Behavior of a brooding hen is:

• Kick others chickens out of the nesting box

• Starve themselves

• Become worried about their health poor health

• Stop laying eggs

• They want to be a mother

• Will not let you collect the eggs, become very mean and noisy

• Other chicken will copy their behavior contagious

• Which breeds are more likely to become broody
  

  Here are some ideas to stop this behavior:

1. Let it run its course

2. Collect their eggs frequently (so she will have no eggs to sit on)

3. Lock out of the hen house them

4. Place Ice under them or dip them in cold water 

5. Place them in a anti-broody cage

What is a broody hen?

A broody hen is one who thinks that she is incubating eggs to hatch. Incubation is three weeks and a broody hen might stay in a box for that entire time, or longer. Broody hens can be a law unto themselves, and they can go broody with or without eggs to sit on. It doesn’t matter that there’s nothing under her. Broody hens are very single minded and will want to sit on eggs that the others have laid almost constantly, taking only brief breaks for food and the toilet (sometimes they forget to even do that). She may pull out some of the feathers from her belly to feather her nest and allow her to feel the eggs directly on her skin. She could get aggressive screeching and even pecking at anyone who gets close.

Broody takes its toll on chicken health:

long periods of broodiness can take their toll on her health and so it is sometimes necessary to take action to stop her being broody

Starving themselves:

Desperate to hatch non fertilized eggs, hens can starve themselves to death, most hens won’t starve, but she will weaken in condition. You’ll want to do something. She’ll sit there, even on dangerously hot days when everyone else is staying cool in the shade.

Angry birds:

It’s about what to do about that angry, useless hen that is now taking up space in your coop and annoying anyone within a hundred yards of her. Possibly you will have to buy ear plugs Becoming Henzilla: Most broodies become horrors, – the angriest hen on the planet. She smashes eggs. She growls at hens and people alike. If you try to get her off the nest she will screeches like a wildcat and try to peck at you. At some point you will need to separate her from the flock. She will hog the box limiting productions form the other hens.  Be sure to wear gloves! 

Breeds more and less likely to broodiness:

Some hens are genetically programmed to go broody. Some never do. Breeds more prone to broodiness are Cochins, Silkies and Buff Orpingtons. Breeds less likely to brood are the ISA Brown chickens they seem to have had the urge to brood bred out of them. 

What is meant by Broodiness and broody hen?

A hen is capable of laying around 1 egg on a daily basis. Moreover, the hen does not prefer to incubate the eggs until the entire clutch has been laid. Through the use of this strategy, all the chicks hatch right at the same time. The physiological mechanisms and the broody hen symptoms change as soon as the clutch has been laid. She would want to stay above them while spreading out her wings for the purpose of keeping the eggs warm. If disturbed, she would start making muttering as well as growling sounds and may even engage in the protection of the eggs. Furthermore, she only leaves the nest for the purpose of eating and drinking only one time in a day. You would need to ensure that she does the process on a daily basis; otherwise she would be starved or would come to get the dirty eggs through her droppings. So, in lines to this, a hen is termed to be broody at the time she is raising the chicks, giving protection to them and also teaching them the methods to get their own food. Understanding the broodiness in hens is an imperative pre-requisite for the purpose of ensuring that the hens remain healthy.

A hen goes about her day, sleeping, eating, dust bathing, scratching the ground, and generally doing chicken things. She’ll lay an egg daily, or at least several times a week. She’ll take a break to molt in the fall, and won’t lay again until the darkest days of winter are over, but, generally, she’s active and productive. So, one day in the summer, when you step into the coop and your chicken is flattened like a platter in the nesting box, and she makes a horrid rasping noise, you worry. You pick her up and set her down on the ground and she remains fluffed out to three times her size and doesn’t move. The other hens either avoid her or rush up and peck her comb. She hurries back into the nest and yells at you. She does this day after day. She pulls the feathers out of her breast. You worry that she’s not eating. She’s certainly not laying.