Broody Hen?

[preacher1]

I have a question about one of my hens. She is a Buff Orpington. She's around 7-8 months old. For the past several days she has been staying in the next box day and night. I do not have a rooster so the eggs are not fertile. The first day I got an egg from under her, the second day she was still there but no egg, yesterday she's still in the box and I found another egg under her. She tried to peck my hand yesterday when I removed the egg. Does this mean she is wanting to set on her eggs? Could she be sick?

 

[gardener]

Sounds like she is broody. Broody hens will defend the nest and puff up and peck at you... signs of being a good mom.

 

[preacher1]

If I found some fertile eggs could I put them under her? Would she hatch them and take care of them? If I did this would I want to seperate her from the others?

 

[gardener]

I have no personal experience in this area yet. But I will be hopefully trying it in the spring. But from the info that I have been getting, I would suggest giving her a couple dummy eggs and waiting a few more days to a week to see if she stays broody. Then give her some fertile eggs and yes seperate her form the flock. Does that breed have broody characteristics? Are you in a mild climate to try this at this time of year? I dont think i would try it in a cold winter climate.

 

[akcskye]

I have heard of people successfully putting fertile eggs under a broody hen. It seems they don't realize there's a difference.

Back in May, I had a hen go broody, and we had a roo, so we let her sit, just to see.

The first day, she stayed all day but got up at night....we marked those eggs (5) as questionable.

The next 2 days, we let another 6 eggs get laid...and she stayed broody in the day, and then the night.

As the days wore on, my other 4 hens decided they wanted to be moma's, too...and you'd go into the hen house and all 4 would be sharing the nest, and when one would get up, they'd take her "share" and put under them, and vice versa.

Then the pullets started hatching in June (we ended up with 6...presumeably the 6 after she began 24/7 broodiness), and all but the original broody decided they were NOT gonna be moma...except in the field. Heidi, the original broody, would scoop them all under her during the night. It was TOO cute.

 

[IHeartChickens]

Here is a video of a lady dealing with her broody hen.

I have a book that suggests when you remove a broody from her nest, her temp will drop and somtimes, that is enough to put them off being broody. It does not sound like your hen is sick, just hormonal.

 

[Sitychick]

Preacher1 I have had three broody hens over the last few weeks - we have made a confinement hutch were we put the broody hen(s) for aprox two days with water and seed etc (never takes longer than 2 days) after a couple of days they run back to the flock to resume "normal" behaviour.

The longer you let one hen be broody - the more that will join her. When you don't have a rooster this can be a bit pointless.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Our 7 month old buff has gone broody 3 times now. The first time we had
a roo but all the hens tried to lay their eggs under her, like they knew
she would hatch them. It became a nightmare. We took the eggs away
and threw them in the bator.

The 2nd and 3rd time(this week) I just kicked her out of the egg box and
forced her back to the flock. After a few stimes she snaps out of her broodiness.