Best broody breed?

[rubyrogue]

Which breed makes the best broody hen?

 

[mopargal1972]

Silkies or Cochins

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

I agree silkies and cochins. My cochins are always broody. So much so that I have to keep taking her off the nest to break her as she would be sitting forever. I have a first timebroody silkie who I thought was sitting on an egg. I moved her to check and she was sitting 2 weeks on nothing so I gently put 3 jersey giant eggs under her now shes happy as a calm SHe looks so funny trying to keep those big eggs under her little body.

 

[Southernbelle]

Silkies. I kept a group of Silkies, just to brood for me. With 10 hens, I always had at least one broody year-round and last spring, I had my record of 8 being broody all at once! My hens would lay between 10-12 eggs, go broody, raise out their chicks. About 4-weeks after the chicks hatched, she'd start laying again, lay her 10-12 eggs over a 3 week period, go broody again, raise out chicks, repeat all year long.

I've heard bantam Cochins are also very broody; I just don't have any personal experience with them. A lot of bantam breeds are frequent broodies: Old English Game bantams, Japanese, etc.

 

[thetajmahalcoop]

what do you do with them while they are broody? do you move them? what about food and water for them? I have a few cochins that have wanted to go broody since I got them last fall at auction and I keep "breaking" then as I didn't want chicks to deal with over the winter. Well now it's starting to warm up and I want to put some eggs under them, and maybe some chicks when they arrive april 17th in the mail. any suggestions? thanks in advance! My cochins are golden laced, partridge and buff and very sweet gentle ladies indeed!

 

[jjrabbit2]

Silkies are the best broody Mamas! My hen just accepted 7 chicks from the feed store plus the 3 she hatched. Just make sure you put them uder her from the back. Dont sit them in front of her at first as she might start pecking them...

 

[rubyrogue]

Thank you all. So Here is my plan, will it work? I have a 11month old(well by the tim this happens he will be older) i go to school full time and work part time. I don't have time to brood chicks. If i have a hen go broody could I place eggs under her that i want hatched and let mother nature do the rest? Will she care for the chicks so I dont have to? Do i need to sperate her from the rest of the flock?

 

[jjrabbit2]

Yes to both ?'s You can put any eggs under her and she will think they are hers... I always seperate mine cuz other hens will come in and sit on her and lay more eggs and bug her. Plus if she broods to high the chicks will fall out when they start moving around or other hens might come in and hurt her chicks. I put mine in a crate or rabbit cage untill the chicks are old enough to get away from the other chickens. About 1-2 weeks You can take her out once a day to stretch and poop. Broody poop is huge and smells BAD!

 

[BeccaOH]

I don't doubt the silkies' broodiness. My friend owns them and has them sitting most of the time. I bought cochins for brooders, but they are still rather young to know if they'll get the urge. (I really don't know how to encourage the urge.) Right now I have 2 Buff Orpingtons that are broody. I gave my older hen a clutch of eggs, but the young hen is currently sitting on nothing. Just sitting.

My older BO hatched twice for me last year. When she showed the urge the first time, I gave her a clutch of 7 eggs and put her in a separate cage within the coop. She had access to food and water and had some space to move around if she wanted. When the chicks hatched, I moved her and them to a larger pen that had access to grass. She raised those chicks very well and integrated them into the flock on her own when they were about 7 weeks old.

The second time she brooded was on shipped eggs that were rather scrambled in shipping. She only hatched one chick (a mutt from my flock) and I took it to the brooder to raise.