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If you’ve found one of your hens refusing to leave the nest, squawking and puffing up like a little feathered balloon when you get too close, chances are you’ve got a broody hen. Broodiness is a natural part of a hen’s life cycle, and understanding how to manage and care for broody hens is vital for the health and well-being of your flock.
Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about broody hens: what it means, how to recognize the signs, and tips for managing this behavior. Whether you want to support your hen through the process or break her of her broodiness, we’ve got you covered!
What Does It Mean When a Hen Goes Broody?
A broody hen is one that has decided it’s the perfect time to hatch a clutch of eggs. She develops a strong urge to sit tightly on her nest all day, keeping the eggs at the ideal temperature for the incubation process to start.
This is a fascinating period to observe chicken behavior, as your hen will behave in ways that you’ve never seen before. They commit to sitting on their eggs for at least three weeks, rarely leaving the nest for more than ten minutes at a time.
All of the hen’s resources are focused on creating the ideal conditions for her eggs to hatch, often at the expense of her own health and welfare.
Why Do Hens Go Broody?
It is unclear what exactly triggers broodiness in chickens, but experts believe it is a combination of hormones and instinct. It is thought that factors such as day length and leaving eggs in the nest box can trigger broodiness, but even caged hens in artificial climate-controlled barns can become broody. Most backyard chicken keepers find that their hens tend to go broody in the spring, but it can happen at any time of year.
Interestingly, some chicken breeds are much more likely to become broody and are better mothers than others. Heritage breeds like Silkies and Cochins are particularly renowned for their mothering abilities, while hybrid hens have a reputation for being fickle and unreliable when it comes to hatching eggs.
Signs of a Broody Hen
The signs of broodiness in hens are instantly recognizable! Common indications that your hen is broody include:
- Constantly sitting in the nesting box
- Refusing to leave the nest, even when there are no eggs
- Puffed-up feathers and growling or clucking when approached
- Reduced or no egg-laying
There are a few other subtle signs of broodiness – for example, have you ever heard the term ‘feathering your nest’? When chickens are preparing to brood, they will pluck out the delicate down feathers from their chest to line the nest. This also ensures their skin is in direct contact with the eggs, providing them with maximum warmth.
Early Stages of Broodiness
In the early stages of broodiness, a hen will try to accumulate a clutch of eggs to sit in. She may choose to occupy her favorite nesting box, in which case she’ll often end up with a collection of eggs from other hens in the flock as well as her own. Some hens will create their own secret nest away from the coop, in which they’ll lay an egg every day until they have enough.
Our first experience with a broody hen was when one of our lovely hybrid girls, Bobbles, suddenly disappeared. We feared the fox had got her in the night, but the next morning she reappeared for breakfast and then vanished again! This continued for several days until I managed to stalk her back to her hidden nest deep in a thicket of brambles.
We could not get Bobbles out, so we just had to leave her to it and hope for the best. After three weeks, she proudly emerged with eight beautiful chicks—a 100% success rate!
The interesting thing about this experience is that every one of those eggs was her own, so she’d laid in the same spot for eight days in a row before settling down to incubate them. However, despite there being a week between the first and last egg, they all hatched together. Nature really is incredible!
Potential Issues with Broody Hens
Broody hens can be inconvenient, particularly if you don’t want to rear chicks. They can prevent other hens from laying if they take up a position in a favored nesting box. It is common for one broody hen to trigger broodiness in others in the flock – not ideal if you rely on consistent egg production!
If you don’t plan on rearing chicks, it is a good idea to discourage the broody hen from sitting. Broody hens can suffer from dehydration, malnutrition, or exhaustion if they don’t leave the nest regularly, and prolonged broodiness without eggs to hatch can also lead to frustration and stress. Discouraging a hen from sitting is called ‘breaking’ a broody hen – not a phrase I’m fond of, but it’s far less brutal than it sounds!
How to Break a Broody Hen: Effective Techniques
You’ll read of many ways to discourage broody hens from sitting, but our failsafe method is to go into the coop every night and lift the broody hen out of the nesting box and onto the perch. We sometimes need to do this for four or five nights in a row, but eventually, she seems to forget all about wanting to become a mumma.
There are some other suggested methods to ‘break’ a broody hen, but I feel they can be more stressful for the hen. However, if the technique described above isn’t working, you could give one of these a try:
- Remove her from the nesting box multiple times a day and block her access to it.
- Place her in a wire-bottomed cage for a few days, which discourages nesting behavior.
- Limit her access to dark, cozy spaces where she might want to nest.
Check Out Our Video On Tips for Managing Broody Hens
When to Let a Broody Hen Hatch Chicks
If you want to expand your flock, letting your broody hen hatch a clutch of eggs can be exciting. You will need some fertile eggs, either from your own hens or purchased from a local breeder. Make sure the broody hen is healthy and well-fed to maximize her chances of a successful hatch.
Before expanding your flock, there are two things to consider. The first is the quality of the chicks you are producing – do you want a specific breed, or are you breeding to enhance certain traits such as egg production? The second is whether you have a plan for any roosters – you’ll likely hatch more than one, and they will not be able to remain within your current flock.
Caring for a Broody Hen
Caring for a broody hen is a not always easy. In the early days, you just need to make sure she has a safe, secure place and access to food, water, and a dust bath. We have a designated maternity coop with a small outdoor run, and we move any broody hens into this at night when they settle down without too much stress. From then on we try to disturb her as little as possible, but gently encourage her to leave the nest daily to eat, drink, and stretch her legs.
The incubation period is usually 21 days, and as the hatching date approaches, you’ll need to set up the coop with special food and water containers for the chicks. The coop must be clean, dry, and free from drafts as newly hatched chicks are incredibly vulnerable. However, the joy of a broody hen is she instinctively knows what is best for them, so she’ll do all the hard work for you!
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Kate Chalmers
Kate is a passionate gardener who has a keen interest in all things related to homesteading and sustainability. She resides in Portugal with her husband and menagerie of animals and has over 15 years of experience in the UK veterinary industry. In 2020, Kate and her husband took on a dilapidated Portuguese house and abandoned olive grove, turning it into an abundant food forest and home for nature.
Life on the homestead is never the same from one day to the next, and Kate has mastered many skills that she is keen to pass on to anyone with an interest in becoming more self-sufficient. Kate believes that living a sustainable lifestyle is the key to happiness and fulfillment and that everyone can make simple changes that connect us back to nature and reduce our impact on the planet.
