Broody Hen Thread!

[nchls school]

Can a hen go broody right after laying her first egg?

My best serama pullet went broody with her 1st egg; very disappointing as I was going to keep her chicks for the next generation breeding stock. Oh well, maybe next time she will lay a full clutch (with serama that's only 5 to 8 eggs).

Stupid snake got the one egg, but I'm glad the snake did not kill the pullet. Other of my birds were not so lucky.

 

[Dharmachick]

@analyticalblonde, I absolutely love your setup! It is wonderful!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Eep, I think one of my Japanese hens is going broody! I accidentally broke her broodiness a few days ago trying to give her some food and water away from everyone (she she lowest bird on the pole, including now the 5 or 6 week chicks).

Does anyone know if Japanese have stand out traits for brooding? Good or bad.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Eep, I think one of my Japanese hens is going broody! I accidentally broke her broodiness a few days ago trying to give her some food and water away from everyone (she she lowest bird on the pole, including now the 5 or 6 week chicks).

Does anyone know if Japanese have stand out traits for brooding? Good or bad.

I'm not sure about Japanese in particular, I'm sure you can google it, but I know even if the breed isn't "broody" they sometimes still go broody. 2 Summers ago, I had a white leghorn go broody. I gave her 5 incubator babies and she mothered them for 4 months. She hasn't gone broody since though.

I was confused for a while because every time I got near the nest, she would rocket off, cackling loudly, rather than hunkering down and growling like I was used to. I learned that response is very typical of game birds that have more wild instinct. If you think about it, hunkering down and growling isn't a very good response if a predator found her and the nest. The goal of rocketing away and cackling loudly is to draw the predator away from her eggs in hopes that they will miss the nest and chase her. Then both she, and the eggs, have a fighting chance.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Does anyone know if it's okay to wash a brooding hen? I'm washing birds to get rid of bugs and I have a girl I need to stay broody in case my split nesters don't stay for what turned out to be a staggered clutch. She's been brooding for only a few days but I don't want to scare her off her nest.

(She's on nonviable eggs so I'm not worried about them getting too cold)

 

[analyticalblonde]

Does anyone know if it's okay to wash a brooding hen? I'm washing birds to get rid of bugs and I have a girl I need to stay broody in case my split nesters don't stay for what turned out to be a staggered clutch. She's been brooding for only a few days but I don't want to scare her off her nest.

(She's on nonviable eggs so I'm not worried about them getting too cold)

Me and my son just a few weeks ago dipped all of my girls to get rid of mites...Wizzygig was in full broody mode and is a very strong broody! After her dip, she dried off in the sun and once dried, returned to her selected nesting box. If your girl is a strong broody, I would think she will remain broody. Doing a dip does drop their core temperature temporarily (which is what people are challenged to drop in breaking broodiness) but it is only temporary unlike breaking them which is done over several days.

 

[nchls school]

Does anyone know if it's okay to wash a brooding hen? I'm washing birds to get rid of bugs and I have a girl I need to stay broody in case my split nesters don't stay for what turned out to be a staggered clutch. She's been brooding for only a few days but I don't want to scare her off her nest.

(She's on nonviable eggs so I'm not worried about them getting too cold)

What kind of bugs? What are you washing with? If it's lice or mites, water won't do it. I use Sevin 5 dust to get rid of lice and mites. Sevin 5 can be used on the bird and in the nest; eggs too as well as chicks. As to a thorough washing with water, I would not risk it if I had definite need of a brooding hen.

 

[fisherlady]

I agree with Nchls school, I would use 7 dust, put it in a mustard or ketchup picnic squirter, you can get them cheap at walmart or dollar store. It makes it easy to control dose and location. Lift feathers under each wing for a puff, under the back feathers and into the feathers around her vent. I would also swap out her nesting material the next time she is off of the nest and put a dusting of it on the nesting material. Broodies are susceptible to bugs since they aren't out dusting as much.

 

[PioneerChicks]

Glad I found this thread! I have a cool story to tell that happened recently.


My first broody to hatch eggs was/is named Skye. She hatched two little chicks, Heather and Picket.

One time when the chicks were about a week old I was filling up their water. They were panicked and when I tried to get out one of the chicks escaped out the door. I tried to grab him (well, I think it was Picket), he ran under the coop. I ran into the house to get help then tried to flush him out. We flushed him alright, but did not catch him. He ran into some bushes that border ours and the neighbor's yard.

We still tried to catch him, but the cats joined in and their purposes were not quite as...kind. We chased the cats away, but by then the chick had gone into survival mode the way his mama had taught him. He hunkered down in a hidden place and did not peep.

We went to the neighbor's front door and asked for permission to go into their yard and search for the lost chick, which went well. We searched along the fenceline for about an hour with no success. Their yard was overgrown with weeds and ours had low-growing bushes, which gave the tiny chick millions of places to hide.

We let Skye and her remaining chick free range in the chicken yard for the first in hopes that they would get close to the hiding place of the lost chick and call him back. At this point my family had all given up and I was about to do the same. I was beginning to think the chick was a goner. But I set up a chair in the shade nearby to keep watch for cats and watch for the chick if it decided to wander.

About two hours after the chick escaped he started to peep from his hiding place. I ran into the coop and hustled mama hen and her chick to the right end of the yard and backed away. Five minutes later I came back and saw Skye and both her chicks foraging in the dirt!

Heather and Picket are now about three months old and mingling with the flock. And mama Skye is broody again with 9 eggs. From "The Lost Chick Adventure" I learned a lot about what a mama hen teaches her chicks and how chickens survive in the wild. The End!

A couple pictures of Heather and Picket (by the way, they are silkie-game bantam mixes):

 

[Oncoming Storm]

Broodiness is quite common in my flock. With them having plenty of room to move around, we don’t discourage it. I don’t know why it happens so often. I’ve had three in my flock go broody this season. Our first broody was my RIR. She was very feisty as a broody and would not hesitate to devistate. She went broody one more time, hatching chicks both times. Unfortunately she disappeared one day and...well. Our second broody was a barnyard mix. She went broody AS SOON AS she started laying. Seriously. Unfortunately her nest was raised and she’s never gone broody again, although she’s almost in a constant state of prebroody despite me taking her eggs every day. Next is my Austrolorp who hatched two NN chicks. After her went my duck who was...freaking terrifying as a broody. Now my polish has decided to dedicate herself with a clutch. It’s a theme that circulates around my flock lol.