Breaking a Broody Hen

Breaking a broody hen is in your girl’s best interest unless you are wanting to hatch chicks. Last year Hazel was broody for more than 35 days. We should have intervened sooner and taken steps to break her.

It takes 21 days to hatch an egg so this was beyond the normal brood period. Hazel would go broody several times per year. She was a great broody and was committed to hatching chicks. Some hens won’t sit the entire time and will abandon the nest but not Hazel. 

Unfortunately, we lost her last year and I believe it was due to complications from being broody. She wasn’t eating enough and lost a lot of weight. Broody hens generally leave the nest once per day to eat and poop. It’s hard on their system. 

If you have a broody hen, check on them frequently. Hazel would leave the nest several times a day plus we would remove her in hopes of breaking her. This had worked before but not this time. 

Broodiness is due to an increase in their hormones and can be very difficult to break.

What are some things you can do to break a broody hen?

Remove her from the nest several times a day. You may even need to block off the nest boxes. If your other girls are laying, you might only be able to do this late in the day. 

When we would remove Hazel, she would get a quick bite to eat and drink and RUN right back to the nest. 

Add a frozen water bottle to the nest. This will help to lower her body temp plus make it uncomfortable to nest in. 

Dunk in water. Dunking her vent area and even dunking her up to her chest in cool water can help lower her internal body temperature. I wouldn’t do this on a cold day unless you are going to bring her inside. Also you want the water to be cool and not cold. 

Set up a broody breaker. Many people use dog kennels or crates for this. Do not place any nesting materials in the kennel. The best setup is one that has a wire bottom where air circulates around her. If you can remove the bottom tray to allow more air circulation, that would be even better. You could even take a step further and set up on blocks are bricks to really get the air circulating. You may have to add some chicken wire or another support if you remove the tray.  

The last option is to get her baby chicks. As soon as a broody hears their peeps, something happens internally. Her motherly instincts kick in. She will start eating more and teach the chicks to eat. Eventually, she will leave the nest and teach the chicks to forage. Within a few days of getting chicks, Hazel would leave the brooder and even show them how to dust bathe. This is definitely more healthy for her. 

With Hazel, we should have intervened sooner. She had been broody the previous month but it only lasted a few days. Once we realized her condition was deteriorating, I started looking for baby chicks. The only problem was we were at our limit on chickens and would have to rehome them. This stressful for me because I worry about what type of home they will go to. I know not everyone cares for their chickens at the level I do.

I found another chicken is Momma the year before and reached out to her. She was open to the idea but couldn’t take them for 3 months. Then I had the idea of getting some broilers, or meat chickens. Herb and I didn’t want to process them so I found a lady that would do it for $5 a bird. I thought this was reasonable.

So now I had a plan but during this time, Hazel’s condition was getting worse. She developed wry neck, which can be caused by a vitamin deficiency. We brought her inside and started giving her vitamins, scrambled eggs, and forcing her to drink. I decided we couldn’t get chicks until she was stronger. 

If I’m ever in the situation again, and not successful at breaking a broody hen within a few weeks, I will find some baby chicks and figure out later what to do with them. We have no idea how old Hazel was, maybe she would have passed anyway but it broke my heart to lose her, especially for something that we could have prevented. 

If you have no desire to hatch chicks, you need to take steps in breaking a broody hen, sooner rather than later. Some will snap out of it on their own but don’t make the mistake I did and wait until it was too late. 

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