Breaking a Broody Hen?

A few weeks ago I noticed that one of our chickens was not leaving the nesting boxes. When I went to reach for the eggs she puffed up her feathers and made a weird growling sound at me. I was watching throughout the day and realized this wasn't normal behavior. I started doing some research and read that she could be broody which basically means she wants to sit and protect her eggs in hopes of hatching them. The downside for one is that since we don't have a rooster (thank goodness) our eggs will never turn into little baby chicks no matter how long a mamma hen sits on them so they are just wasting their time. They can sit there for 3 weeks or more! That means we would be missing out on her egg production and we would have a nasty chicken to deal with!

In my research I read that in order to break a broody hen you need to address it within the first 2 days you notice that it got all broody on you. I read of various different methods and decided on a "broody breaker". The idea is that you need to cool down her chest (it got warm from sitting all day and night) in hopes of her returning to her normal chicken self. A "broody breaker" is some sort of cage that allows for air circulation, where she is away from the other chickens, and with no nesting boxes.Different websites I read recommended a rabbit cage but I didn't want to spend money on this little experiment, so I looked around for what we had that I could use. 

I came up with a pallet (I've been collecting them for some projects), left over chicken wire from building the coop, and old fence posts (we just redid part of our fence). My parents were visiting so I had my dad help.


Here she is looking all normal

Here she is puffing her feathers up at my dad

I think from the picture you can see how we constructed the "broody breaker". Pretty self explanatory.  Totally Scrappy Love style! 

Yes, I wore gloves to move her. I'm not that much of an animal person and I read they can be pretty nasty if you try to handle them while they are brooding.

There she is. Not to happy about it. 

The first day she got out b/c we didn't put a cover over the top so my husband just put her back in with all the other chickens that night. Well, when I went out the next day she was right back to sitting in the nesting boxes, puffing her feathers up, and squawking at me. I put her in the box, covered it up and left her in there for about 3 days. After that we put back in the coop with the rest of the chickens and she was cured! Yes!

If you have a broody chicken on your hands just google "broody hens" and it will come up with tons of information. I hope this helps someone dealing with their chickens.

Love or Hate?

Thank you, chickens, for this...

But let's not do this anymore to my nice flower pots that were in full bloom...

It's a Love/Hate relationship I have going on right now

Oh, Hello Chickens

 Thought you would like to see what the chickens look like these days. No eggs yet, hopefully by June. The kids love them and call them "chickys", Mac annoys them, and Kurt and I tend to their needs.

Chicken Coop

Here it is folks! Our chicken coop is about 95% done and the chickens are living happily in it (if only they would learn to walk up and down the ramp! Trying to teach them that at the top of the ramp is warmth from the heat lamp and shelter from the wind. They just aren't getting it.). Things still left to do are build the nesting boxes and attach some sort of little locking system to keep the door we will use to get the eggs out. We want to add a flower box along the railing and some sort of "chicken sign". "fresh eggs" maybe? 

The tree house was already here when we moved in and it does need some work!!! Definitely painting it and some of the boards need to be replaced. That is all a spring project!The kids already love playing up there.

And now...pictures!

That is the door we will raise to get the eggs out.

Large door for us to get in and clean out poop, refill water and food, and let chickens out to free range the yard

Side view

Front view

Here they are appearing to be freezing. If only they would walk up the ramp!!!! Lucky for them we put them up there at night.

I'm sure Emily will post pictures of their coop soon! We gave them 4 of our chicks.