5 Easy Ways to Break a Broody Chicken

Last November, we ended up with a broody chicken when one of our Speckled Sussexs wouldn’t leave the nest. Yes, we had a broody hen in winter. She stopped laying, plucked the feathers from her chest, sat in one of the nesting boxes day in and day out, and hissed like a dinosaur if anyone came close. As time passed her comb and wattles, and the red skin around her eyes, became noticeably pale.

A week or two later, another Sussex went broody. Her chosen nesting site was in our secondary barn, where she sat in an old wooden box incubating a small plastic bottle that she was convinced was an egg. She, too, stopped laying, plucked out her feathers, and wouldn’t even leave her “nest” at night to come into the coop. Every night I had to walk down to the red barn with a flashlight and carry her back.

A broody chicken can be problematic for your flock and for your supply of eggs. If you have roosters and want a free flock of chicks, there are several things you need to do to care for a broody hen so that she hatches those eggs successfully.

However, if you don’t have a rooster then your hen is sitting on a nest for no reason. And, this can spell trouble. So, what is a broody hen, and how can you stop a hen from brooding?

Broody Chicken Meaning

Hens are called “broody” when their maternal insticts wake up and they start wanting to hatch their own eggs.

When you have a rooster fertilizing the flock, broodiness is great because it means you’ll soon have a new batch of free baby chicks. However, if you’re keeping hens without a rooster, it means that all she’s going to do is sit on her nest waiting for chicks that will never come. She’ll also stop laying new eggs while she’s broody.

Most modern hens don’t go broody simply because they’ve had their mothering instinct bred out. However, there are some best broody hens like Silkies, Orpingtons, and Cochins. Although there’s no guarantee that these breeds will go broody, they’re more likely than other breeds to do so.

The problem with broodiness is that once one hen starts, it can spread through the entire flock. You start with just one broody hen and in a month, you could have four or six. This, as you can imagine, is disasterous for your egg supply, especially if you let your chickens free range and they’re in the habit of hiding their eggs. All of a sudden your eggs might disappear, and you could spend days or weeks looking for a nesting site that doesn’t exist.

Another problem is that broodiness is really hard on the hen. She won’t eat or drink nearly as much as she should while she’s on the nest, which means she’ll lose weight the longer the sits. She will only defecate the few times she leaves the nest, which is also hard on her system.

In short, a broody chicken’s health can decline over time, especially if she’s sitting on unfertlized or invisible eggs. So, it’s important that you try and break her broodiness as quickly as possible.

Signs of a Broody Chicken

You might have a broody hen on your hands if you see some of the following signs:

• Your hen doesn’t want to leave her nest to join the rest of the flock. When she does leave she’ll eat or drink very quickly and then go back to the nest.
• A brood hen sounds different. She’ll squawk or hiss at you if you get too close.
• Her comb and wattles have gone pale.
• When on the nest she’s very flat, trying to cover all the eggs at once
• She squawks or tries to peck at you when you check the nest for eggs. She might fluff up her feathers to make herself look bigger when anyone comes near.
• She’s plucked out the feathers from her chest and belly.
• Broody hen poop is large and smells strongly.

How to Break a Broody Chicken

If you have a broody hen on your hands, there are several different methods you can use to break the cycle.

1. Remove Her From the Nest

Your first option is to remove the hen from the nest. To do this, you’ll have to physically pick her up and take her out of the coop (or wherever she’s nesting) and put her with the other hens. You will have to do this several times a day, because she’ll keep returning.

This was the first option I tried when our hens went broody, and it didn’t work for us. I didn’t have the time or patience to remove two hens from two different nesting sites several times a day. However, that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you! If your hen isn’t very committed to her nest, this might be all she needs to break the broody spell and rejoin the flock.

However, if you have a committed hen, you’ll need a different strategy.

2. Remove the Nest

Your next option is to remove the nest itself. This might mean taking out the nesting box or removing the box or the pile of hay that she’s sitting in. Wherever she’s nesting, take it out or tear it down.

This was the second option I tried with our broody hens, and it also didn’t work. These girls were serious about their nest! I took out the nesting box Flores was sitting in, and she went back to brooding on the floor directly underneath where her nesting box had been. The other Sussex in the red barn had been nesting in an old wooden box. When I removed it, she also just went back to nesting right on the floor where the box had been.

Again, this doesn’t mean that removing the nest won’t work for you. Many people report success with this strategy. But if you have a hard-headed hen like I did, you might need to move on to strategy #3.

3. Give Her Some Frozen Vegetables

I stumbled onto this brilliant idea at The Happy Chicken Coop, and wish I’d known it when our hens went broody!

The idea is simple: when a hen goes broody her body temperature rises. So, you put a bag of frozen vegetables under her to cool her down and send her hormones a signal that they’re not broody anymore. I’ll definitely try this approach next time we get a broody girl in the flock.

4. Put Your Broody Chicken In Jail

Another option is to put your broody hen in jail. An old dog crate would work well for this, but you could use anything large enough to hold the hen comfortably, as well as a food and water dish.

The trick with making a hen jail is that while your hen needs to have enough room to turn around, you can’t make it comfortable. Don’t put any bedding in there. If you’re using a wire crate, put it up on cinderblocks or wood boards so that the floor will be cold and drafty. If you can, put the jail in a noisy, well-lit area of the coop. Broody hens like dark, quiet, warm places. So, you need to give her the opposite of what she wants.

Keep her in jail at least a couple of days. If she goes back to her nesting site when you let her out, put her right back in jail. Again, always make sure that she has food and fresh water while in jail.

I didn’t try this method with our hens simply because I didn’t have a dog crate or anything else that would work as a jail cell.

5. Close the Nesting Site Entirely

Another option is to seal off the nesting area entirely.

If you have multiple hens that are not broody, this is going to be hard on them because they won’t be able to get into the coop to lay their eggs. They’ll lay their eggs somewhere, and chances are you’ll have to go look for them. But sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.

This was the method that finally worked with my girls. I sealed off the coop and the secondary barn for two days. I thought those two Sussexs would go out of their minds from clucking and pacing back and forth in front of the doors on the first day, and I really felt bad about causing them so much distress.

But you know what? By day two they were over it. They rejoined the flock and were free ranging around the yard like nothing had happened.

Last Word

Although broodiness is undesirable in many cases, it can be beneficial to have a broody chicken, even if you don’t have a rooster.

For example, if you have a broody chicken and want new baby chicks, you could purchase some fertilized eggs from a breeder, a neighbor, or your local co-op and let her hatch them herself. This would fulfill her mothering instinct, and give you some more chicks for your flock.

However, keep in mind that baby chicks that are hatched by a hen (rather than hatched in an incubator) are often more skittish and fearful of humans. If you’re looking for friendly, loving hens, this might not be the best option. However, if you just want mroe layers or meat birds, letting your broody hen sit on a clutch of eggs might be a good option.

I’d love to hear from you. Have you ever had a broody hen? What method did you use to get her to stop brooding?