A Broody hen?

[Anonymous]

I could really do with some help for one of our hens. We thought that she had become broody as she wanted to sit in the nest box for long periods. She did lay an egg with a paper thin shell a couple of days ago and hasn't laid since. Our other hen has laid and it appeared our broody hen was sitting on it.
On reading my book, it suggested to shut off the nest box so they would sleep outside for a couple of nights. Our broody hen still didn't lay, our other hen has carried on laying.
We are now starting to worry that there maybe an egg stuck? We again followed our book which suggested hovering her above a steam bath to relax the muscles. She seemed much more alert after this and was eating and drinking, after half an hour though shes gone back to the nest box.
Can anyone help please...........does she need a trip to the vet? Thank you.

 

[Tim]

Hi Sharper,

Yep, sounds like she's broody. Often they will peck you and make noises if you go near. Normally, if she is thrown off the nest she will go back on within a short time.

This time of year, many hens will go broody - often younger hens won't be very good at being broody and might come and go a bit and give up in a few days but once broody, they stop laying and just want to sit on eggs - any eggs!

It's very hard to stop a broody hen (some ideas if you follow the link), some breeds are harder than others to stop.

I usually throw them off but if they are persistent, give them some eggs to sit on in a broody hen house, or let them sit on crock eggs away from my layers so the rest of the hens can carry on as normal. Once they stop laying, you are unlikely to get eggs from her for some time - at least a until a few weeks after she has given up being broody.

The soft egg can happen occasionally, it's nothing to worry about. If you get more than a few, then it could be a problem if you have young otherwise healthy birds - the majority of an egg shell is made up of calcium carbonate. A constant supply of oyster shell grit ensures they have sufficient calcium in their bodies to form egg shells. If insufficient calcium is available, they can lay soft or poor quality egg shells but it can also be caused by the wrong diet. See this info on Feeding Chickens.

Hope this helps?

Tim