Broodiness is a natural behavior for hens – it’s their maternal instinct to sit on a clutch of eggs until they hatch into baby chicks. However, it can be frustrating for chicken keepers when a hen goes broody, as she will stop laying eggs during this time. Additionally, broody hens can lose a significant amount of weight as they refuse to leave the nest to eat and drink. So it’s understandable that many owners will want to break this broody spell. This article covers everything you need to know about how to stop broody hen behavior successfully.
Understanding Broody Hens
Before learning how to stop a broody hen, it helps to understand what drives this behavior in the first place. Broodiness is triggered by a rise in the hormone prolactin and a reduction in dopamine levels. Some breeds are genetically more prone to broodiness – particularly heritage breeds – but any hen is capable of exhibiting this maternal instinct.
When a broody spell hits, the hen will have a strong determination to sit in one place on a clutch of eggs until they hatch. She will rarely leave the nest voluntarily – even to eat, drink or dust bathe. You may also notice behavioral changes including aggressiveness towards other chickens or humans if they come near her clutch. All her energy goes into incubating those eggs!
Broody periods can last between 21-28 days if the hen is allowed to fully set on infertile eggs the whole time. Usually, hens will give up eventually once it becomes apparent the eggs are not going to hatch. However, some particularly determined hens will continue sitting indefinitely in vain hope of hatching chicks and this risks their health declining severely due to lack of food and water intake.
Dangers Of Letting A Hen Go Broody
While broodiness sounds idyllic as chickens fulfill their maternal destiny, there are some distinct downsides for both hen and owner:
- Loss of egg production – broody hens stop laying entirely
- Weight loss and reduced nutrition
- Increased risk of predators if she leaves the coop seeking quiet nest spots
- Loss of calcium from laying reserves stored in their bones
- Increased risk of flystrike on the broody hen – flies are attracted to the warm moist conditions underneath a broody
- Overcrowding and competition in the nest boxes if you have a limited number
- Aggression towards humans and flockmates
- A stressful experience if her clutch fails to hatch after a long brooding period
For all these reasons, most chicken keepers prefer to intervene and break the broody spell gently but swiftly before the hen gets too set in her ways or eggs pile up unlaid!
Signs Of Broody Behavior
How do you know if you have a broody on your hands? There are a few classic signs to watch out for:
- Spending excessive time sitting in nest boxes
- Growling or pecking if you try to remove her from the nest
- Feathers fluffed up to provide insulation to eggs
- Refusing to eat or drink and losing weight
- Only voluntarily leaving the nest once a day for very short periods
- Pulling out her own chest feathers to expose skin directly to the eggs
- Making a buck-buck-buck protest call when disturbed
- Staring angrily at you with flattened feathers if you come near!
If you spot 2 or more of these behaviors, chances are you have a broody that needs your intervention! Catching it early is key before she gets too set in her ways or starts severely declining through lack of food. Act fast but with patience and care for her delicate emotional state!
Tips On How To Stop A Broody Hen
Breaking up a broody hen takes some persistence, consistency and TLC! Here are the top tips to stop her in her tracks:
1. Remove Any Eggs
If she’s sitting in the nest boxes, start by removing any real eggs each day. Some hens will accept wooden or plastic decoys if it satisfies her maternal drive to sit on something. But removing the real eggs is an important first step. This may be sufficient to end mild broodiness.
2. Block Off Nest Box Access
If she persists in broodiness after eggs are removed, the next step is to physically block her entry to preferred nesting spots. This could be lining the nest boxes with wire grids or obstacles. Or covering nest boxes entirely and removing any bedding/ fill that serves as an inviting egg-laying magnet!
3. Move Her To New Environment
One of the most effective solutions is removing the broody altogether from familiar surroundings and interrupting her descending hormone levels. This essentially gives her a fresh start. You’ll ideally want to transfer her into a different coop or separate broody breaker cage if possible. Make sure to provide food, water and a perch. The new quarters should be less cozy and inviting than her normal nest. A wire floor can help deter her from settling in one spot.
4. Encourage Exercise & Foraging
Now she’s in her new pen, help her shift focus away from broodiness by filling time with activities inconsistent with sitting in a nest! Make sure she fills up on food after likely starving herself while broody. Scatter treats encouraging foraging which doubles as exercise. You want her to rediscover the joy of free-ranging in a flock again! Consider placing her next to a window so she can see the outdoors and is stimulated by activity happening outside her pen. Introduce rooster calls on a Bluetooth speaker to evoke memories of mating rather than mothering!
5. Add Cooling Measures
Broodiness thrives when a hen can keep eggs warm against her body heat. You can expedite the breaking process by making her newly separated environment cooler and less conducive to brooding. Try placing ice cubes in her waterer and freezer packs wrapped in cloth near (but not inside) her shelter at night when temperatures drop. The aim is not to make her dangerously cold – just keep the pen cool enough that she doesn’t settle in comfortably.
6. Use Light Manipulation
As with most chicken behavior, lighting plays a pivotal role in regulating broodiness. Chickens rely on increasing day length in spring time to trigger hormonal changes for egg laying and mating. Mimic this artificially in your broody breaker pen by providing 15-17 hours of light daily. Use the longest days in summertime as your guide. Natural sunlight is best, but substituting artificial light works too. Just don’t shine bright lights directly into her eyes at night. The hormonal shift can help her forget about broodiness quickly.
7. Persist With Prevention Measures
Depending on her determination levels and breed inclination towards broodiness, it make take up to 5 days to shake off the broody bug once separated. Check on her progress daily but don’t return her to the main flock until she’s eating, drinking, scratching, dust bathing and using the perch normally. If she persists in sitting without eggs, continue blocking nest box access upon her return. Also collect eggs frequently so she doesn’t amass a clutch size triggering her instincts again. You may need to go through this separation protocol a few times before she quits entirely. But don’t worry this isn’t stressful to a determined broody – just a nuisance getting in the way of hatching her imaginary clutch! Persevere politely but firmly.
Natural Preventatives
While the above steps work extremely effectively to break an existing bout of broodiness, some small tweaks to their environment can also discourage it happening excessively:
- Keep coops well-ventilated and shaded to prevent overheating
- Use nest boxes lined with wire/ mesh rather than bedding
- Limit protein intake to 15-16% feed if possible
- Provide at least 14 hours of daylight in coop
- Use golf balls or wooden eggs to take up space in boxes
- Discourage hens roosting/sleeping in nests overnight
- Reduce stress and overcrowding in flock
Practice these to hopefully prevent broodiness taking hold in the first place. But if it does strike, now you know how to stop a broody hen in her tracks!
Dealing With A Particularly Stubborn Broody
Even when you try your best, some hens seem impossible to convince to stop being broody. They want to stay sitting on eggs long after the eggs would have hatched.
If you have already tried all the normal tricks and nothing worked, you might have a super stubborn broody hen. Here are some last-chance ideas before giving up and letting her sit for weeks with no eggs!
Use An Even Cooler Broody Breaker
If your current broody breaker pen is cool, make her new home really chilly! Use wire floors and no cozy nest box. Put her in a shed or hutch with no insulation or wood shavings. Set up a fan to blow cold (but not freezing) air over where she sleeps. Give her frozen water bottles to stand on. This might make her think it’s not hatching time!
Wet Her Breast Feathers
A soaking wet broody hen is not a happy broody hen! Use a plant mister or spray bottle filled with cool water to spray her breast and belly, but avoid her head. Do this every time you see her try to nest. The feeling of cold, wet feathers where warm eggs should be works really well to stop even the most stubborn broody hens!
Move Her Every Few Days
Just as she seems to be getting used to the new pen, move her again! The more you can stop her from having a routine, keep her in new places, and stop her from making a comfy nest, the more confused she will get. The goal is to mess up her mental map of good nesting spots.
Use Smells to Keep Her Away
Rub citronella balms that smell like predator animals like foxes on surfaces around her pen. She won’t want to settle anywhere that smells so scary!
Think About Putting a Rooster Back
If she’s totally away from male birds right now, carefully putting a rooster back might make her focus on mating instead of being broody. But make sure her health has started getting better first.
When Nothing Else Works…Wait!
If you can’t get her to stop being broody no matter what, sometimes waiting is the only fix! Watch closely to make sure she slowly starts eating and drinking enough again. After 3-4 weeks of living without baby chicks, most hens will sadly leave their nest that didn’t work. She’ll come out ruffled but okay after her stubborn broody time. Just get ready to block the nest boxes quick before she tries again!
Long Term Prevention
Once you’ve conquered a bout of persistent broodiness, the last thing you want is repeated episodes!
Here are some measures to minimize long term broody recurrence:
- Rehome culprit birds if one hen keeps triggering the others
- Limit protein to 12-14% to curb reproductive hormonal surge
- Ensure coops are breezy, shaded and quiet nesting sites
- Use golf balls or wooden eggs to fill empty clutch space
- Reduce nesting materials and make boxes less appealing
- Supplement feed with calcium rich layers pellets/oyster shell
- Consider not keeping overly broody pure breeds long term
- Avoid hatching chicks which can intensify broody instinct
- Ensure flock respect nest box space limits
Watch closely for the first signs of broodiness, and act fast to stop it before the hen gets too set in her ways. Keep making small changes to how you care for your hens to lower the chances of them going broody in the future. With time and patience, you can stop the annoying broody cycle! But also know that it might still happen sometimes because it’s just a natural thing some hens do, and you need to handle it kindly even if it’s a bother!
FAQs On Breaking Up Broodies
Some breeds and bloodlines are genetically much more inclined towards broodiness than others. If she keeps repeating the behavior no matter what you try, it’s likely in her genes rather than your management. Consider rehoming her to someone wanting a broody if it becomes too problematic.
Never forcefully remove a tightly sitting broody – this can lead to injured legs and feet as she will likely protest and struggle. Also don’t tip her off as the fall may impact developing eggs if she’s early stage. Instead use food incentives to gently encourage her out.
Most hens will recommence laying 1-2 weeks after a broody spell once hormones have normalized again. Be patient with her – an exhausted broody hen will take time regenerating resources into her depleted body before she’s ready to produce more eggs.
It is possible but risky – the longer you allow a hen to stay broody, the harder it then becomes to break the behavior as she’s emotionally invested. Also hatching chicks may intensify her maternal instincts afterwards. So best practice is always intervening in early stages of the first noticed broody spell.
In Summary
Look for the tell-tale broody signs, act swiftly to remove real/fake eggs and access to nest spots, transfer her to a separate broody buster set-up, add environmental measures to discourage brooding, persistently reintegrate her once her behavior returns to normal and use preventatives long-term. With patience and diligence, you CAN help a broody hen resume being a productive flock member again! Just persist politely in foiling her (fruitless) efforts to hatch while meeting her basic needs during this hormonal phase.