Help my chook is broody!

Part of the everyday joys of owning hens is that one day, they will go broody.  Generally a hen will lay an egg every day or so and get off the nest to get on with her life. But every once in a while she will decide that she really wants to hatch those eggs into chicks. She’ll want to sit on her eggs and can get very upset if you try to remove her.

When hens go broody they stop laying and it often takes weeks for them to restart so it can have a big impact on egg production, especially if you have more than one broody hen.

It's not entirely understood what makes a hen go broody but genetics play a part; with some breeds very prone to broodiness and others that very rarely go broody.

Having a broody hen brings its own set of challenges and the first question we will probably ask is do I want the hen to raise chickens?

If you want chicks

If the answer is yes and you have a rooster, then if the hen is sitting in a suitable place, she is best left to get on with the job of sitting on her eggs and hatching her babies.

If you don’t have a rooster then you can buy fertile eggs to put under the hen to hatch. Hens are great in that you can actually put any type of egg underneath to hatch. Hens don’t seem to discriminate, whatever is hatched out, they will take care of it.

An interesting case I had, was when a friend had some pheasant eggs. The pheasant mum-to-be had abandoned her duties and the eggs were in dire need of a more cooperative mother. I had a broody bantam, but was a bit skeptical when I placed three pheasant eggs under her. A few weeks later, the eggs hatched and the bantam was as proud as any new mum with her offspring. She raised the pheasant babies and it was a very funny sight to see a small bantam being followed everywhere by these large birds. Even when they were well past needing her care, they followed her everywhere!

If you don’t want chicks

That’s all well and good, but what do we do if we don’t want chickens and want the hen to come off the cluck?

Convincing your chook that she needs to not be broody any more, is easier said than done. Most will naturally decrease their broodiness once no chicks appear, but some can be very stubborn and can end up with health problems if left too long - they can lose weight, become dehydrated and be more susceptible to disease and parasites.

You might think that by simply taking the eggs away, this would solve the problem. However most hens, even with no eggs under them will remain broody. The warm, dark confines of her nest will keep those broody hormones working, so one way of getting the chook to reset her hormonal clock is to take her out from where she is nesting and put her into broody jail. 

Broody jail works to keep the hen in sunlight and to cool down her chest. This can be a dog or cat cage (not a lined one) raised off the floor on a couple of bricks or blocks of wood. The cage must have a wire floor, not a solid one.

This will keep cool air circulating on her undersides and cooling the breast is what does the trick.

The cage needs to be in a breezy spot and of course she will need shade from the sun and shelter from the elements, but with the brightness of light, and the breeze cooling her breast, this can help turn off the brood hormones. Continue to give her food and water and let her out each day to see if she tries to get back to the nest, if she does, put her back in the cage.

After a week, the chook is usually hormonally reset and will show signs of wanting to get out and join the rest of the flock.

This may seem cruel but the dangers of her sitting on the nest for an extended period are real. She can become malnourished, and is susceptible to disease and parasites.

Different breeds have different brood stamina and breeds like Silkies, Orpingtons or Pekins can be particularly difficult to break once they are broody. Their tenacity to want to hatch eggs is unrivaled and sometimes the only way out is to let them hatch - even if it is just one egg!

I recently had a broody game bantam. I took her off the nest, shut her out of access to the run and coop where she was nesting and put her outside with the flock. Because she was quite freshly broody, she actually came off the brood fairly quickly. It was a bit of a pain in that the other hens started to lay outside as they were also shut out from the coop during the day.

Another trick people use to break broodiness is to put a cold pack in the nest. The change of temperature under the hen can also change its ideas about wanting to sit for too long.

Once again, broody hens are part and parcel of owning laying hens and every hen owner will be faced with it at some stage. Having breeds like Hy-Lines or commercial egg laying breeds can lessen the likelihood of having broody hens, but even they can fall prey to those broody hormones at times. If chicks aren’t wanted, then patience and working out a method of breaking the chook’s desire to sit and reset her hormone clock is the only remedy!  

Preventing broodiness

You can help prevent a hen from going broody by removing eggs promptly and not letting them build up in the nesting box. But remember that going broody is a natural and sometimes necessary process that allows a hen a break from egg laying and a chance to build up her calcium reserves.