As soon as you see this plz reply, I'm waiting for a response cause I'm at my chickens as we speak

[Thebossbaby]

I have a sickie hen that I have moved to a different coop and put eggs there for her, trying to get her to get broody, it's been 4 days now and she won't sit on them, I'm loosing hope. I posted a similar question yesterday and got a bunch of "u can't make her go brood, it's by nature" responses, as well as some" u can encourage her by..." responses. The one that I'm gonna try is putting a towel over the nesting boxes, to keep it dark and hope that works. But I'm really confused as to how to do that. If I just hang it over it will then hen even know the box is there? I am putting a set of 2 boxes into her coop right now, so she isn't use to them, so how do I hang the towel? She isn't laying and if I do it fully, she won't know to go their, if I put it half way atleast she can she the eggs, but then it won't be dark, so what do I do!? Please reply if you have ANY information, thank you and once again, hurry plz!

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Some breeds never go broody so if you want chicks your better off buying a bator

 

[Thebossbaby]

But those at no fun, I love nature!

 

[Sara Ranch]

Your hen is sick? And you want her to sick on viable eggs to hatch?

What is wrong with your hen?

What breed is your hen?

How old is your hen?

Why do you want her to sit on eggs?

I haven't read the other post, so I don't know if you have already provided the information. It would be helpful if the information was in this post.

 

[TeeMom]

If she's sick, encouraging her to go broody is a bad idea. Brooding is very hard on the hen and if she's already compromised, it could spell disaster. There are things that you can do to encourage broodiness, but when it comes down to it, it's all dependent on nature and an individual tendency of the hen to go broody. If she's already sick, it's highly unlikely she will go broody anyway.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

A small entrance or some obstruction makes for a safe, dark place to nest. Birds instinctively want to lay eggs there. The better your nest area the less and no hassle as to where the birds lay. When a bird broods they will do so in a nest unless free range allows something even better.

I'm of the camp that you can't entice a bird to brood. It's a hormonal natural thing beyond human control other than messing with light cycle to trigger the hormones. Providing a nest of eggs would have little effect. In my years of experience with very broody birds I feel that leaving eggs may speed up the brooding urge but won't bring it alone. As in if we're away for a full day and don't collect eggs many times there is one or two birds brooding the next day. But that's with birds that are on schedule to brood anyway, the pile of eggs just gave an opportunity to start. See what I mean? All my hens will brood in spring, that's a fact. Leaving eggs and finding two brooding was just a reason to start sitting but didn't cause the brooding.

 

[Paauilo gal]

You can't force nature. She will go broody when she is good and ready, you can't make her.

 

[bobbi-j]

I think the OP meant to say "silkie hen". That was the information provided in the other post.

 

[junebuggena]

There is no magic method to get a hen broody. It simply doesn't work like that. You say that your Silkie isn't laying. Has she ever laid eggs before or is she too young to lay? If she's too young to lay, she's too young to develop the hormones needed to trigger brooding.

 

[TeeMom]

I think the OP meant to say "silkie hen". That was the information provided in the other post.

Ah...that makes FAR more sense! Haha