I know that there is a fair few old wives tales around about how you stop a hen from brooding or get them out of (shorten) there brooding cycle. Is there any proven ways that actually work, however.

Further any suggestions on how long the average chicken broods for. I have a chicken that appears to lay for about 6 to 8 weeks and then goes broody for two to three weeks.

I know that these brooding cycles often depend on the breed of the chicken, but is there anything you can do to actually reduce the time that the chicken is brooding for or a way of trying to coax the chicken out of brooding as often or for so long.

Thanks in Advance,
Rob NELSON
rnelson@actonline.com.au

I just keep pulling her out of her nest. It takes a while, but she'll finally give up.

Quickest way, without drastic measures, is to separate her to a place without a nest box. She may sit on the floor for a while, but very soon, maybe not more than 2 or 3 days, will return to former mode. CJR

I found that unless the bird is extremely stubborn a quick dip in a tepid bucket of water (just before it goes to roost) does the trick and I haven't had one get sick yet. Of course, I don't do this in the winter months.

Hi,

I had one of my Black Giant Hens brood. Black giant is a leg horn hybrid.
The first thing I did was get some info from the web.
I found out that it doesn't hurt the chicken if it
does brood. They will only brood for about three weeks. The fasting they do is actually good for them according to info I got from the web.

So I let the hen just brood. I let her do it for three weeks. I made sure she had food and water near her.
She did leave the nest once a day for about 20 minutes.
She took a dirt bath and ate and drank. I'm really into my chickens and I would check her often during the day.
Brooding chickens go into a chicken stuper when sitting on the nest. If she became aware of me, she would cluck softly and fluff up every feather. Kind of like looking at a puffin fish.
I have a total of five hens. Each day the other four hens would lay their egg near the brooder and the brooder would push the eggs underneath her. Eggs last a long time so I didn't worry about the eggs going rotten so I left most of the eggs with her. But when she got up for her daily bath, I would get some of the eggs. She never seemed to notice any eggs were missing. Wooden eggs don't work for me. I don't have a rooster so these eggs were unfertile.

Once the three weeks were up, I went out and got her
off the nest, took all of the eggs. I had to remove her from the nest three times that day. Then she stopped brooding.

I believe in working with nature and not against it.
It doesn't hurt the chicken to brood so let her. She will stop brooding within three or four weeks all by herself according to some info I got from the web. But my personal experience is if you let them sit for a while it's easier to get them to stop brooding.

An elderly woman years ago told me this and it's worked every time without fail: When a hen starts to brood, I place them in a suspended rabbit cage with a wire bottom, no nest but with a roost board(a 2x4)on the floor.When you see her sleeping on the board take her ,at night, to your normal roost.Usually takes about three days.Extremely stubborn ones might take as long as five days .I've never had one take that long.The wire floor keeps her from benefiting from the heat generated by Broodiness in a nest and stops them cold, so to speak.Try it,if it doesn't work,I'll take the hen.Could always use a real good broodie.JaRaCo