April Fools 2014 - BYC Sponsored Study: Increase Chicken Broodiness By Up To 48% With Aluminum Foil

[Tanichca]

I think I'll just make my entire nestbox system out of foil, then, so that I can have maximum broodiness.

 

[Florida]

Doing our taxes last night I ran across one for nearly 500 bucks from an auction for an aluminum igloo. When I saw how much was paid for this object that is idle on our farm I questioned my husband sanity. Now maybe not so much. Think I will turn that igloo into a chicken factory.

I have 3 black Orpington hens, 3 blue Orpington hens, 1 lavender Orpington hen and 3 lavender Orpington roos.

 

[chickendude]

People are going to be SOOOO angry.

Funny....aren't they?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What kind of paint do you use? It needs to stick to the foil and be non toxic.

No other possible paint but Tempera.

 

[speckledhen]

Must admit it sounded ridiculous to me at first, and I didn't have the best nest to try this with since mine are all uncovered, but this hen has never been broody before so must be something to it! Had to sort of attach it to the crossbar that used to support a cover, long since gone on this nest box set up. Delia was just drawn to this nest with the foil, one she never used to lay in prior to it being attached there. There is aluminum paint so maybe painting the nest box ceilings with that would be great if you really want a lot of broodies.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Must admit it sounded ridiculous to me at first, and I didn't have the best nest to try this with since mine are all uncovered, but this hen has never been broody before so must be something to it! Had to sort of attach it to the crossbar that used to support a cover, long since gone on this nest box set up. Delia was just drawn to this nest with the foil, one she never used to lay in prior to it being attached there.

She was drawn to the darker space.

 

[Florida]

In conjunction with the research, did you find any method that will decrease broodiness? That is often an issue for many of us, if we aren't planning on hatching this season we want to discourage the incidence of broodification.

Remove the roosters and snatch up the eggs. That may take care of it.

 

[Junibutt]

It's a great question! In fact, it was one that was part of our initial hypothesis, but we eventually eliminated light as a potential cause for the huge increase in broodiness after additional testing.

How about the reflection itself.? Maybe chicken eyes can see a reflection of themselves sitting in a box through the foil better than a human eye can, and that reinforces broody behavior. Can a mirror be used to test that hypothesis unless its been done already?

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

This was a very fun and enjoyable research project to work with! Since my son already has some heritage breeds from the University of Arkansas and we had two of the breeds they wanted to research (Orpington and Australorp), it was just intelligent to ask us to join the project.

Here is my son standing at the gate of the University of Arkansas, Poultry Science Research facility and farm.

Just a side note: We discovered that the cheaper aluminum foil at Dollar Tree is too thin to get proper results. The Reynolds Wrap works much better. A big thank you to the UofA staff and to BYC, NiftyChicken etc for allowing us to be a part of this exciting research project. We hope we can participate in any future research projects they have.

 

[Highcotton]

The Princess and I did this when starting our family. It works.

So now we know your secret. All of this time we thought it was your magic wand. It may still be your wand. The foil could be reflecting your magic powers to the hens.