Chicken brooding/sick/hot?

[AliCat518]

I’m housesitting right now for someone I frequently housesit for. She has 6 chickens–has had them for less than a year. I’ve taken care of them at least 3 or 4 times for 1 week-ish at a time, no problems ever.

They live in a decent size “run” with a mostly enclosed coop where they sleep and lay eggs. The coop opens on both sides for easy egg retrieval. Until the past few days, every single time i’ve been here, all 6 chickens are out playing in the run and waiting (somewhat) patiently for their snacks. For the past 3 days, one hen stays in the coop and refuses to come out. Even when her favorite snack is given.

On sunday, we realized eggs were under her, and we took those (I know almost nothing about chickens, but these cannot be/are not fertilized, so I believe they can’t hatch). And it’s been 90-100 degrees so I dont want eggs to stay out in the coop for days.

Today she is further into the coop, and I tried to get her to come out, but she got clearly irritated, and I could see there are probably 5 eggs under her (which is how many the whole gang is laying per day at this point in the year). So clearly she must be getting up at SOME point if the others are getting in there to lay.

Does is sound like she’s sick? Super hot? Just wanting to hatch those eggs? They have plenty of water and food at all times (I just supplement with veggies, worms, scratch, etc).

[Ghazzu]

sounds like she’s broody.

[AliCat518]

I just read a little about broody chickens. Do you recommend leaving her or trying to get her out? Should I still try to take eggs out every day? (She’s fairly bitchy!)

[neversaynever]

She sounds broody to me also.

I have a hen that has gotten broody every year for the past 5-6 years. I can always tell when she is getting broody. She walks around fluffed up, but otherwise acts fine. Then I will find her sitting in the nest box for long periods of time, and will stay in the box at night instead of on a perch. She will flattened herself down in the box and threatened you if you try to reach under her. She will get out a couple times a day to stretch her legs, eat, drink, take a dust bath, then it is right back to the nest. She will sit in there with or without eggs under her.

The first year I would throw her off the nest several times a day and put her on a perch at night. She would continuously get back on. I then took her out of the coop and isolated her. When returned to the coop, she was fine for a week or so, then got broody again. She got extremely thin, and after more then a month of trying to “break” her broodiness, I finally relented and got her some fertilized eggs to hatch. The next year was a repeat of the first. Now I just give her some eggs to hatch every year. She is an excellent mom, and once the chicks are fully feathered, she is done mothering for the rest of the year.

[2DogsFarm]

Textbook Broody behavior.
Let her be & it will pass in a while.
My broody hen (who was NOT a breed known to get broody) took 3 mos!
Do continue to gather the eggs - wear gloves if she pecks at you.
Clever hen is “stealing” eggs from the others.
Since it’s so hot you might add a water source in the coop she can get to & maybe some of the feed too.

[jdobbs64]

I would take the eggs away daily and once that’s done, I would pick her up and set her get down on the ground. She will make bizarre zombie chicken noises,When her temp drops a little (the puff up their feathers to add heat and make themselves an incubator) she will suddenly startle, run around like a crazy thing a second, drop a massive poop, get something to drink and eat, maybe take a dust bath, and in about 20 minutes, go “OH NO” and run back to ‘her’ eggs. Likely the other hens are setting on top of her, so their eggs end up under her.

You can break their brood buy confining them in a wire bottom cage that’s elevated so she literally cannot get her temp up, and in a day or two, she’d be normal. But I wouldn’t do that to someone else’s bird

[AliCat518]

Whew, thanks for all of the info! I’m glad I didn’t somehow “break” someone else’s chicken! :lol: She’s quite protective over those eggs but between myself and the grounds keeper guy, we’re able to get them every day.

I can’t quite reach her in the coop…I tried to push her out with the end of the pitchfork but no dice. I’ll get my (completely non farm-y) fiance out there with me to give it a go!

[Mosey_2003]

For this short amount of time, I’d just take the eggs and leave her alone. They can break her when they get home.

[LetItBe]

AliCat518,

This is our first year with chickens and we lost one of our favorites to heat without realizing what was going on. She was fine in the morning and gone when we got home at night.

If any of the chickens are holding their wings out to the side and/or panting they may be overheating. We’ve since set up a fan and a mister and it’s made a BIG difference even though they always had shade and water.

LetItBe

[zoehesed]

She sounds broody to me also! I had my first broody hen experience this year… We needed more chickens as our flock was getting a bit small so I let her try to hatch out a bunch. They JUST hatched out today! I’m sooo excited!

We moved her to her own cage… a goat-run-in-shed that our goats don’t really use. They like the front porch better! We put chicken wire across the front and put some straw down on the floor and then when it got dark out we moved the hen with her eggs into the goat-house. This way it kept the other hens from adding to her brood because they all seemed to use the same nest box! I had some other people tell me that the other chickens would sometimes try to eat the newly hatching chicks so by isolating her - we prevented this from happening.

I started out with just 7 and somehow ended up with 12… not sure if they will all hatch or not if she stops sitting on the newer ones.

[chism]

I’ve had lots of broody hens. YOu can do all of the things mentioned… let her sit it out, try to break her of being broody , give her fertilized eggs to sit on, OR… my favorite thing if I don’t have fertilized eggs I want to hatch… wait until she’s been broody for oh…about 3 weeks… find some day old chicks from a friend, hatchery or feed store and sneak them under her at night… I’ve done that with several of my broodies and it’s made them immensely happy mamas.

Edit - Just realized that it’s not your bird… never mind… Let her people sort it out when they get back, just make sure she has food/water easily accessible to her nest.