The Best Ways to Break a Broody Hen

If you have a backyard henhouse, you are likely to know many of the quirks and oddities of your hens. However, there is a natural behavior that might exhibit itself from time to time, especially if you are raising heritage chickens. Chickens who begin to nest regularly and stop laying are said to be "broody".

The whole goal of a hen's life is to reproduce. In a backyard henhouse, the keeper's goal is to get the hens to lay eggs every day but not to sit on them and incubate them. If you do not have a rooster, the eggs will be infertile anyway. As long as the eggs are removed at least daily, the hen is unlikely to go broody.

In a natural setting, the hen will lay an egg every day or two. Once there are several eggs in a nest (a "clutch"), the hen will stop laying and will sit on the eggs. It is only this increased warmth that allows the eggs to begin developing. This ensures that all of the chicks will be born around the same time. When this behavior starts to manifest itself in a backyard henhouse, the result is fewer eggs. Broody hens also tend to teach other hens the behavior so it is important to break a broody hen of the behavior quickly.

Newer hybrid breeds of hens have had much of the broodiness bred out of them. When used in a commercial egg operation, hens have little value if they go broody. Many backyard chicken enthusiasts raise older breeds of hens that still have their mothering instincts intact.

There are several tried and true methods of breaking a broody hen but each hen is different and you may find that you have to try several methods before finding one that works for her.

1. Taking the hen away from the nest.

This is the first method to try as it is the least disruptive to the hen and the entire henhouse. Segregate the hen away from her current nest spot and keep her from accessing it. For example, if she is nesting in a certain nest box, board it up so that she forgets about it. If she starts nesting in a new nest box, keep her in a different pen for a few days until she forgets about it. If she continues to try to nest in her new pen, you will have to try other methods.

2. Putting the hen in with a rooster.

A rooster will keep the hen busy for a few days and she is unlikely to have time to try to nest when he is trying to mate with her every few minutes. Once she has forgotten about nesting for a few days, return her to the henhouse and see if she goes back to being broody.

3. Letting the hen sit on a clutch of ice cubes.

There are few things more uncomfortable than sitting on ice cubes and a hen will find it that way as well. She will also get the message that it is not a warm enough environment to hatch eggs in and will likely abandon nesting efforts.

4. Putting the hen in a wire-bottomed cage.

The theory with this method is that air circulation that comes up from underneath will not make a hospitable place for nesting and that the hen will abandon her efforts to do so. I would not recommend this method unless all else has failed and only for three days at the most. The wire is uncomfortable for the hen to walk on and she could injure her foot on it.

Regardless of which method you use, make sure that the hen always has access to fresh water and food.