What To Do
with a broody hen
About
Our Feed
Poultry
Care Corner
Poultry
Products
Grains &
Simple Ingredients
Where
to Buy
What To Do With A Broody Hen
We love Spring! With the longer days, your hens’ egg production has picked up, their appetites are good, and the sun is shining, you may notice a few hens going broody. Broodiness is triggered by hormones, daylight, and the availability of eggs to sit on. What does this mean to you as a chicken keeper? It means you may need to get involved and change your hen’s behavior.
What does “broody” mean and how do I recognize it?
When a hen is broody, it means her maternal instincts have kicked in. Her hormones are surging and telling her it’s time to sit on and hatch some eggs. There’s no exact science as to what makes a broody hen – it’s a combination of hormones and instinct. It is pretty easy to recognize a mother hen that has gone broody. There are certain breeds that tend to be more broody than others. For example, Batum hens are known for their broodiness.
A puffed-up, broody hen sitting on a clutch of eggs
She will not be in her usual active, curious mood. She will stay camped out in her nesting box, whether there’s eggs in it or not. When approached by you or other birds, she will puff her feathers up, get very defensive, make a unique growling sound, and even peck at intruders. A mama hen is being protective over her nest and is insistent when it comes to sitting on those eggs!
If there are fertile eggs for her to sit on (and if you want baby chicks)
If your broody hen is sitting on a clutch of fertile eggs in her nesting box, and if you don’t mind having a few baby chicks to add to your flock, you are more than welcome to leave her sitting on those eggs – she will be a great mama! She will incubate the eggs at just the perfect temperature and humidity for about 21 days, and then you’ll have some new baby chicks added to your flock!
If your eggs aren’t fertile (no roosters present) or you haven’t acquired some fertile eggs for her to sit on
If your hen has gone broody, and there’s no possibility of her hatching eggs, you will need to stop her broody behavior, otherwise known as a “broody breaker”. Why should I? Because a broody hen will continue brooding until she hears the little peeps of baby chicks from her nest box. Otherwise, she will sit on eggs indefinitely. This can have a seriously negative impact on the health of a mother hen.
When do hens go broody?
Some breeds of chicken are more prone to broodiness than others, and your hens’ individual personalities will also come into play. Some hens are frequent residents of the broody breaker pen, while others never quite feel that maternal need. Breeds such as Cochins, Buff Orpingtons, and Silkies can get broody multiple times each year. Hybrid breeds, such as Sussex and Leghorns, are still great egg producers but are not instinctual brooders.
It’s hard to predict when a hen will go broody, but generally you won’t see a young hen going broody during their first laying season. Hens are most likely to go broody in the Spring as the warm weather is a signal to them to hatch and raise chicks. It’s much rarer for hens to go broody during the winter in colder weather.
The Cochin is known as a broody breed
A broody hen will occupy a nesting box and encourage other hens to become broody as well
The consequences of unwanted broodiness
While a hen is broody and sitting on a nest, she will put all her energy in to sitting on eggs, and neglect herself in the process. She will only leave the nest to eat, drink, and relieve herself once or twice a day. She will become pale, lose sheen in her feathers, and lose weight. In hot weather, when the nest boxes can become hot like an oven, she can easily become dehydrated. While she can keep this routine up for 21 days, it is hard on her. Allowing her to sit on eggs that will never hatch is not fair to her and not in anyone’s best interest.
At the same time your hen is brooding, she will not lay any eggs, and she may inspire other hens to go broody as well. Broodiness begets broodiness. Before you know it, your whole flock could be on strike!
How to break up the broodiness
As soon as you identify broody behavior, get to work on stopping it. The longer a hen is broody, the longer it takes her to snap out of it. There are many techniques out there for how to broody break, but many of them are ineffective or even inhumane. The best, easiest course of action is to put her in a “broody breaker” pen.
A broody breaker pen is basically a wire bottomed cage. It can be a rabbit hutch, a dog crate, or something of your own construction. It will need to be raised off the floor, to allow air to circulate underneath. Your broody hen will live in the broody box with food and water, but no bedding. The design of the brooder box is two-fold; is allows air to circulate and cool down the hen’s breast, and also makes her generally uncomfortable.
This type of wire cage will make a perfect broody breaker pen
Broody hens prefer small, dark, private areas where they can snuggle up in the nest and incubate eggs. Be sure to keep the broody breaker pen somewhere with lots of natural daylight. By placing her in a location without these dark areas, it sends a signal to the hen’s brain that it’s not time to hatch eggs.
It is essential to keep her in the broody breaker pen until she is fully back to her normal self. You can always test this by letting her out of the pen and watching her. If she gets all puffed up and hightails it for the closest nest she can find, right back in the pen she goes! Otherwise, you are starting back at square one.
(Editor’s note: This recently updated post was originally published 8/19/21)