Self sustaining flock Questions

[Chicken Egg 17]

Does anyone no if my hen is going broody my laid an egg a couple of hours ago and when we got back from my grams she wasn't up on the roost with every one else she was on the floor sitting on her egg so is she going broody or what thanks

 

[ToddQ]

Does anyone no if my hen is going broody my laid an egg a couple of hours ago and when we got back from my grams she wasn't up on the roost with every one else she was on the floor sitting on her egg so is she going broody or what thanks

Possibly, watch her for a few days. If you want the egg, take it aznd replace it with a fake or golfball.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Well I did take the egg and set her on the roost so we'll see how she acts tomarrow

 

[aart]

I can promote the broodiness although they still tend to put too many eggs into nest before going broody. Older dom hens that go broody can do it twice a season, some do more but to be conservative I will say two. They are still not as consistent as the games

How do you 'promote the broodiness'?
Do you ever 'break' their broodiness?

 

[bobbi-j]

Possibly, watch her for a few days. If you want the egg, take it aznd replace it with a fake or golfball.

Or, if you don't want her to be broody, just take the egg and don't replace it with anything.

 

[centrarchid]

How do you 'promote the broodiness'?
Do you ever 'break' their broodiness?

I seem to be able to promote broodiness by restricting ration once a few eggs are laid. Hen then seems to exhaust her reserves with the production of a few more eggs. As the reserves are exhausted the hen looses weight. The weight loss appears important for ceasation of lay and start of broodiness. Speculation about reserves (see below).


With my free-range games where the process I have watched very close, hens come into peak weigh at the onset of lay. As they produced eggs they loose weight then they go broody. Weigh loss not consistent in degree even with same hen so I do not think it is weight directly they measure. Maybe it is medullary bone or some nutrient reserve needed for vitellogenesis. Normally / naturally the hens have a hard do have a hard time accummualting the nutrient resources to produce a clutch of eggs. Some nutrients they can build as they go without trouble. Our nutrient dense diets designed specifically to support egg production may enable hens to accumulate more nutrients delaying the depletion of reserves. With some chickens with higher egg production capacity that games either the birds are more efficient at uptaking the nutrients or the mechanism that monitors nutrient reserves is somehow different.


I have done some experimentation to support above.

 

[centrarchid]

I break broodiness but not very often. Doms do not go broody often in that first year. In the second year late in the season I allow all hens going broody to hatch as that is a criteria in addition to first year's egg production I use as selection criteria. Olders hens I will break of broodiness but if I keep good food to them they tend to stay in lay until late in summer.

 

[ToddQ]

I tend to enjoy the sparring match with my hens when the try going broody. I can't help but laugh at them as they try whooping me for taking their eggs

 

[Mrs. K]

I think that the amount of light also influences broodiness. I have found that my flock will tend to produce broodiness at the end of May or early June, UNLESS we have a great deal of cloudy days. I do not add artificial light. Last year, we had so much rain, it was endlessly cloudy for much of May and June, but in July, we had days of sunshiny days, and I got two broodys within days of each other.

If I think that they might be getting broody, I let eggs or golf balls pile up, and that seems to help make them get serious.

Mrs K

 

[centrarchid]

I think that the amount of light also influences broodiness. I have found that my flock will tend to produce broodiness at the end of May or early June, UNLESS we have a great deal of cloudy days. I do not add artificial light. Last year, we had so much rain, it was endlessly cloudy for much of May and June, but in July, we had days of sunshiny days, and I got two broodys within days of each other. 

If I think that they might be getting broody, I let eggs or golf balls pile up, and that seems to help make them get serious.

Mrs K

Think about what happens in July. It gets hot. Forage quality begins to faulter. Feed intake declines because of heat.