the nest even after I grabbed the babies and finished them out. All healthy. 

3-Pushing newborns under her. Newborns. I can't emphasize this enough. The younger the better. No older than 3 days. Always switch at night. Some old timer hens don't fall for this trick, so keep an eye on her, unless you can risk a couple dead ones in case she rejects.


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