Do you have a broody chicken? Is your hen refusing to get off the nest? Is she staying there even at nighttime and ruffling up her feathers? Don’t worry, broodiness is normal and manageable.
In this article I will discuss the following topics:
- What is a broody chicken?
- When do hens go broody?
- What to do if your chicken goes broody
- Broody Chicken Breeds
- Chicken Breeds that don’t go broody
What is a Broody Chicken?
A hen that goes broody will sit on her nest all day long, barely leaving it even to eat. Broody chickens will also cluck a lot and ruffle up their feathers. Sometimes if they sense that the nest isn’t warm or soft enough, they may even pluck out their own breast feathers to line the nest.
A broody hen wants to sit and hatch a clutch of chicks. She doesn’t care if they are her own or another birds eggs. Her instincts are telling her she is ready to be a mother. Broodiness is a natural tendency that many hens could have. Some hens have the tendency more than others.
Sometimes having a broody chicken is a really good thing. Especially if you want her to raise chicks for you. However, you may not want to add new chickens to your flock, especially if your coop is full or you don’t want to lose one of your egg-layers for a few months. So, there are also tactics you can use to break her of it and get her laying again.
When do Hens go Broody?
Hens usually go broody in the springtime when their mothering instincts for raising chicks starts getting stronger. It is a combination of her instinct and her hormones which trigger broodiness.
The hen senses the days getting longer. Interestingly, hens have a pineal gland in their eyes, so even a completely blind chicken can tell when the daylight is getting longer. Additionally, the chicken knows that the springtime weather is getting warm enough for her babies to survive.
Even though broodiness usually happens in the spring, it could last for a month or up to several months if the hen doesn’t have any indication to start laying again. If you have a small flock, you could lose one of your key egg layers for a long time.
In many egg-production breeds, the maternal trait, and hence the broodiness has been bred out. This was generally to maximize the egg production rather than chicks. This is why fancy chickens and very old chicken breeds have a greater tendency to go broody. It is also why commercial chicken breeders usually use incubators – so they don’t have to utilize mother hens and take an egg-layer out of circulation.
What to do when your Chicken is Broody
So, what should you do when your hen starts showing signs of being broody? You have a couple of options with a broody hen.
#1: Leverage your hen to increase your flock size
Sometimes, having a broody hen is ideal, especially if you are looking to increase the size of your flock. A broody mother will incubate and raise the chicks for you so you don’t have to. The fertilized eggs or chicks don’t even need to be her own.
Once you notice your chicken is broody, you can place a fertilized egg underneath her. She will hatch the egg(s) for you and raise them. An even easier option is to put a baby chick – no older than a day or two old – under your broody hen. This is best if you put the chick under her at night. She will think it hatched when she was sleeping.
Your hen will immediately be broken from her broodiness. And, she will teach the chicks where to find the food and water, keep them warm, and how to spot danger.
The huge benefit to letting your broody hen raise your chicks is that not only will she do all of the work raising them, but she will also protect them from pecking by the other members of your flock, and make sure they get integrated into the flock.
#2: Break your hen of her broodiness
There are a couple of strategies you can use to stop this behavior and to return your coop to normalcy.
First, you want to collect the eggs from your other hens frequently. Try to check the nest boxes several times throughout the day, so that your broody hen doesn’t feel like she has something to hatch. This doesn’t always work; we had a hen that would just sit on the empty nest all day.
Next, don’t allow her to stay in the nesting box all day. Every time you see her in the nest box, move her out of it. If you are collecting eggs several times a day, just do this at the same time. She may not want to leave her nest, but you must be firm. Wrap your hands around her sides, with her wings under your thumbs so that she can’t flap. Allow her to tuck in her little legs so that they don’t get scraped on the edge of the box.
Remember that the chickens have a strong sense of social hierarchy, or “pecking order”. If you spend any time at all with your hens, feeding them or giving them treats, or letting them out to forage on nice days, they will definitely see you as the alpha chicken. You will have a rapport with them that will allow you to reach in there and gently move them without too much fuss.
If you were unknown to them, they would want to peck at your hands to try to stay in the nesting box. If you are nervous about moving your chickens, you may wish to use gloves to protect your hands – and increase your confidence. Otherwise the broody and stubborn hen might take advantage of your hesitation.
If you continue to kick your broody hen out of the nesting box, this along with more frequent egg collection should help to stop the broody behavior. It may take a week, but you must be persistent.
A Few Other Strategies for Stubborn Hens
For the most stubborn chickens who refuse to break their broody behavior, you may need to resort to bigger guns.
One thing to try is to close up the nesting box. You’ll want to wait until all your other hens have laid their eggs for the day, and then close up the nest box. But you will need to open it up again before bedtime, making sure your broody bird is already on her perch. Whenever you close up the boxes, make sure to keep your hens inside the coop and run! In case one of your other hens needs to lay, she would not be able to get in the box to lay, either. You could have eggs from your laying hens on the floor or some other spot. You could then find your broody hen sitting on the clutch on the floor.
Another thing to try might be to put a frozen water bottle into the preferred nesting box of your broody bird. Her hormones increase a hen’s body temperature so that she can be the correct temperature to incubate baby eggs. A frozen water bottle will make it unpleasant enough for longtime sitting. Additionally, cooling down her body temperature can be enough to break her broodiness. And usually it is not so cold for a hen who wants to lay and get back out of the nest.
If the broodiness persists, you may need to lock her out of the coop. I would suggest putting her in the run with the laying hens in the coop. There’s a good chance she will try to create a makeshift nest wherever she is, but hopefully she’ll get the idea! And hopefully the conditions are not to her liking.
Chicken Jail
Some people do not mess around with any of the other tactics. The minute one of their hens is showing signs of broodiness, they will remove that hen from the flock and put her into a separate space. This prevents the broody behavior from “catching”, or spreading to other hens. It also tends to break the behavior sooner.
You can use a simple wire cage, like a dog crate. Of course make sure your hen has access to everything she needs – food, water, and shelter from rain. She should also have a place to roost. But, it won’t help if the cage is so large and comfy that she just continues her broodiness inside the cage. Keep her in there for a few days until she starts behaving normally again.
Broody Chicken Breeds
Any chicken breed could go broody. However there are certain breeds which have a greater predilection toward broodiness. The most common and most reliable types prone to go broody are true heritage breeds. Other types of chickens which have not been bred as layers such as silkies, banties and cochins are also reliable. This is because nobody has bred them to be better layers. They are natural mothers.
Hybrids or production breeds rarely if ever go broody, due to a focus on laying over mothering.
Bantam chickens
A bantam is any very small size variety of chicken. Most large size chickens have a bantam counterpart. The bantam version will be noticeably smaller than the standard size version of that breed.
Bantam chickens are notoriously prone to going broody. The mothering instinct is strong in bantams. They will hatch any type of egg, including full size chicken eggs. In our coop, our silver laced seabright bantam is right now trying to hatch a wooden egg. They will also try to hatch golf balls if you want to keep her broody long enough for you to get a baby chick to replace it with.
However keep in mind that her small size prevents her from keeping too many eggs at the correct temperature, so definitely don’t try to have her hatch lots and/or large eggs. Our bantam will roll up to four full size chicken eggs under her, but only about two or three would be likely to hatch – if they were fertilized.
Other chicken types that have strong mothering instincts:
- Buff Orpington
- Marans
- Silkies
- Cochins
- Brahmas
Although there is no guarantee, even with these breeds, that your chicken will go broody. We had a Buff Orpington who never once in her life went broody. So keep in mind that this list is not an assurance, but just a better probability.
Chicken Breeds that (generally) won’t go broody
As I mentioned before, any type of chicken could go broody. But these chickens listed below are far less likely to go broody. We have had many Americauna chickens and not once over the last ten years has any of them ever gone broody.
The full list:
- Americauna
- Ancona
- Andalusian
- Barred Rock
- Leghorn
- Polish
- Rhode Island Red
