Howlong Does It Takevfor a Broody Chicken to Start Laying Again

Broody hens but want to sit down on eggs until they hatch. But what if your eggs aren't fertile? And so its in her best involvement to suspension her. Hither'due south how to break a broody hen.

A broody hen can exist a godsend if y'all are trying to hatch chicks.  No worries well-nigh incubators, brooder boxes or oestrus lamp...the hen volition accept care of it all.

Nevertheless, if none of your eggs are fertile, or you aren't interested in hatching any chicks, a broody hen is non something you want.

How to Break a Broody Hen

Earlier you tin worry about what to exercise almost a broody hen, yous need to understand what existence "broody" ways and why it can be a trouble.

What is a Broody Hen

A broody is a hen that wants to sit on a nest of eggs for 3 weeks until they hatch, instead of laying her egg and and then hopping back out of the nesting box to get practice all the normal things that chickens practise.

What'south Wrong with Letting a Hen Be Broody?

If the eggs the hen is sitting on aren't fertile (i.e. y'all don't accept a rooster), so those eggs won't ever hatch and the chicken is wasting her fourth dimension.

In one case her nest is total (a "clutch" of eggs is usually 10-12), a broody hen will end laying eggs. And won't showtime upwardly again, possibly for several months - the 21 days it takes for eggs to hatch plus the fourth dimension she would spend caring for her new chicks.

Only even more than chiefly, a broody hen will merely leave the nest for short periods of time to eat and potable a chip (just not well-nigh as much equally they really need, resulting in weight loss and possible malnutrition).

They also make it difficult for the other hens to lay their eggs by hogging the nest.

Other hens may starting time pecking at the broody trying to get her to leave the nest, which can not only injure her, merely pb to cannibalism, not to mention result in cleaved eggs - and that can lead to the bad addiction of egg eating.

More Problems for a Broody Hen

Too, she might be bullied one time she returns to the flock since she has been virtually absent-minded for several weeks.

Broodiness is also thought to exist "contagious" to some extent and one broody can induce others to become broody. (I gauge kind of like women who work or live together who's menstrual cycles outset to coincide with each other. Hormones can be tricky like that!)

Broody hens also have a greater chance of contracting mites and other parasites by creating a warm, clammy, night environment that bugs like, although using herbs in the nesting boxes tin can alleviate the parasite concern to a great extent.

Lesser line, though, it is far healthier for a hen to be out 'beingness a chicken', scratching for bugs, dust bathing, and socializing with the others than sitting on an empty nest.

Are Some Breeds More Decumbent to Get Broody?

Although the broodiness has for the well-nigh role been bred out of today's breeds, some breeds tend more than towards broodiness, including:

• Australorps

• Brahmas

• Buffs

• Cochins

• Columbian Wyandottes

• Cornish

• Partridge Rocks

• Silkies

• Speckled Sussex

How Do I Know if I Take a  Broody Hen?

Once you have had 1 broody hen, you will immediately recognize when the adjacent one goes broody. The signs are pretty unmistakable.

Your start clue that a hen might be broody volition probable exist that every time you go to collect eggs, she is sitting on the nest.

Your second inkling volition be when she puffs up and growls at y'all.  She will likewise make a deep, throaty cluck cluck noise (that's the "vocalization" she will utilize to call her chicks incidentally). Some broodies will too peck at your paw when y'all effort and take the eggs, so a pair of gloves is helpful.

Feathering Her Nest

The best clue that you have a broody hen is finding feathers in the nesting box.

A broody hen volition literally "feather the nest: and start pulling out her breast feathers and depositing them in the nesting box.

She does this both to absorber the eggs and because her bare skin volition keep the eggs (and chicks in one case they hatch) warmer existence correct up side by side to her.

You tin can easily figure out who the broody hen is by checking their breasts. The broody will have a bare breast.

And so, in summary, if a hen isn't sitting on fertile eggs, it'south not healthy for her to sit all day in the night nesting box, although that is what her maternal hormones are telling her to do.

Simply she needs to exist outside getting exercise and fresh air, laying eggs, and 'being a craven'.  And then it's in BOTH your best interests to break her equally speedily as possible.

Normally, the peeps of the hatching chicks bespeak to a broody that she is done sitting - but clearly if eggs never hatch nether her, she never gets that bespeak to stop, then you demand to "discourage" or "intermission" her.

How to Break a Broody Hen

The key to breaking a broody hen is to absurd nether her abdomen and vent area. Information technology is the elevated temperature in part that signals to her hormones to sit.  Here'southward are some suggestions to try to pause a broody hen:

• Collect the eggs as quickly as possible from her her, every bit many times a twenty-four hours as possible

•  Remove the broody hen from the nest and deposit her at the far end of the run, preferably where y'all have scattered treats to distract her, as many times a 24-hour interval equally you tin can

• After nighttime, remove her from the nest one last time for the day and identify her on the roosting bar. She will about likely stay there for the night since chickens can't encounter well in the dark and she won't chance trying to go back to the box

•  Block the nest that she has chosen to sit in

• Put a frozen water bottle in the nest

• Every bit an alternative, take all the nesting material out of the box she has called. Most broodies have picked a specific nest and if you move them to another 1, many will give up on setting.

In extreme cases, close up the coop afterwards the other hens have finished laying so she has no access to the nests.

Subsequently a few days of this, I have found the broody hen starts getting really bellyaching with me, but realizes that I am more than stubborn than she is - and also it's a lot more fun to exist outside with the others than sitting alone on an empty nesting box - and she gives up.

In Extreme Cases of Broodiness

More drastic measures I have read, only never tried, include putting ice cubes under her or putting her in a raised metal cage or domestic dog crate raised upwards on bricks or boards with no bedding for a few days with feed and water, but I have never had to go that far to dissuade a broody hen.

Role of the reason a hen goes (and stays) broody is a warm vent, nature's style of timing most chicks to be built-in in the warm months - there's a reason you rarely have a broody hen in the winter - as well equally an increment in her hormone levels, and so function of breaking her broodiness has to include cooling off her vent and abdomen expanse and getting air to circulate nether her.

To read more nigh why breaking a broody hen is smart, read Hither.

To read about raising chicks under a chicken, read HERE .

For tips on encouraging a broody hen, read Here .

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Source: https://www.fresheggsdaily.blog/2012/01/so-youve-got-broody-hen.html

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