Broody Brown Shaver - should I trust her with fertile eggs?

[Kiwibird]

Hello Everbody,

I have an ex-battery Brown Shaver hen who has just started going broody. Brown Shavers are not supposed to go broody, so I am not sure whether she would stay broody long enough to sit on eggs and hatch them successfully. Should I trust her with some fertile eggs or not? She is staying on the nest box and carefully turning the ping pong balls that I have in there to remind my hens where to lay. However she has not (yet) become aggressive towards me like my mixed breed bantam does when she is broody.

Please share any relevant experiences with commercial egg laying breeds and broodiness.

 

[panner123]

What did chickens do before we had incubators?
If she is truly broody she will do better than an incubator.

 

[Kiwibird]

Well right now she is off the nest and looks as though she is thinking "Who me? Broody? That was so last week!"

However, my most regularly broody hen seems to dither between broody and not broody each day for about a week before she settles down seriously, so it will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.

I have read that the broodiness has largely been bred out of the top commercial layers (like Brown Shavers) so I'm guessing it may be all over. I would just hate for it to be all over a week into sitting if she really gets started.

 

[UrbanMama]

First off

and if she does indeed go broody...give her a chance...just have another broody or incubator ready on the sidelines