Brooding questions

[gjoyner]

What is brooding? what happens to a chicken when they are brooding? What happens to their body? Is it dangerous for them to be brooding? How will i know when they are doing that? Can you eat their eggs when they are brooding? Any basic information on what that means would be awesome. thanks!

 

[onedozenphyllises]

Brooding is when they have the desire to hatch eggs and raise young. A broody hen generally will lay a clutch of eggs - she'll lay at her usual rate until she has accumulated enough. Then she'll sit on them to incubate them. This takes roughly four weeks. During that time she'll come off the nest now and then to eat and drink, but during the final week she may not come off the nest at all. She may grow thin during this time because she's not eating much. She will also be very defensive of her nest.

It is not dangerous, normally. You could eat their eggs if there were any, but when a hen goes broody, she doesn't lay any more eggs (after she's got the clutch she intends to hatch).

If you notice that a hen stays in the nest box all the time, and is defensive and protective, and maybe a bit "snippy", you've likely got a broody.

Hope that helps!

 

[gjoyner]

so if you collect eggs regularly brooding wont likely happen? becuase she wont collect enough in the "clutch"?

 

[clucking chicken]

when they are broody they sit on eggs to reproduce. If the eggs are fertile the should hatch 21 days after the hen succesfully sits on them but may get up from time to time to eat or drink etc. You will know when they are broody if they have a bad attitude towards you and other hens. If she is sitting on the eggs for days without moving off. Squaks and pecks you if you try and touch her eggs. She will be fine if you leave her food and water. Good luck with the hatch

 

[Marlinchaser]

A hen decides(its a female thing) when she is gonna go broody some breeds have almost no broodiness left in thier genes. It will not matter if you gather eggs or not she will go when she thinks she has layed enough eggs. They will decide to sit and like said above a friendly hen will all of a sudden decide she needs to sit and protect her eggs(even if all eggs have been gathered she will sit on air).

Your options are to let her sit, or try to break her of it by removeing her from box often till she gets the hint(they usually dont get the hint)

She doesnt have to have fertile eggs she will just sit.

It is a natural thing for them to brood, she will only get off the nest a couple times a day, and then just to grab something to eat and drink, and to poop. She will naturally loose weight because she is barely eating, and usually loose most of her chest/belly feathers.

You will not get eggs while she is broody(from her) however if you decide to let her sit, other will still try to put thier eggs into her nest.

 

[gjoyner]

What are the kinds of chickens that do having brooding in their genes? Is that what heritage chickens are?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
That is a good question and the answer is not really simple. You can look at this chart for the various breeds and it will tell you if the breed is known for broodiness. That is a good starting point.

The Henderson chart
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

What has happened over time is that broodiness has been bred out of certain strains of chickens. It is usually the production breeds that are effected. The production breeds job has been to lay eggs. When a hen is broody, she is not laying eggs but you have to feed her anyway plus it is extra labor for special handling. Many commercial operations make a hen going broody a fatal condition, so the hens that are not genetically prone to going broody live to have more offspring. It is a form of selective breeding. Consider the Rhode Island Red (RIR) a good example of a production strain, just so I have an example to talk about. There are several others I could use, and most of these are "heritage" breeds.

Not all RIR have had the broodiness bred out of them. Those kept in a non-commercial operation may have been allowed to keep the broodiness. There are not many of those around. And the genetics to go broody is still there in the production strains, just buried really deeply. Some do occasionally go broody.

There is also a difference in the chickens bred by the commercial operations and the breeders breeding to standard. I'm not a breeder so I am reaching a little, but most breeders breeding to standard probably don't have broodiness as a major determining factor when they cull their chickens, so broodiness is probably not as likely to be bred out of them. The hatcheries where many of us buy their chickens are commercial operations that make their profit from the hens laying eggs. I would not expect their chickens to be all that broody.

One general rule of thumb is that chickens that have been bred for ornamental purposes, cochin, silkie or bantams are good examples, probably have not had the broodiness bred out of them. Chickens raised for egg production probably have, whether they are heritage breeds or not.