What chicken breeds are most likely to go broody?

[Rstine]

We bought 3 wyandottes last fall and 2 of them have already been broody, 1 has already hatched 2 clutches. She is a good little momma. My silkies have never been this broody.

 

[Naser]

Buff Orpingtons I had a few, They are good mothers and can sit on more eggs.

 

[jspeese]

Cochins for sure. And as others have said already, random hens of any breed. The best broody hen that I ever had, bar none, was a black sex link!

 

[varidgerunner]

I thought just based on body shape alone that maybe my BO or my Wyandotte’s would.

However my first to go broody was my black austrilorpe, Stormy. And then a few months later Hazel, a partridge penedesenca did. I just thought it was weird because they are more narrow, upright birds. They don’t seem to have as much surface area to cover a nest. And the shorter wider rounder types seemed totally uninterested. Lol. Who knows!

Body shape has little to do with broodiness. Dumpy birds like Orpingtons and Silkies sometimes go broody, but your Penedesenca is built more like a wild red Jungle fowl. Wild Red Jungle fowls have a longer history of a high incidence of broody behavior, having raised chicks since before recorded history.

Broodiness is regulated by brain chemicals. The release of these brain chemicals is triggered by various factors, sunlight, temperature, and probably many other things. Modern breeds that have "had the broody instinct bred out of them" lack the ability to produce these chemicals, or maybe the ability to produce the chemicals that trigger their release. When you are dealing with a breed in which only some of the hens go broody, it is a sign of cross breeding with birds that are missing the chemical processes that facilitate brooding. When dealing with altered brain chemicals, the full brood cycle may not be achieved. Or it could get turned on for too long. Silkies can be stuck in brood mode, leghorns are stuck in the lay mode.

The cycle should come in a wave, with the tightest setting being the four days starting at day 18 of full incubation. Three to four weeks post hatch it's time to stop setting and roost in a tree. At six weeks post hatch it is time to lay again, but only for a couple weeks.It's around a sixteen week cycle, that will run back to back unless conditions trigger dormancy (Moult, stress, extreme weather, lack of sunlight).

 

[Vicker]

Any of mine that have gone broody have been Buff Orpingtons. Once I had one sitting on a single egg. The day it hatched, I bought 4 newly hatched Dominique chicks and put them in her nest. She raised them for me.

 

[Reina Pennington]

My Australorps are consistently broody. I'm dealing with 2 out of 3 right now. My Olandsk Dwarf hens have also been quite broody.

 

[rlhagan56]

My two Mottled Java and I have been battling it out since April! I get them to stop broodiness and then 2 weeks later they try again. I think it's natural with Java's.

And then there are my 3 black Ameraucana's. The lavender haven't been broody, but the blacks are as determined as the Java's. All are 17 months. Wish I could find roosters for them without ordering 25 chicks from a hatchery.

 

[lifein1840]

I have two very large Speckled Sussex that take turns being broody from early spring until late summer. They are very good broodies and mamas and with being such large hens they can easily cover 13 eggs. I highly recommend the Speckled Sussex breed for broody hens!!

 

[lifein1840]

My two Mottled Java and I have been battling it out since April! I get them to stop broodiness and then 2 weeks later they try again. I think it's natural with Java's.

And then there are my 3 black Ameraucana's. The lavender haven't been broody, but the blacks are as determined as the Java's. All are 17 months. Wish I could find roosters for them without ordering 25 chicks from a hatchery.

Try finding a local source of fertilized eggs....call your local 4-H groups, check at farmer's markets, look on Craigslist, put the word out that you are looking for fertilized eggs and you will most likely find plenty!!

 

[lifein1840]

I have a BO and 2 Australorps plus other random breeds , been raising chickens for over 3 years and have never had a hen go broody. I really want at least one too. But so far when I try leaving eggs. My BO just eats them.

Try to find some Speckled Sussex...I don't know about hatchery stock though, I bought mine as day old chicks from a breeder and they are amazing broody hens.