hen gone broody

[bj taylor]

I think my buff orp has for real gone broody. she's been lingering on the nest the last several days & today she stayed all day. i'm starting my count from today. 21 days I might have some little fluffy butts. i'm going to snitch the eggs from the other girls while they're still warm & put them under her. I don't know how she'll take to being disturbed. I sure hope it doesn't cause her to come off the nest.

 

[Smart Red]

I think my buff orp has for real gone broody. she's been lingering on the nest the last several days & today she stayed all day. i'm starting my count from today. 21 days I might have some little fluffy butts. i'm going to snitch the eggs from the other girls while they're still warm & put them under her. I don't know how she'll take to being disturbed. I sure hope it doesn't cause her to come off the nest.

I have an Australorpe that is broody. I removed the eggs and replaced them with eggs from 5 different hens/roosters so hopefully on the 13th I will get a nice variety of crosses.

For goodness sakes! Mark the eggs you leave under her. I use a pencil and make an X on the wide end. Last year my other hens kept laying in the broody's box while she was off eating. Once I had them marked I was able to harvest the newly laid eggs each day.

Best of luck with your broody!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

give a few days extra than the 21 just to be sure before throwing out any eggs. an extra week is usually good in case she was just hovering that first week and not fully setting on them. i find chicks will hatch out one after the other too. also, if you think any eggs have gone bad you can always do the sniff test. if it has a smell to it it has gone bad.

if you do notice your hen getting off the nest when you give any treats she will be constantly making a low clucking/bawking sound and fluffing up whenever another hen or roo approaches her. she may run around frantically while enjoying her 'freedom' from her eggs. she'll do any business she's been holding back, and i do mean 'holding' back! be prepared for a broody poop which is large and bad smelling. she will eventually return to the nest or look for another area where there could be a pile of eggs and settle on that instead. just make sure she gets back to the right area and settles in there after her runabout. sometimes i find other hens will settle on the eggs while she's away. they will lay their eggs in the nest too or could be deciding if they want to go broody and just doing a favor by keeping the clutch warm. this is happening with my bantam cochins right now.

oh, and if you want to be sure that the chicks will be protected from the other hens while they are hatching you might want to find an area that you can protect her during her last week before expected hatch. i've used in the past a large dog cage or crate. (works well for bantams, LF i haven't used for broody's yet) i've had jealous hens snatch chicks that are just pipping and end up killing them. my peahens are notorious for doing this to my chickens. it also saves the eggs from being crushed by clumsy hens during their last week.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My test to see if a hen is really broody and is worthy of eggs is that she needs to spend two consecutive nights on the nest. Ive had some that acted sort of broody but really werent. It really wont hurt to wait a couple of days to make sure.

Collect all the eggs you want her to hatch and put them under her at the same time. It wont hurt a thing to store them for a few days before you give them to her. It is important all the eggs start at the same time. Just store them pointy side down in a fairly cool place, not where it is hot.

Mark the eggs so you can tell which ones belong under her. I use a Sharpie and make a couple of circles on them, one the short way and one the long way. This is so you can tell at a glance which ones need to stay in the nest.

Check under her once a day to remove any eggs that are not marked. You can use them as long as you collect them daily.

Good luck! Id really like to get a broody soon.

 

[so lucky]

I was hoping one of my girls would go broody, so I could put some fertile eggs under her, but I guess mine aren't broody types. Has anyone ever had a white Plymouth Rock go broody? I'm pretty sure the production red and the easter eggers won't.

 

[897tgigvib]

This is all so cool!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I was hoping one of my girls would go broody, so I could put some fertile eggs under her, but I guess mine aren't broody types. Has anyone ever had a white Plymouth Rock go broody? I'm pretty sure the production red and the easter eggers won't.

Any of them CAN go broody, but yeah a lot have had most of the broodiness bred out of them, especially the production breeds. When they are broody they are still eating but not laying eggs. Those commercial places have incubators to hatch eggs. They don't need broodies. I can understand the economics but I really like my broodies much better than my incubator!

Over on the chicken forum you'll occasionally see where a White Rock or Production Red goes broody, but it's pretty rare. I have had an Easter Egger go broody so it's possible, but if you got them from a hatchery I wouldn't expect too much from them either.

Orpingtons are supposed to go broody a lot and Black Australorps only occasionally. I've had several Australorp go broody and never an Orpington. It's just luck.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

heh, if you could find a local that rents out broody hens for incubating that would be neat! if you want to see if you could attract a hen to go broody you could get some ceramic or stone eggs. i've also heard of giving them golf balls that they will think are real eggs. i've always found it easier to integrate the chicks in the flock if they were hatched with a broody.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I tried that once with golf balls. Didnt work. In late spring when the weather and timing should have been perfect I added one golf ball a day to the popular nest until I had a dozen, then left them for a couple of weeks. I dont know what triggers them to go broody but that sure didnt. There were a couple of Black Australorp hens in the flock that did go broody later that year so the broody instinct was there. I know one try is not a statistically relevent number so maybe I should try it again.

I try to keep pullets from hens that went broody to build the broody instinct up in my flock but its slow going. Ive hatched one group in my incubator already this year and will fire up the bator again late May.

 

[so lucky]

I used golf balls to entice the girls to lay their eggs in the nest provided, rather than on the floor or in their yard, when they first began to lay. That worked. But I've not heard of using golf balls to entice them to go broody. They are so funny when they are about to start laying. Such a commotion, and such intense interest by the other girls!