Broodiness

[Lucky]

Hi.

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to the chicken world. I've looked through the forum, but can't quite find the answer to my question.

Could someone explain generally about broodiness?
Will a hen go in and out of broodiness?

I have a female silkie i've raised from a chick. She just started laying eggs. She lays one every other day in the coop, but then goes back out to the pen and acts like she always has and ignores the egg.

Will she eventually go broody and begin to sit on the eggs?

If so, when that batch hatches, will she continue to lay eggs while she raises those little chicks?

If so, will she ignore these new eggs while she's raising the hatched ones?

This is probably old hat to all of you experts, but i'm just eager to know what to expect.

Thank you for your time.

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

Hello and Welcome to BYC.... Okay i have a little bit of experience with a broody hen...I hope I can answer your questions...Dont worry I asked them to....

A hen is broody when she constantly sits on eggs...hers and the others....everytime you go in she's sitting on the eggs....sometimes when you go close to her she will squak like the dickens...she does get off the eggs for short periods to eat and drink but you'll hardly see it...its like a motherly instinct to want to have babies...but then eggs have to be fertilized or nothing will hatch out...just a rotten egg...hahaha!!!


I had a rooster but I wanted to make sure I had fertilized eggs so I bought some off KIJIJI classifieds and placed them under her and marked the calender and waited and waited...they were green eggs and she's a little bantam....and she hatched them out 5 out of six eggs...and all I did was made sure she had feed and water...and covered her with a small dog cage to protect her from the others and then a bigger dog cage to protect her and the babes from the others and then when the babies were bigger I let them go in the coop and watched them and she protected them from the other big girls...
I hope I helped...theres alot more information on here also...