Broody behavior or not? It’s my 1st time seeing this. Need advice

[Skyleen13]

I’ve got 2 one year old hens that have been displaying some behaviors that I think might be precursors for them going broody. Both are spending way more time on the nests but not staying all day. Both are fluffing up & giving us a really angry chicken growl whenever we try to take the eggs away from them. One tried to peck us when we do. Both will instantly roil the eggs back underneath them if we give them the chance. Both give our other hens who try to come into the coop to lay their eggs the angry growl & puff up. Neither have plucked their chest feathers & both still come out of the coop for extended periods of time. I would love one to go broody but I’m not sure they are or not. I’ve used the bare chest indicator at they are for sure going broody but these 2 aren’t. Please help. One is a red speckled Sussex & the other is a black australorp.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If they're not staying on the nests day and night, with short breaks to eat, poop, etc., then they're not fully broody. They may be considering going broody but not yet committed.

 

[DobieLover]

I’ve got 2 one year old hens that have been displaying some behaviors that I think might be precursors for them going broody. Both are spending way more time on the nests but not staying all day. Both are fluffing up & giving us a really angry chicken growl whenever we try to take the eggs away from them. One tried to peck us when we do. Both will instantly roil the eggs back underneath them if we give them the chance. Both give our other hens who try to come into the coop to lay their eggs the angry growl & puff up. Neither have plucked their chest feathers & both still come out of the coop for extended periods of time. I would love one to go broody but I’m not sure they are or not. I’ve used the bare chest indicator at they are for sure going broody but these 2 aren’t. Please help. One is a red speckled Sussex & the other is a black australorp.

They are definitely thinking about it.
If you want one to become full on, heels dug in broody, I would make a nice cozy ground nest in a place that you can somewhat isolate her (I never lock a broody away from the flock, I just give her a private place to set) and put a half dozen fake eggs in it and see if one of them finds this spot appealing enough to graft to it and sit tight.
When they stay on that nest day AND night, you've got one ready to go the distance. And she's now grafted to a good location to broody and raise her chicks.
I would break the second one and only let one set.

 

[aart]

Both are fluffing up & giving us a really angry chicken growl whenever we try to take the eggs away from them. One tried to peck us when we do. Both will instantly roil the eggs back underneath them if we give them the chance. Both give our other hens who try to come into the coop to lay their eggs the angry growl & puff up.

They could be 'thinking about it'....but I have seen non-broody hens behave the same way.

Here are my go-to sign of a broody:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?

If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

 

[sourland]

Sounds like pretty typical pre broody behavior to me.

 

[Skyleen13]

They are definitely thinking about it.
If you want one to become full on, heels dug in broody, I would make a nice cozy ground nest in a place that you can somewhat isolate her (I never lock a broody away from the flock, I just give her a private place to set) and put a half dozen fake eggs in it and see if one of them finds this spot appealing enough to graft to it and sit tight.
When they stay on that nest day AND night, you've got one ready to go the distance. And she's now grafted to a good location to broody and raise her chicks.
I would break the second one and only let one set.

Ok. Thank you. I’ve got a big old plastic tub I can turn into a broody nest & place it somewhere for them to find.

 

[Skyleen13]

They could be 'thinking about it'....but I have seen non-broody hens behave the same way.

Here are my go-to sign of a broody:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?

If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

When we take the australorp off the nest she does flatten out into a puffed up pancake & gives us an earful. The thing is that both gals want the same nest to sit on so they end up taking turns on the nest. When one leaves the other comes in & takes over. At night the Sussex sits on the nest all night but then in the morning my australorp is back on it while the Sussex out wolfing down food like it’s going out of style. Then at around 1 pm they switch again.

 

[Skyleen13]

Update: my australorp has gone full broody. Plucking feathers. Not leaving the nest except for short periods. Getting pissy with anything coming into her coop. Going to move her tomorrow to the broody/sick coop so she has more privacy. Her growl is so loud & mean sounding! I’ll give her a week on some fake eggs & then put my current incubator eggs under her. By this time next week they’ll be ready to hatch. Good news is she’s a top hen. Hopefully she makes a great momma!

 

[sourland]

Good luck for a successful hatch.

 

[Skyleen13]

Good luck for a successful hatch.

Thank you! I’ve got 11 eggs still going out of 12. Crossing my fingers that she’s a good momma