best broody breed????????***?

[barred rock]

are hamburgs good broody hens

 

[wclawrence]

Hamburgs probably dont go broody often.

Game hens and game x longtail crosses/ I have a few hens that raise 5 or 6 clutches of chicks per breeding season.

 

[Barnyard]

Well I would have to say RIR. I have 3 broody hens. 1 of which went broody hatched a chick and then went broody again and 1 that went broody lost her hatch and went broody again. So yeah I would say RIR.

 

[kees]

Silkies for sure! Mine were sitting on little pebbles last year thinking that they were eggs! No one said that were smart but they remind me of the song about the ant and the rubber tree plant having "high hopes"!

 

[shmooborp]

awewsome! i really hope i get a silkie out of my hatch! how exiting! do you have to have a rooster to make a hen go broody? dumb questions.lol

thanks

 

[okiehen]

American Game hens are, and they are great mothers .
My hen set for me last year a raised 7.
She is setting now and has even been on the nest 1 week longer due to me finding her some pure eggs. She is hatching them as we type.

 

[airmom1c05]

One of my Buff Orpingtons is broody more often than not. My other one is 5 months younger, so she may turn out to be the same way. This means I may need more chickens if I want eggs to EAT!!!! My game x unknown hen is a great layer, but has never been broody......yet. My silkie Serama has been broody once, and she was excellent even if her eggs didn't hatch.

The broody buff Orp is trying to hatch some of the silkie Serama eggs right this minute, but so far, no chicks....hatch should have begun yesterday. I think my Buff Orpington will be my best broody.

 

[hobomom]

We have a Silkie hen that would go broody about every other month since she started laying eggs this past August and recently has been broody for nearly 2 months. Well, we did encourage her a bit (as if she needed to be encouraged!). Gave her a rock, small orange billiard ball and an assortment of colored plastic eggs to sit on until my chicks arrived from the hatchery. Her 'magic" Silkie eggs have hatched & she is now the proud mama to 9 chicks of which only one will grow up to look like her.

For nearly 2 months we haven't seen her eyes until she heard that box full of peeps. She then looked like a giraffe her neck was stretched so high. Only then did we see her eyes from under that poof on the top of her head.

Here's a pic of Snowpuff & her 'magic' eggs the morning the chicks were to arrive:

And here's the pic of her (yes, she has eyes!!)

with some of the chicks that wanted to get their photo taken:

So I would have to say the Silkie is a good choice for broody hen since none of the other gals have gone broody, not even the other bantam but then again, I'm glad that she has never wanted to be broody because she is kind of an ornery little thing.

 

[jimnjay]

The great thing about broody Silkies is that they are very lay back. I have a girl that hates to be touched and runs like she might be on the way to the frying pay every time I go out there. When she is broody, she just sits there a coos. I can pick her up, I had feed her and she just lets me do whatever I want. Once the babies hatch, that all changes of course but they are just so dedicated to the hatch they really are oblivious to anything else.

 

[chicken_boy_Kurt]

My orp let me pet her and reach under her to get the eggs to candle them. I am very surprised after reading how everyone else's broodies act.