July 1, 2022
For whatever reason, four of our hens became broody last month and since then our chicken coop has been a veritable carnival of crankiness. Each of the four occupies one of our nest boxes, sitting on an imaginary clutch of eggs, staring vacantly into space. As the other hens line up for their turn to lay, the broody ones refuse to move. If left to themselves, they will remain there for 21 days – which is how long it would take, in theory, for their imaginary eggs to incubate.
Frustrated that their favorite laying box is endlessly occupied, other hens will eventually climb in and lay their eggs on top of their zombie like flock mates. No one is happy with this. Especially those of us in charge of collecting the eggs. Broody hens not only stop laying eggs, but they become very protective of their box, or any box nearby. When we reach in to collect the eggs, they fuss, squawk, puff up their feathers and attack.
Some breeds of chickens are broodier than others, and some individual hens are more inclined to fall under the spell. Most of the “improved” breeds have had broodiness bred out of them, as it certainly takes a toll on a hen’s productivity and the coop’s overall sanity (such as it is).
It’s frustrating to try to break them of it. Just removing them from the nest rarely works. Sometimes I’ll relocate them to another coop which can confuse them long enough that they forget their mission. Sometimes I’ll lock them up in a “broody box” all their own, with a clutch of golf balls underneath them. Eventually they get over it and resume normal chicken behavior and begin laying again - but it can take a month.
My favorite option is to let them do exactly what it is that they want to do – let them sit on fertile eggs and raise a brood of chicks.
Unfortunately, we lost our rooster a few months ago, (apparently from a “napping with pigs mishap”) so we have no fertile eggs. Instead, we “borrowed” a few from my brother and put them under one of the hens. She happily sat on them for 21 days and now we have a small clutch of chicks. One appears to be a rooster, who I hope makes healthier napping choices than his predecessor, and two females who I’m sure, one day, will become broody nuisances of their own.