Possible Broody Pullet?

[kloverdarling]

My girls have been laying for about a week, week and a half or so now. I went into the coop this morning to find one of my Black Jersey Giants laying. Came back in after a while and Brown Chick one of my Easter Eggers was sitting on the freshly laid Jersey egg, while I was in the coop she laid a beautiful mint green egg of her own. This was the first time I actually got to see one of my girls lay. So I gave her an egg that one of my Rocks had laid that morning, she took it. She rearranged the eggs and sat back down on them. I just went in to change out the water in the coop and she is still sitting on them. I put a small container with food and small container with water close to her. I am going to be keeping an eye on her but could she be broody at 5.5 months? If so this is really exciting for me. My Barred Rock rooster has been mating the girls for weeks now.







Any suggestions or tips when dealing with a broody girl would be wonderful!

 

[nchls school]

That's great! I have five new Japanese bantam chicks and one serama chick. So many died in the shell over the incubation period, but I am thrilled to get the six.

 

[nchls school]

My girls have been laying for about a week, week and a half or so now. I went into the coop this morning to find one of my Black Jersey Giants laying. Came back in after a while and Brown Chick one of my Easter Eggers was sitting on the freshly laid Jersey egg, while I was in the coop she laid a beautiful mint green egg of her own. This was the first time I actually got to see one of my girls lay. So I gave her an egg that one of my Rocks had laid that morning, she took it. She rearranged the eggs and sat back down on them. I just went in to change out the water in the coop and she is still sitting on them. I put a small container with food and small container with water close to her. I am going to be keeping an eye on her but could she be broody at 5.5 months? If so this is really exciting for me. My Barred Rock rooster has been mating the girls for weeks now. Any suggestions or tips when dealing with a broody girl would be wonderful!

If a pullet (young hen) is old enough to lay eggs then she is also old enough to go broody. Your post says that she laid an egg today so don't be surprised if she leaves the nest for the rest of the flock. Broodys are quite protective-they will puff up and growl when disturbed. If your hen sets all night into tomorrow then she is probably "broody". Good luck.

 

[aart]

It's possible she broody....but I kinda doubt it.
They often will sit on eggs even after they lay, or sit in nests and not lay at all.
Some go in do their thing and leave, some spend quite a bit of time lounging around in the nests whether there are eggs in there or not.

Do not provide food and water next to the 'nest' even if she is broody, a broody hen should get up off the nest every day to eatdrinkpoop and stretch her legs.
If you want a broody to hatch out some eggs for you, do some reading up on them so you can decide how you will choose to 'manage' it.

There's a massive thread about broody hens here that is chock full of stories and a good place to ask specific questions.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/496101/broody-hen-thread

 

[kloverdarling]

Sadly I just lost her to a fox.

I woke up the other morning to my rooster Diesel making a horrid sound I'd never heard before. I looked outside and he was protecting his remaininng girls from the fox. I started to yell out the window and my boyfriend released our dog to chase it off.
Luckily I didn't lose anymore that day.

I am still really bummed about my Brown Chick getting eaten as well.
But we are in the mountains and we free range so that is sometimes part of it.

 

[cicknmama]

I noticed that my 6 month old Easter Egger Muffy was in the nest box most of the day. When I open the lid and reached under her to see if she laid and to collect eggs she didn't budge. She's usually pretty flighty and won't let me pet her much so I thought this was odd behavior. I pulled 3 eggs out from under her and she still wouldn't budge, so I picked her up and noticed a handful of feathers in the box. I read that they sometimes will pluck feathers from their chest to warm the nest. Isn't she too young to be broody and an Easter Egger? I also live in Montana and our winters are harsh...to late in the season also? What's going on? Is she broody?

 

[nchls school]

I noticed that my 6 month old Easter Egger Muffy was in the nest box most of the day. When I open the lid and reached under her to see if she laid and to collect eggs she didn't budge. She's usually pretty flighty and won't let me pet her much so I thought this was odd behavior. I pulled 3 eggs out from under her and she still wouldn't budge, so I picked her up and noticed a handful of feathers in the box. I read that they sometimes will pluck feathers from their chest to warm the nest. Isn't she too young to be broody and an Easter Egger? I also live in Montana and our winters are harsh...to late in the season also? What's going on? Is she broody?

If the hen has been laying eggs for a while then she very well could go broody at six months. One of my serama pullets is brooding after laying just six eggs; she won't be four months old until September 1st. Seramas mature earlier than other breeds, but this is very young. My other pullets that are the same age have not yet started to lay.

 

[kloverdarling]

when I came home from work last night one of my barred rock girls was in a nest I know had at least 4 eggs in it when I left. She has not budged. I gave her another egg that had been laid this morning. Now another girl has jumped in the nest with her to lay her egg. Will a hen lay her egg in a nest with a broody hen on purpose?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

when I came home from work last night one of my barred rock girls was in a nest I know had at least 4 eggs in it when I left. She has not budged. I gave her another egg that had been laid this morning. Now another girl has jumped in the nest with her to lay her egg. Will a hen lay her egg in a nest with a broody hen on purpose?

She is choosing to lay in the nest on purpose, yes, but not out of some sense of the hen being broody and trying to have her hatch the egg - simply because hens like a nest that another hen has "endorsed" (this is why you find multiple eggs in one nest and other nests empty even when there is not a broody hen in the equation). You will want/need to mark the eggs that she has now and then check daily to remove all "new" eggs to avoid a staggered hatch if she is going to be allowed to set in this nest that remains accessible to other birds.

 

[kloverdarling]

That makes sense! I was hoping one of the girls would go broody sooner in the season as I live in Colorado but I don't want to discourage her. I've been wanting chicks the natural way. My birds don't like to be handled, wondering how to deal with that as I do want her to sit but I also don't want to upset either of us in this process. Also should I look at putting in a heat source for them since she'll be hatching the beginning of winter?