Broody Hen Thread!

[SpoilMyPooch]

Okay Broody hen question for anyone... I have a little broody chicken (picture below) on my hands - inherited, so not certain of breed or age, but believe she is the oldest of 3 hens we have, and believe she no longer lays eggs, well, very rarely. Last September she went broody and sat on the other chickens eggs for a month and it came to nought. She is at it again, with the other chickens laying their eggs in her nest and she sits/broods on them.

I checked the eggs after 2 weeks, and they are not incubated. So I have taken the eggs in hope of breaking the brood, but to no avail. The other two continue to lay in the nest and she continues to sit on them. We are back up to 5 eggs already, so I am looking for suggestions on how to break her brood.

I have read about putting her in an elevated wire cage to forestall the heat, but no cage available. I do have ice packs though, as others have recommended. Anyway, before I try anything, I thought I would pitch this out there and see what people feel is best to do.

It seems that the most important thing in terms of breaking a broody is to lower the body temperature. When a hen becomes broody, her body temperature rises so that she can incubate the eggs and so any thing you can do to reduce the body temperature seems to hold the greatest chance of success. If you have not got a wire cage, you can try freezer packs. Some people also bathe their chicken in cold water but this seems to be a bit harsh to me...

 

[chicksurreal]

It seems that the most important thing in terms of breaking a broody is to lower the body temperature. When a hen becomes broody, her body temperature rises so that she can incubate the eggs and so any thing you can do to reduce the body temperature seems to hold the greatest chance of success. If you have not got a wire cage, you can try freezer packs. Some people also bathe their chicken in cold water but this seems to be a bit harsh to me...

Me too. I don't think it's good to wet a chicken down on a daily basis. Their feathers need oils to remain healthy and getting them wet doesn't sound good. Not to mention, they don't like it!

 

[chicksurreal]

Awww. Bless. Not sure how you check the percentage of fertilized eggs, so any instructions welcome. Not bothered if he can't as he is magnificent in other ways. He is the proper King of our garden. We prefer having eggs, but would not be upset if we had chicks.

As far as checking for fertility, when I crack eggs open for cooking I check to see if there is that little bullseye around the white spot on the yolk. For every ten eggs I cracked open, only about four of them were fertile. And then I paid attention to which type of eggs were actually fertile. We have white egg layers and brown egg layers. I spend lots of time with my chickens and I can tell which ones lay which eggs, so it helps to determine which eggs are fertile. The percentage of live hatches went up when I put certain eggs under the girls. We have 4 other cockerels now, so I expect that the rates will go up dramatically at some point.

I'll never get rid of my boys either, love them all whether they fertilize eggs or not.

 

[CanaDawn]

As far as checking for fertility, when I crack eggs open for cooking I check to see if there is that little bullseye around the white spot on the yolk. For every ten eggs I cracked open, only about four of them were fertile.

Yup, and I'm pretty sure you can candle them quite early to see it, too. The egg quickly develops blood vessels if it's fertile, too. (I suddenly have flashbacks to sitting around a bunch of eggs while my mother candled them with our homemade candling setup...)

ETA of course it has already been done on here, and it's a great and detailed post https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

 

[chicksurreal]

Yup, and I'm pretty sure you can candle them quite early to see it, too. The egg quickly develops blood vessels if it's fertile, too. (I suddenly have flashbacks to sitting around a bunch of eggs while my mother candled them with our homemade candling setup...)

ETA of course it has already been done on here, and it's a great and detailed post https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

Right! It takes about 7 days or so to see a developed fertilized egg that a broody has been sitting on.

I was just talking about figuring out the percentage before you decide to put them under a broody. It's very disappointing to have them sit for a week to see if anything is developing (for me anyway). The darker the egg, the harder it is to see unless you have primo equipment, which I don't. Lol.

 

[CanaDawn]

Right! It takes about 7 days or so to see a developed fertilized egg that a broody has been sitting on.

I was just talking about figuring out the percentage before you decide to put them under a broody. It's very disappointing to have them sit for a week to see if anything is developing (for me anyway). The darker the egg, the harder it is to see unless you have primo equipment, which I don't. Lol.

If you look at that link it shows how to tell in 76 hrs or so, or even earlier - I remember seeing the circle that is shown in the 52 hr photos. But yes, checking fertility by breaking the eggs is one way to know if ANY of the eggs are being fertilised before you set them, and pinpoint likely hens to collect from for brooding!

 

[Alycea]

It seems that the most important thing in terms of breaking a broody is to lower the body temperature. When a hen becomes broody, her body temperature rises so that she can incubate the eggs and so any thing you can do to reduce the body temperature seems to hold the greatest chance of success. If you have not got a wire cage, you can try freezer packs. Some people also bathe their chicken in cold water but this seems to be a bit harsh to me

Thanks for the info and the link to your page. Reading now...

 

[Alycea]

As far as checking for fertility, when I crack eggs open for cooking I check to see if there is that little bullseye around the white spot on the yolk. For every ten eggs I cracked open, only about four of them were fertile. And then I paid attention to which type of eggs were actually fertile. We have white egg layers and brown egg layers. I spend lots of time with my chickens and I can tell which ones lay which eggs, so it helps to determine which eggs are fertile. The percentage of live hatches went up when I put certain eggs under the girls. We have 4 other cockerels now, so I expect that the rates will go up dramatically at some point.

I'll never get rid of my boys either, love them all whether they fertilize eggs or not.

Thank you chicksurreal. I have only rarely noticed that little bullseye so suspect fertility not high. I will look closer from now to be sure. Only 2 of our 3 chickens lay and they are completely different sizes so it will be easy to tell if one is more fertile than the other. Great info. And thanks for the help.

 

[fisherlady]

Thank you chicksurreal. I have only rarely noticed that little bullseye so suspect fertility not high. I will look closer from now to be sure. Only 2 of our 3 chickens lay and they are completely different sizes so it will be easy to tell if one is more fertile than the other. Great info. And thanks for the help.

If your little hen sat well last fall and none developed I would lean toward fertility issues much more so than lack of brooding ability. A dedicated broody would have caused at least some developing in eggs....a 'casual' broody, who is off the nest frequently and just doesn't appear dedicated to the task would make me lean more towards it being the hen.

As far as her age... I have 3 hens who are all 4+ years old and are awesome broody hens! while an older hen may need a bit more attention paid to feed quality and quantity I have found it to be easy to keep them in good shape and their mothering ability makes it more than worth the time it takes me to fix them up some scrambled eggs or other good protein snack once in a while. I see your hen has some feathers on her feet, most breeds I know of here in the U.S.A. with feathers on their feet are broody prone breeds, so brooding episodes will probably continue regularly with your cute little hen.

If she were mine, and I was ok with having a few more birds, I would find a local breeder with a breed I was interested in having (or a farmer with good barnyard mixes for just getting good eggers) and buy her 6-8 hatching eggs to let her do her thing with more probable fertile eggs. To me it would be at least worth one try.

 

[SpoilMyPooch]

Thanks for the info and the link to your page. Reading now...

You are welcome and I hope that it helped. It is huge subject and I want to present the information in the easiest possible way...