Breeding for broody trait

[bigz1983]

Ok I want a brown egg laying, large dual purpose meat/eggs breed, clean leggs(no feet feathers)and has the trait to brood chicks.
Currently I have large fowl Blue/Black/Splash Cochins that meet all most of the requirements above.
Except they have feathered legs.
2 years ago I had 8 hatchery stock Buff Orpington hens and thought they would go broody.
They never went broody not a single one of them during the almost 3 years we had them.
After that we got Cochins. They are great mothers and sometimes brood 2 clutches in 1 summer.
But the feathered feet get muddy and it's harder to see if they have a scaly leg mite infection.
It also seems harder to spray their legs for scaly leg mite.
I found a Jubilee Orpington breeder and the breeder told me her stock has a tendency to go broody.
They are a large dual purpose breed and are cleaned legged.
So I bought a Jubilee Orpington rooster from her to cross with some Buff Orpington hens I already have.
I also traded Cochin hatching eggs for Jubilee Orpington eggs with her.
Looks like I got 2 Jubilee Orpington pullets and 3 Buff/Jubilee Orpington cross pullets from a June hatch.
I think they are around 7 weeks old now.
I believe that by crossing a heritage strain of Orpington with commercial hatchery stock(that doesn't brood)that some of the offspring will go broody..
At least that's what I'm hoping for..
I guess I will found out next year when the 7 week old Jubilee/Buff Orpington pullets are adults.

 

[3KillerBs]

Yes my Cochins can.
But I'm looking for clean legged breed to essentially replace the Cochins.

I've heard that game bantams are good broodies.

 

[Yardmom]

I had a leghorn cross that would go broody and raise 3 sets of chicks a year. It don't know for sure, but some thought she was crossed with black Australorp. As far as genetics and broodiness I have definitely seen a connection of broody biological mothers broody daughters. I have seen exceptions as well and it would be a hard trait to tell for sure if a bird will have it or not until they do go broody and then some don't repeat.

 

[SourRoses]

Speckled Sussex (even from a TSC hatchery) yielded several good broodies for us. They are dual purpose (the roo we had got about 10lb), clean legged, proficient layers. But the eggs were tan and medium sized.

 

[bigz1983]

I bought barred rock chicks from tractor supply. 3 of 8 went broody and raised chicks before a year old. Sold two mommas with her babies (who needs 3 broodies). Remaining momma raised a second batch of chicks same summer.

That last batch of chicks from fall had 2 sexlinks go broody literally same day their barred momma went broody. I let the barred hen and one sexlink raise chicks.

I don’t know what I would do if I tried to make them more broody. I like having 1-2 reliably broody birds for rotating in new layers and eating a few. More than that though and it’d be really rough managing them. (Or I’d quickly triple my normal 12-15 flock size)

I have never had a commercial hatchery stock hen go broody for me.
I know it's possible for a commercial hatchery stock to go broody but I have never had any luck with them.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I've had hatchery Orpington, Brahma, Silkies, and Turken go broody for me. I know the Silkies aren't clean legged, but they are ALWAYS broody. That's the only reason I mention them. They are reliably broody. They are broody more often than not. They aren't dual purpose, really, being that they're tiny. But I've used them to raise all kinds of large breeds. And they can raise large clutches, too. If I were running a breeding program, I'd probably keep a flock of Silkies solely for this purpose. But I know that's not what you want.

Other than that, I really can't think of a particular breed that goes broody as often, and I don't know about breeding for broodiness. It's a hormone thing, so it's possible, I suppose. But it will take a while to establish it as a reliable trait, wouldn't it? I wish I had a definitive answer for you.

 

[bigz1983]

Speckled Sussex (even from a TSC hatchery) yielded several good broodies for us. They are dual purpose (the roo we had got about 10lb), clean legged, proficient layers. But the eggs were tan and medium sized.

Thanks for the info.
I believe TSC gets their chicks from Hoovers Hatchery.
I noticed TSC has a online ordering system from Hoover hatchery.
Their deal is order 10 birds of 1 single breed get free shipping.
So Hoovers Speckled Sussex will go broody?
The egg color and size isn't that big of a deal.
My wife really likes Speckled Sussex chickens.
I will look on TSC's website to see if I can order Speckled Sussex from them.

 

[BlueBaby]

I have 2 Bielefelder broody hen's right now, so I would say they are a large dual purposed broody breed, as they are hogging up the nesting boxes. You can check for other egg's under them and all they do is fluff up and make a bit of noise, but they don't peck you.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I'm confused. If you want a breed that is somewhat broody and clean legged then why don't you just stick with the one variety of Jubilee Orpington? I'd not mix it with the hatchery stock buff at all. From what you're saying it's got everything you want.

Overly broody birds are a pain. Poor egg production and you run out of cages to bust them in. Barely get them back to laying and they start brooding again. Endless all summer long. It's a pain.

 

[bigz1983]

Well I have a update on this thread.
One of the Jubilee Orpington x Buff Orpington cross pullets from last year went broody and hatched 5 chicks today.
So crossing heritage stock Jubilee Orpingtons with hatchery stock Buff Orpingtons produced a Orpington with a higher tendency to go broody.