Broodiness

[prizma]

I'm just curious...does seeing a broody hen make other hens want to go broody? I had my first broody hen last month and now I have three more that went broody

So I was just curious of others experiences or opinions about this.

 

[mfr4550]

Broodiness has never seemed to be contagious in my flocks but then I also have a variety of hens. I've just always had one hen that had a tendency to be broody. Maybe the types of hens you have tend to be broody. Another possibility is that if you're allowing the broody hen to continue brooding, then maybe it does inspire broody behavior in the others.
Good luck!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

This is the reason that Easter is associated with hustling or hunting up hidden chicken eggs. That reason is that the longer days associated with the end of winter and the onset of spring is the high season of chicken fertility and this time of year results in an avalanche of fresh eggs.

Hens go broody or become interested in setting only after their bodies feel that they have laid enough eggs to hatch a large clutch of chicks, but not before. Therefore a large number of hens will become interested in setting in the coming weeks. Unfortunately as far as I or anyone else can tell no one knows or can predict with any certainty when a hen will become interested in sitting. We are only able to act in a way that will break or stop a hen from setting.

 

[gg706]

Prizma did you notice the hens combs and wattles turning EXTREMLY red before going broody? I went out today to feed some treats to the girls and noticed all of their combs are bright red...this just happened overnight.