[Hen 1-0 Fox]

So, my silver Sussex decided to sit in the nest box early last night.... No big deal, I wake up after a night shift and at 1500 today she's still in the box. At first I think she may be laying an extra egg or something but my curiosity gets the better of me. I open up the nest box and there she is... In a trance sat on four eggs... Oh dear. I equip myself with thick gardening gloves and go in, she aims a couple of well placed pecks and makes more noise than I've ever heard before... I'm not deterred. I take the eggs and gently guide her towards the door of the coop, exiting of her own accord... She makes a racket then gets stuck into her food and free ranges rather than heading back in... Phew!

As I'm a novice keeper and this was my first experience, my girls are approx 5months old, anything u should have done differently? Many thanks for any feedback

Andy

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

One hour later and she's back in  

Have decided to block off the nest boxes during the day time to try and snap he our of it.

[jhub]

If that doesn't work you could consider caging her.  See here for advice
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=71657.0

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

Thanks for the link... Will let you know how we get on

[ANHBUC]

Doesn't that seem a bit young for a broody?  Have no experience of how young they usually are but 5 months old!!! 

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

My apologies... She is eight months... Maybe her ambition is to be a mother? Ha ha

[symonep]

we tried everything when our hen turned broody last year, gave up in the end and got her some fertile eggs, one of those eggs is roaming around the garden now.

Good luck, will be interested to see if you can find something that works (she will probably find all the others eggs today and sit on those lol)

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

Struggling with this a bit at the minute.. Albeit it's only been two days but ive built a broody cage and last night she spet the night in there... In the day she free ranges with no access to the regular coop, is this appropriate to effect her behaviour do we think? At the minute she keeps returning to the regular coop and trying to get in so I don't think I've broken her yet... I haven't tried the dunking in water truck yet.

[wildwitchy]

Invest in some golf balls or plastic eggs for her to sit on. I think the water dunking is very cruel tbh. She only wants to be a mum.

[gracie]

With our buff orpingtons we would continually lift them off to ensure their legs got exercise and they were eating and drinking enough, fortunately they never pecked at us they used to puff up like a hovercraft when they saw us approaching though. Once the other girls had laid their daily eggs we would shut the nest boxes off completely but this didn't help get them out of it they still stayed broody approx 4 weeks. We didn't want to go down the caged route as at present we don't have an obvious pecking order with our 4 girls ( even though there probably is one) and didn't want to risk one being more apparent when reintroducing them.
They have both been broody twice so far with approx 6 weeks inbetween. So guess I have another 3 weeks to wait to see if it happens again.  They were approx 11 months when they were first broody

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

Yeah I thought the water dunking sounded like a last resort... Hence not done that yet. I have teo problems with introducing golf balls... Firstly we have two nest boxes and the broody hen is very defensive over both and as such the other hens have had to resort to laying on the coop floor! Secondly while she's broody she isn't laying so I want to snap her out I it ASAP so she resumes laying. She is eating and drinking as normal but she relapses every so often. Will stick to the broody cage at night/free range with the other hens in the day routine and see how we get on. It's a balance between breaking her broody cycle and not disturbing the routines of the other birds... Watch this space.

[jhub]

Try caging her during the day and let her sleep in house at night (after blocking off nest boxes)
It took five days the first time my hen became broody to break the behaviour.
Good luck.

[Sassy]

It can take up to 2 weeks for hormones to return to normal

[Hen 1-0 Fox]

I think I was having success with her using the broody coop but OH convinced me to let her stay in the coop over night and she was on the nest again this morning. Odd as she doesn't rush back to the nest once you've lifted her off... Maybe she's mildly hormonal? Ha ha?

Decided she's going back in broody coop again to break it for good, fingers crossed