What is a broody hen anyway? Learn all about broody hens, how to care for them, and how to decide whether or not to break them.
What is a broody hen?
If you’ve found yourself here you may be asking yourself, what in the world is broody hen? Chicken vocabulary can be really confusing and just plain weird, so let’s jump in and find out!
A broody hen is a hen whose hormones are telling her it’s time to make some babies. She’ll spend about a week or two laying eggs in the nesting boxes. Once she has a decent nest of eggs she’ll sit on them and keep them warm in the hopes to hatch some chicks.
Broody hens only get off the nest once or twice per day to eat, drink some water, and relieve themselves. Broodies go into a weird sort of trance while on the nest, zoning out completely and paying almost zero attention to the world around them. It’s honestly quite fascinating to see.
When do hens go broody?
Hens are more likely to go broody in the early summer and in the summer months. This is when their instincts and bodies naturally want to bring life into the world, and it makes sense because chicks hatching in the late fall and winter would be bad news in cold climates.
Is broodiness contagious?
While broodiness is not contagious in the same way as an illness is, yes, the rest of the flock can become broody after one hen does. If you have a lot of breeds that tend to go broody, you may see them fall into broodiness, one right after another, like little chicken dominoes.
Which breeds are most likely to go broody?
Some chicken breeds are more likely to go broody than others. And some breeds also make a better mama hen than others do! We’ve personally found Silkies to be the absolute best broodies and mothers to baby chicks. They’re sweet and caring, but also surprisingly tough for their small size, and don’t let anyone else hurt their babies.
We found Australorps to be some of the most stubborn broodies in the world. So much so, that I might not ever raise this breed again, even though they’re also some of the sweetest chickens around.
- Australorp
- Brahma
- Buff Orpingtons
- Cochin
- Silkies
- Speckled Sussex
What does it mean to break a broody hen?
The term “break” always seemed a little harsh to me, but since it’s so widely used, we’ll go with it. There’s nothing violent or harmful to this process, at least as long as you do it right.
To break a broody is simply a human intervention to get the hen to forget that she wants to hatch chicks and stop sitting on the clutch of eggs. There are many different theories and ideas out there on how to do this, and some of them are less than humane, we’ll recommend a good way to break a broody hen in the next few paragraphs.
Why might you want to break a broody hen?
Increase egg production
Broody hens aren’t laying eggs. If you have a small flock and really depend on that hen’s eggs for your breakfast, you may choose to break her broodiness so she can get back to laying daily.
Annoying broody behavior
Broody hens can be ornery and irritating to the rest of the flock. They take up precious nesting box space, and often park themselves in the favorite box that all the hens like to use.
This is not only annoying for the hens, but for the chicken keeper too.
Broodies like to bite anyone who tries to take away their eggs. If you’re someone who doesn’t appreciate getting bitten while you collect eggs, you may choose to break the broody.
Disruption in the pecking order
When broodies do come off the nest, broodies like to run around all puffed up, trying to intimidate the rest of the flock. Some other hens and roosters may see this as a threat and fights can break out.
This disruption to the natural pecking order can cause strife in your flock, and if it gets bad enough, can even lead to injuries.
Broody poop
This one is a truly minor issue, but oh boy, broody poops are disgusting and stinky and awful, and I’d be glad to never see another one in my life.
Because broodies don’t come off the nest very often, they save up all the poop and it all comes out at once.
You don’t want to hatch eggs
If you don’t have the desire or the ability to hatch eggs, then a broody isn’t much good to you. Maybe your flock is already the perfect size, or getting fertilized eggs isn’t easy, or you just don’t want to deal with the drama that comes along with new babies.
Whatever the reason, if hatching isn’t right for you right now, breaking the broody might be a good option.
The Hen’s health
Going broody isn’t a risk to a hen’s health, UNLESS a hen is broody for months and months on end. Some hens are very stubborn and will sit and sit on that nest for an entire summer.
Broody hens don’t take good care of themselves, they cut way back on the amount of food and water they take in, and don’t move around or socialize with the rest of the flock. All of this can become detrimental if they become malnourished, lose a lot of weight, or are getting relentlessly picked on by the other hens every time they DO come off the nest.
If this is happening in your flock, yes, it’s time to break the broody, for her own good.
How to break a broody hen
If you do choose to break the broody hen, here’s how to go about it.
This is a very simplified explanation, but don’t miss this detailed post on Murano Chicken Farm for the exact steps.
Most proven methods for breaking a broody hen revolve around the same concept.
The hen needs to be isolated from the flock in a separate pen, this can be a wire cage or a dog crate, but having a wire floor with no bedding inside is essential.
Getting her out of the dark area of the coop and into a well lit location is a good idea. She’ll need to stay there for at least a couple days, but the time frame is flexible depending on how long it takes each hen to snap out of it.
The point is to take the hen out of her cozy dark nest, take away the eggs, and cool down her belly and body temp. You do NOT need to dunk her in cool water, the wire bottom cage will work.
Why may you choose not to break a broody hen?
With all that covered, I have to add, you do not have to break a broody hen. There’s so many people out there who will tell you it’s absolutely essential to put an end to this behavior, and it’s not, truly.
The only reason I’ve found that I did have to do it was when we had Australorps who were putting their own health at risk by staying broody for months on end.
Otherwise, we’ve always made a point to let the broodies do their thing in peace. They snap out of it on their own eventually, and if they’re not at risk, you don’t have to intervene. You can let nature take its course as it’s meant to. This will save you the drama and work of trying to ‘fix’ their behavior, which isn’t easy!
A word of caution if you choose not to break the broody and don’t want chicks
Don’t learn this hard way… if you decide not to break the broody, but you also don’t want to hatch chicks, you MUST collect the eggs from under the broody every single day.
If the eggs are fertilized, they will develop into chicks under the broody hen, prevent this by collecting daily. If you have unfertilized eggs, you still need to collect daily because all that body heat plus sitting for weeks will cause rotten eggs, which trust me, you don’t want to deal with.
However, if you DO want to hatch chicks with a broody hen, ready on!
If you do want to hatch chicks
If you have fertile eggs, either from your own flock or purchased hatching eggs, you may want to try hatching them and letting a broody hen raise the chicks.
I can tell you first hand, we’ve done this many times, and it’s SO much fun! Seeing your favorite hens become mother hens is such a joy, and I truly believe that no one raises a baby chick better than a good mother hen.
Our very first batch of chickens had two hens that loved to go broody, a Chantecler, and a Silkie.
We decided to let them hatch some eggs one spring, and both hens were sitting on nests at the same time. When their chicks hatched, we were surprised to see that they both worked together to raise the chicks as one big family.
Broody hens tend to make great mothers, and really they’ll do a better job of raising chicks to be good chickens than you ever could in a brooder box.
How to care for a broody hen
Caring for a broody hen isn’t difficult, but there are a few things to take into consideration to make her life a little more comfortable.
Separate source of food and water
It really helps to give the broody her own food and water source close by, especially if you tend to keep your feed and water out in the chicken run and she’s in the coop.
Make life easier for her by giving her what she needs close to the nest so she doesn’t have to deal with the rest of the flock or be away from her eggs for too long.
This is especially true if you have chicks on the way, the chicks will need chick starter, not layer feed, so make sure that’s available to them. Momma hen can eat chick starter too!
Which brings me to the next point…
Move her to privacy
The easy way to make sure the chicks and momma hen are getting adequate food and water is to move them to their own private quarters.
Plenty of chicken keepers allow their broody chicken and babies to stay in the coop, but I caution against it.
We like to move the entire nest to a private area before the chicks hatch.
Your broody will have her hands (or wings, rather) full when the babies come, she doesn’t also need to deal with the rest of the flock up in her business and defending the babies from their antics. The flock dynamic can be brutal, especially with a broody hen, you don’t want the momma and her babies getting picked on by the rest of the flock.
We like to keep a very large rabbit cage or dog kennel on hand for just these situations. This is the one that we have, it’s enormous and keeps momma hen and babies safe and contained.