How do I encourage my hens to go broody?

Date sort Score sort
Neese87 said:
How do I encourage my hens to go broody?
Click to expand...

first of all......
welcome-byc.gif
from San Diego.

I think you have to start with what breed of chicken you have. There are several breeds that never go broody .... Um er ... rarely go broody its been bred out of them.

If you want broody hens to have an easier time of it its a good idea to make a broody pen. What this is is a small enclosure with a nest box and space for her to get out go poo eat drink and maybe even dust bathe.... Without having other hens messing with her eggs or coming in to lay one on top of her, or her eggs. A broody pen keeps her and her chicks safe while they hatch too.

But broodieness is something that comes from the chicken not what you can provide, or incourage.

The breeds that I know of that go broody are:

Cochin, Game, Sumatra, Silkey, and Ameraucana. there are more much much more but typically the ones that are bread for heavy egg laying the broodiness is bred out of them.

hope this helps some.

deb
 
Last edited:
You cant incourage broodiness, or force it. Well....there is ONE way Ive HEARD of.... Its where you take a hen, shove her in a bucket and make her live in there until she goes broody, but it just seems mean...



Here our breeds that are broody

Cochin, Game (though they dont make good mothers due to their hard feathering), Silkie, Orpington, Austrolorp, D'uccle

Okay i could go on forever, but heres a site and it says wether or not its a 'Setter/Broody' and it will say 'Yes' or 'No' you can take ya look ;)

http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/breed-list.aspx
 
I was told that b/c the chicks are hatched from incubators they lose the instinct to lay on the eggs. I have not had one broody hen since I started raising chickens about 5-6 years ago. They all came from hatcheries. Then a friend gave some banty Old English Game chickens. These are totally raised from hens and not from incubators. Well both hens got broody this spring so we let them raised some chicks. We gave them some of ther own eggs and some from the standard size chickens. Now I have to wait and see if any of these go broody. Hope this helps.
 
Most of the above is true, except the part about games not being good mothers, as they are excellent mothers, unless maybe you live in AK and then it may put up a challenge for any breed of hen, lol. Also, while I agree you can't force broodiness, you can encourage it in the breeds that are enclined to it. I've had success encouraging setting by leaving eggs in the nest. Usually, since you can't predict when this will occur, it's a good idea to leave dummy eggs, either real or artificial, in the nest, then after a hen is locked on for a couple of nights, swap out the dummies for the fresh fertile eggs that you want hatched. This is just my experience with various breeds of gamefowl over the last 54 years. The breeds mentioned above probably will take the bribe as well. Good luck.......Pop
 
Lollipop said:
Most of the above is true, except the part about games not being good mothers, as they are excellent mothers, unless maybe you live in AK and then it may put up a challenge for any breed of hen, lol. Also, while I agree you can't force broodiness, you can encourage it in the breeds that are enclined to it. I've had success encouraging setting by leaving eggs in the nest. Usually, since you can't predict when this will occur, it's a good idea to leave dummy eggs, either real or artificial, in the nest, then after a hen is locked on for a couple of nights, swap out the dummies for the fresh fertile eggs that you want hatched. This is just my experience with various breeds of gamefowl over the last 54 years. The breeds mentioned above probably will take the bribe as well. Good luck.......Pop
Click to expand...

Bout the game

Naw, never said they werent good mothers, okay i did but i ment they have trouble hatching cause of their hard feathering, at least thats been our experince, we need fluffy butts to hatch\

LOL!
 
Broodiness is a hormone change; I don't believe it would have anything to do with whether the individual was incubated in a bator or under a hen. Kraienkoppes are another wonderful broody breed. In many breeds, such as Orpington, it is more or less common, but it's an individual thing. Lots of sources tell you how likely they are to go broody, including our own breeds section, Henderson's, etc. I've seen a fair amount of broodiness in my mutts; I really wonder whether crossing breeds makes it more likely.
 
Last edited:
I bought some ex battery hens (Lohmann Silver) and in the past 18 months they've hatched and raised 7 batches of chicks. They went broody, sat on the eggs, took very good care of the babies... They were wonderful moms. And I've been told battery hens won't go broody, because the broodiness got bred out of them. I've also had hens hatched in incubators that went broody and had chicks, no problems.
I sometimes leave eggs in the boxes for them, usually rotten eggs or eggs from other hatches that were infertile. That encourages broodiness in my hens, though it's not a 100% successful
method. It works like a charm with my MIL's bantams though!
 
hey,

Have had cornishX meat birds from a hatchery go broody and raise chicks well too. Free range like pros too.

Heard this one, and is a variation of the 'bucket' method. Think will try as will segregate meat birds (Black Jersey Giant X CornishX) so will have a hatch June 1.


Quote:

Hatched earlier last season and when wanted to butcher at larger than a fryer but smaller than a roaster size was too hot and ended up w/8-10 pounders .... too big for me so will move hatch to june this season.

cheers
 
I agree that we can't make the hen go broody, but I think that we can encourage her. ooptec's story and sumi's advice about leaving eggs are really good starters. I have also heard that an increase in calcium can encourage broodinesss. It is a hormone condition---but I think lots of eggs stimulate the hormones......

Right now I have a white Leghorn hybrid acting broody---and of all the chicken breeds---wouldn't the experts say she is the least likely??

Chickens can be unpredictable.... Good luck with helping your hen decide to set. (I'm trying to help mine!) ;O)
 

Similar threads

my21chickens
Encouraging a broody
Replies
6
Views
776
Ridgerunner
Ridgerunner
rosemarythyme
    • Haha
    • Like
    • Love
When do hens most often go broody?
2 3
Replies
22
Views
1K
Not-so Slick Chicken
Not-so Slick Chicken
N
How Do You Know When They're Actually Broody?
Replies
5
Views
239
eworms
E
Ilovechickens2525
    • Like
Broody hens!
Replies
7
Views
994
BigBlueHen53
BigBlueHen53
P
    • Like
Very Broody coop
Replies
4
Views
404
puddleglumWI
P

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom