Broody hens .... i am having some trouble..

Hi all!

I may be new to Backyard Chickens but trust me , me and my family aren't new to chickens and birds!, (poultry)

okay so we have just got another baby turkey form somewhere else and by the looks shes a female

that's not the problem for some time now we have been waiting for our hens to go broody their ISA browns and are not known to go broody often... we do have a speckled black and white hen who apparently should go 'broody' but shes not showing major signs of it yet... and she is an older hen, when I try to approach her on her nest when shes laying for instance she runs away cause she frightened she doesn't squawk or protect her nest.

But the ISA browns sit on their nest when they are laying and when I approach them the stay and squawk and almost tend to bite! (peck)

I have noticed ALL the hens are sitting on their nest (once they have finished laying ) longer than usual and I am hoping they are going broody.

we have a few roosters and they are doing their jobs perfectly

My family and i want to hatch more baby chickens and hopefully if the new turkey is a female and the chickens haven't gone broody yet then maybe she'll act as our mother/incubator .

but that's in a long time

and we aren't willing to use an incubator..

so what do you think our a hens going broody? they refuse to take care of little baby turkey though and the rooster looks like he wants to attack her .

I would appreciate any info or any experience of broody hens or something in your answers , answers to my questions would be extremely helpful , anything that applies to my text above would be cool to


Thanks

chickenlover4yo

Hi and welcome to BYC.

Some of my hens sit in the nest after they have laid. Its only a matter of time before they will want to stay put, i.e. become fully broody. I have two of my four layers that are broody at the moment and I'm getting a bit cheesed off with them as they are so determined - despite my broody-busting efforts!

Good luck
CT

hehe good luck CTKen!

hopefully you will hatch a few little chickens or your own

I hope our hens start going broody to !




I was wondering I have noticed our ISA are going back to their nest regularly during the day but the still go to the roost at night does this mean they are close to going broody , even tough they are ISA browns and are not known for setting?

our speckled black and white hen goes into her nesting log more frequently and its quite dark In their and definitely isolated for raising a family... and theres a whole clutch of eggs in there... i see her keeping them warm whenever shes in their and attacks another hen if they attempt to go into her nest.


I see her siting on the eggs lot of times but then she comes out for a few hours and then seems to go back in the log. I was wondering if the fertile eggs could still survive and grow like that.

and I dont see her going to the nest at night....

so I don't know....

Hi again,

I already have 9 five week old chicks running around and I'm not sure my wife would be totally crazy about even more!

Returning to the nest does indicate some degree of broodiness, but they may not become totally broody.

No, eggs will not develop when the the hen is not sitting on them. Typically, a sitting hen will only leave the nest once per day and then only for 20-30 mins or so.

I'd suggest removing the eggs and putting golf balls there and wait and see if she goes totally broody. Even when she does, i would suggest leaving it for a week or so, just to make sure that she is dedicated to sitting.

All the best

CT

Thanks CT !!


is there anymore answers from you fabulous people I still need lots a info and advice!

Thanks!