Broodiness tips?

[Capricoco]

I’m trying to get my hens to go broody this year, is there any particular thing that might help? So far I’m putting a lot of hope in my silkie hen, since silkies are the broodiest-brooder-in-all-of-broodkind but so far in her 3 years of life hasn’t had the slightest interest in motherhood; has never even attempted to hatch chicks; but I’m hoping this year will be different since we improved our hen-to-rooster ratio and upgraded pen size, and she’s never looked better. Most of the other chickens in with her aren’t even yearlings, and for the most part not the broody type so I think she might be my only hope. I’m just not sure, should I just give up on a hen going broody and just use my incubator and stop potentially wasting eggs, or let nature do it’s work?

 

[The-White-Elephant]

I’m trying to get my hens to go broody this year, is there any particular thing that might help? So far I’m putting a lot of hope in my silkie hen, since silkies are the broodiest-brooder-in-all-of-broodkind but so far in her 3 years of life hasn’t had the slightest interest in motherhood; has never even attempted to hatch chicks; but I’m hoping this year will be different since we improved our hen-to-rooster ratio and upgraded pen size, and she’s never looked better. Most of the other chickens in with her aren’t even yearlings, and for the most part not the broody type so I think she might be my only hope. I’m just not sure, should I just give up on a hen going broody and just use my incubator and stop potentially wasting eggs, or let nature do it’s work?

I TOTALLY understand this, I am going through this right now.

But, according to a lot of people, golf balls encourage broodiness.

 

[nuthatched]

You can't really encourage a hen to go broody, it's a hormone thing.

 

[Aunt Angus]

You can't really encourage a hen to go broody, it's a hormone thing.

This, but I find leaving fake eggs in the nest sometimes triggers them. My Silkies are almost perpetually broody.

 

[Capricoco]

You can't really encourage a hen to go broody, it's a hormone thing.

Well hormones never seem to be on my side… got 6 unsexed chicks hoping for a rooster, got all hens; got 1 “female” chick and it was a rooster. Seems like the chicken hormone gods don’t like me much at all. Oh well guess I might as well try. Decided to leave eggs out for a week and then collect, even got hay and nest pads for good nests. Hopefully that’s enough to convince them that sitting on eggs for a month wouldn’t be too bad… hopefully.

 

[Capricoco]

This, but I find leaving fake eggs in the nest sometimes triggers them. My Silkies are almost perpetually broody.

Maybe my silkie hen is broken…

 

[Aunt Angus]

Maybe my silkie hen is broken…

No. She's just an individual. I have 11 hens. Only 4 have ever been broody, and 2 of those were only broody once.

 

[Capricoco]

I TOTALLY understand this, I am going through this right now.

But, according to a lot of people, golf balls encourage broodiness.

How do real eggs work for that? I’m getting 10-15 eggs per day, so they’ve got plenty of eggs in each nest.

 

[Aunt Angus]

How do real eggs work for that? I’m getting 10-15 eggs per day, so they’ve got plenty of eggs in each nest.

You can leave real eggs in there, but you risk them going bad. Ew.

 

[Capricoco]

No. She's just an individual. I have 11 hens. Only 4 have ever been broody, and 2 of those were only broody once.

Ehh, idk she seems prettyyy broken,BUT she still lays, which is better than my sebright hen, so broody-mcbroodster or not, she’s not going anywhere.