Tried frozen water bottle to break broodyness

[RichM]

My goodness, I tried a frozen water bottle in the egg box to break my broody copper maran. How could that not work? She turned it into hot water in 3 hours! I wish I made the egg boxes closable for nighttime.

 

[Rachela]

My goodness, I tried a frozen water bottle in the egg box to break my broody copper maran. How could that not work? She turned it into hot water in 3 hours! I wish I made the egg boxes closable for nighttime.

Yikes sounds like she was determined.

 

[Sunshine_Chick]

I've tried that too & living in Florida seems they thought I provided air conditioning. This year I tried the bucket trick & it worked. Fill a bucket with cold water & put the chicken in it for 5 minutes. Mine didn't fight me at all & seemed to enjoy being cooled down. I just pet & talked to her the entire time. Sure she'll go broody again & the bucket will come out again.

 

[iwltfum]

I always just put them in a dog crate in our barn with food, water, and no bedding. Kind of harsh, but if I do it at night, they usually aren't broody by the morning I just think about all the times I've unsuccessfully tried to move a broody hen in order for her to hatch her eggs in a separate space from the other chickens.

You could rig up some nest box excluders. Just a thought.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Crating them with food and water for a few days usually does the trick, easier on you and also less stressful for your other birds not having to deal with a cranky broody.

 

[RichM]

These were 16 ox bottles. Tonight I'm gonna try frozen gallon jugs. They should take up most of the space too.

 

[K0k0shka]

I've tried that too & living in Florida seems they thought I provided air conditioning. This year I tried the bucket trick & it worked. Fill a bucket with cold water & put the chicken in it for 5 minutes. Mine didn't fight me at all & seemed to enjoy being cooled down. I just pet & talked to her the entire time. Sure she'll go broody again & the bucket will come out again.

My grandma used a bucket trick back in the day as her go to method and it worked. Except hers was less patient. She would just pour a bucket of cold water over the hen. Something about the rapid temperature change seems to break them of their broodiness. Might be a problem in cold weather though.

 

[aart]

]Bucket method is where the term 'madder than a wet hen' came from.
Be careful water is not too cold as it could shock them physiologically(heart attack).
Same goes with ice in nest(frostbite).
Someone froze water in a flat half filled tupperware and put that in nest, protects from ice contact.

Crating them with food and water for a few days usually does the trick, easier on you and also less stressful for your other birds not having to deal with a cranky broody.

I use a crate, works fine.
My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Tho not necessary a chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[RichM]

Still having trouble. Using the jail method now. After a night and a day, she went to roost that night. Next evening, she went to the nest box and is back in jail. I wonder how this works. Is their memory only three days or so? If I give her a choice every day to roost or nest, will she never forget? She's already pretty upset about the jail.

 

[iwltfum]

My opinion is that she will do what you want her to do if you just keep her in the crate for a couple days. Don't give her anything to bed down in. She will be unhappy for a longer time if you have to keep dealing with her broodiness and you don't want her to sit on eggs. Try to ignore her uncomfortableness for 36-48hours and she will be back to normal.