Your hens may go broody at any time – this is when they tenaciously persist on sitting on eggs in order to hatch them. A hen is broody when she is trying to sit on the eggs and hatch them and won’t get off. It doesn’t really matter to them if the eggs are fertilized or not. It is a natural instinct for a hen to want to lay on the eggs but we have just about removed that out of them with making them.
A broody hen isn’t laying eggs. It may not be a concern of your. If you are going for maximum egg production or if you only have 2-3 chickens, it will just cut down your production of eggs.
You should be aware that a broody hen gets grumpy when you try to collect the eggs from underneath her; you have to beware as she might even peck you! Another factor to consider is that since the eggs are not fertilized if you allow the hen to sit on them, the eggs will decompose at a faster rate.
You have to break your hen of this habit by collecting the eggs on a daily basis. The main thing is that a broody hen’s body temperature increases so that she can transmit that to the eggs. One way of breaking the cycle is to cool down the hen. You can do something like put them in a cage with a wire floor for maximum circulation.
You can employ several tactics to break hens of the broodiness habit. The most common technique is to repeatedly remove the errant chicken from the nest and carry her around for 15 minutes or more, two times daily for two or three days.
For hardcore birds, you can place ice cubes or ice pack in the nest. However there may be instances when really extreme measures may be necessary like putting your hen in solitary confinement with of course ensuring that the hen has adequate supply of food and water.
Before you get to that point you can also just keep kicking her off the hen. You can also try just putting a few golf balls on the nest.
