How long should I let her sit? Very broody hen...

[polo]

HI everyone,

Just wondering how long I should let my maran/speckledy sit. I have left her two eggs to 'incubate' and she has been welded to her nest for coming up to 4 weeks now. I'm quite happy for her to carry on if that's the best thing to do but do you reckon I should be encouraging her to give it up now? She seems fine although losing weight now.

Thanks

Polo

[RichmondHens]

I'm sure she'll soon realise the eggs aren't going to hatch. I just leave mine for as long as it takes. One of my bantams was broody almost all of last year but she got over it in the end. For a hen who spends more time in the nestbox than out of it she is in surprisingly good nick. I wouldn't worry too much about weight loss either, as long as she always has access to food/water she will take what she needs.

[Suechooks]

My young Silkie has been broody for a couple of weeks now so good to get your advice RH! I'm tempted to let her sit on some eggs - not least because I'm dying to try out the new incubator as well!

[polo]

Great, thanks for the advice, will leave her to it.

Polo

[chris]

Mines just about out of it now. I let her sit it out, she's no longer fluffing up like a turkey at me, but still is doing the odd barking noise thingy

[Corris]

As a newbie (and a future chicken mummy) can I ask why you let them sit please? If they aren't incubating surely it serves no purpose to allow them to do it? Or does it encourage them to lay? I thought they stopped laying when they were sitting?

Sorry - so many questions (and no doubt more to come!)

[polo]

Hi Corris, I'm new to broody's and thats why I'm asking too. You are right, it doesn't serve any purpose for them to be broody if you aren't hatching eggs. Getting them out of it is the difficult bit and can be rather stressful for the hen as it involves locking her out of the nest box amongst other methods. I'm not bothering with all the hassle of breaking the broodiness because it's not always reliable. Mine also is an older hen and doesn't lay fantastically well so its more bother than its worth.

I reckon (after advice) I would rather she worked herself out of it! Ask me again in another 4 weeks though :-)

When are you getting hens?

Polo

[Corris]

Well we had them before, and when they went broody we just dunked their bottoms in a bucket of cold water - a farmer in the village taught me.

They are 'sitting' because their bottom temperature is high, it's a circular problem because the sitting keeps them hot bottomed. Bucket full of cold water, meet hot bottom, good thorough dunking = non broody chicken.

The lady who owns the grazing I rent for my horse has done it with a couple of hers last year and it cures them a treat - immediate result.

I just wondered why everyone wasn't doing that and figured I must be missing a benefit to having them broody...

Now when am I getting them? We have put in an offer on a new house - which has a big garden - and I'm getting chickens! Course I have no idea when we'll get it - but it's never too early to start looking.

I was reading through deciding a) what sort of run to build (I want a moveable one/ark) - and b) what sort of chickens, I had brown leghorns before, but OH has been recommended light sussex by a guy at work.

[polo]

Well theres loads on here about runs, plans for them in the sticky and on 'chicken planter' thread and the ones from Chris Marks. Chris built a particularly nice coop which I though was really easy to clean!

On the bottom dunking - yes it cools them down but I'm not sure I would do that as this hen is so scared of people and other hens. Now she is broody its almost the 1st time I have managed to catch her and check her over properly and give her a proper dusting! I would hate to do anything that could make her even worse! Any way, perhaps you could search the pros and cons for bottom dunking on here - it really splits opinions.

Good luck

[Corris]

No doubt I'll fall over it shortly - I was still working my way down page one. I just wondered if I was missing an obvious benefit of leaving them well alone - no doubt I'll find out what it is shortly as I read through.

Thanks for answering though. I'm trying not to be too dim with my questions ,but we had ours years ago, and not for too terribly long.

I'm very excited about having them again though.

[RichmondHens]

As a newbie (and a future chicken mummy) can I ask why you let them sit please? If they aren't incubating surely it serves no purpose to allow them to do it? Or does it encourage them to lay? I thought they stopped laying when they were sitting?

Sorry - so many questions (and no doubt more to come!)

It is possible to discourage them, but not always successful. Hens are governed by their hormones, same as us, and it is all part of their natural cycle to go broody once in a while as nature gives them the urge to reproduce. This urge is stronger in some breeds than others; for some it has almost been entirely bred out while others have a strong urge to brood.

I favour a more gentle approach with my hens and tend to let nature take its course. I also keep many hens so a few not laying here and there is not an issue as the egg loss is not significant. I can see however for keepers with just a few hens then getting them back into lay is more of a priority.

The cold water dunking is a traditional method that can work (but I would not recommend doing it in cold weather) as is a suspended cage, both methods work on cooling the underside of the hen down, but they are not failsafe and some hens will just persistently sit regardless of whichever method you try. Again because I am not bothered about having broodies about it is easier for me and much less hassle just to let the hen do her thing. Certainly in the case of my bantam horde they spend most of spring and summer broody, but as a result come back into lay in the autumn and lay through the winter which of course is very useful as my large fowl all stop then. I like to work with nature rather than against and I think the hens are happier and healthier for it.

[Corris]

Thankyou so much for your answer. It's very helpful.

I only had five hens - so I guess that's why the local farmer dunked one into a bucket for me after I had moaned about it!

*the people who own the house we have bought are viewing a new one on Sunday - here's hoping the love it *

[motherhen]

RH and I obviously have similar views, I prefer the more gentle approach, here we usually recommend newbies have the little commercial layer as it it very rare for her to go broody although not unknown, why have chickens that are going to go broody if you are going to spend their whole lives trying to stop them.
Boil some eggs, mark them if others birds are going to add to the clutch and let her sit, if she is not going to jam up the nest box and give the other birds bad habits. She will eventually realise that the eggs are not fertile and will get off. Make sure she is well treated for red mite as a sitting hen can be a 24/7 ready meal if your house is infested.

[Corris]

Thankyou very much motherhen.

[chris]

Ah, I didn't boil the eggs I left her sit on. I cracked them open down the drain - poooooooooooooooooooooooweeeeeeeeeeee !

I let mine sit, Corris as I couldn't be bothered to do anything about her, it was the 2nd time she went broody this year (shes out of it now, this morning she squatted as soon as she saw me) - we had enough on our plates at the time!