Cochins go broody. I've had 4 different hen go broody this year. I have a Black Standard Cochin that raised Polish bantam babies that she hatched and also took in others that were hatch in a incubator. She was a very good mom. It was sort of funny seeing her with little chicks with top notches.
I don't have alot of expierence with alot of breeds just what Freebie has and her Buff Orpington hatched her first chick 3 weeks ago and she is only a year old. Her Australorp is now sitting on eggs as well as a few of her mille fleur bantams. Her alpha hen Lucky a Plymouth Barred Rock has shown no interest in going broody at all. I hear silkies make good broodies. Some breeds don't go broody at all and a good foster broody can hatch those.
Silkies and cochins I have 2 silkies sitting on NOTHING right now. ONe has been broody for about a month, I have been trying to break her. That would be Eileen and now Lily is broody and my little frizzle Polly is broody at least she lets me get the eggs out from under her, the silkies no way I use a stick to lift them up, they are biting HARD!!!
Speckledhen-How sweet! That is such a good momma. Ones like that don't come along very often. We had a momma dog like that once. She had a litter one night of 8-by the next morning she had 12! The extra 4 were much bigger and older looking. After lookin' around we found out she had stolen 4 of the neighbor's dog's puppies. They were almost 2 weeks old. The neighbor asked if our dog could keep them because her dog wasn't doing well with them. Our little Sassy raised them up just like her own! I know how proud you are of your momma!
I WISH! I have 3 buff orps that still dont want to sit on eggs! They have 8 in a nest and neither of them wants to sit on them. Want to borrow me your silkie? LOL