Can you MAKE a hen go BROODY?

[sonshine15]

I have recently have had to sperate one of my hens because my rooster did a bit of damage to the back of her neck and I did not want her to get killed or infected. I built a cage which I would also use as a brooder in the spring. She started making a great recovery, so I was curious and took some fertilized eggs that I collected from my coop that day and I put them in the nest that she made in her cage. And to my surprise she took right to the eggs and seems to be going broody, she sits on them a good bit of the day. I hope that this works and she hatches some chicks!

It's late in the season for hens to go broody but since my only broody killed her chicks, I want to encourage one to go broody and see if it works. I have to separate one in mine from the roo (her shoulders and neck are sore and the saddle I made her didn't work out) and was wondering if it is too hard on them to be broody if they are also using energy to grow back their feathers?

 

[sjturner79]

It's late in the season for hens to go broody but since my only broody killed her chicks, I want to encourage one to go broody and see if it works. I have to separate one in mine from the roo (her shoulders and neck are sore and the saddle I made her didn't work out) and was wondering if it is too hard on them to be broody if they are also using energy to grow back their feathers?

You definitely don't want a hen coming out of a moult to go broody. They need far more food intake to grow feathers than they can get when brooding. If you had a broody kill chicks she will also kill any other hens chicks if she can get near them before they are about 12 weeks old.
My hens accepted 2 day olds into the flock and cared for them without a problem, but the attitude and behavior I see from one of those makes me worried she may be a chick killer, so I'm going to have to be more careful with this next lot.

 

[sonshine15]

Good advice!
I'm putting pinless peepers on her and a few others due to being too aggressive. As far as the one with the overzealous roo, I was hoping it would give her a chance to grow back her feathers. She's not molting the roo is just really rough and the others are doing some pecking where he's left off. I'll just separate her and let her heal up some till I get a saddle apron made for her that fits.

 

[sonshine15]

An update on the hen pecked WS. I put her in a cat carrier with 11 eggs night before last. She's very docile. I put her on high protein and snacks to help her shoulders and head from the roo grow back easier. I let her out 3 times a day, early AM, PM and dusk. She was definitely sitting on the eggs and the carrier was large enough she didn't have to. She had the normal huge poops etc. All eggs were warm. So yesterday evening I put her in a larger box with one end dark, plastic netting over the front and part of the top. That did it she stopped sitting on them lol.

Experiment #1 and at least her little shoulders aren't bright red now.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

I have at least thirteen breeds full and crossed. Some are mommy material and some aren't. My Sussex girls are the best. If it resembles an egg they're happy to brood. One salmon faverole only her own eggs. Our chantcleer will chase others off their nests to sit on the eggs and so will one cuckoo maran. Silver laced Wyandotte I wouldn't trust with a ping pong ball. Ameracauna seem disinterested.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

We did try to force a buff orpington and it didn't work at all. My girls like to hide in the yard somewhere and they'll reappear every other day or so to dust bathe, eat, drink, and stretch. For us, trying to contain a broody on a free range farm did not bode well.

 

[sonshine15]

We are free range here also. I also have mixed etc. I have spoiled them too much. They all come running if we walk out the door, drive up in the car etc Their coop is both inside and out. We have a large shop with coops inside and nests inside, a pet door cut into the back of the shop. The outdoor coop the pet door goes to is only shut at night when we put them up. Totally spoiled is an understatement but it works well. NO chasing to the pen at night thankfully

 

[Cockatrice6420]

Ours are spoiled also. When we give them scraps we holler "chicken treeeeeats!"and the whole flock comes running. So many colors streaking and bobbing across the yard. Then they all gather around our feet and it's like wading through the aftermath of a pillow fight.

 

[jayke563]

There was a short article in an issue of Backyard Poultry where this 12 year old boy shared his method and he got it from his grandfather. Basically what he does is, he covered a rabbit cage with tar paper to make it dark. Provide some kind of box to hold the nesting material and put the hen in the nest box in the cage. Each morning and evening he would take her out to eat and drink for about 20 minutes each time. He said it took about 4-5 days for the hen to go broody and stay on the nest without the tar paper. But, it was still best to provide a dark place, so he only took the tar paper off the front of the cage. This is the best I remember how the article read and I didn't save that issue. Passed it on to a friend, I think. HTH  /img/smilies/big_smile.png

would this work I want to do it

 

[sjturner79]

would this work I want to do it

If you have a hen that has the natural broody instinct it will work about 70% of the time