Broody orp, what's next?

[Midlife clucksis]

My orpingtons are only six months old, and have been laying for between 2 and 8 weeks. One of my ladies seems to be broody already, but she's not laying any eggs. She's only sitting on the fake egg in the box. What do I do now? I don't mind her brooding, should I give her eggs from my other ladies? Is it too early to be broody? Any advice will help. Thank you!

 

[sannabelle]

Lots of people suggest to not let a pullet go broody until she is a "hen" around 1 year. Younger chicken moms can tend to be flighty and inattentive. You could give her eggs and give it a try, or break her broodieness and let her try again when she's a little older.

 

[azygous]

When did this BO start laying? How many weeks ago? About how many eggs has she laid? Could she really have begun to lay at four months?

If that's the case she could well be broody. But just sitting in a nest is but one symptom of broodiness, and one symptom does not a broody make.

I have a BO, age three or four, not really sure because she's adopted. But she has a habit of lounging in the nest box. Just because she likes it. She's not broody, perhaps just lazy.

Check the keel bone of your BO. If she's missing feathers there, that's another symptom of being broody. Has she changed the way she sounds? A broody emits a fussy, repetitive, rapid, soft clucking. Only broodies make this sound, never normal hens. Does she do this rapid clucking when you disturb her on the nest? If she remains quiet, she likely isn't broody. Does she puff up twice her size when disturbed on the nest? That's another broody sign. None of these symptoms need to actually have real eggs involved.

If you determine you do have a broody, do you want her to incubate and brood chicks? If not, you can break her in three days using the open-mesh bottom broody cage and get it over and done with.

 

[Midlife clucksis]

I don't know how many eggs she's layed. I have six ladies, one started laying 8 weeks ago, next was 7, then 6, etc. I can't tell them all apart. She has all the symptoms of broodyness, except laying eggs. She's been sitting in the nest almost constantly since last Friday. The couple of times that she's gotten up, I've checked the box and no eggs. If it won't hurt her to brood this early, should I just give her eggs from the other ladies? How many should I give her at this age? I don't want to break her broodyness; why should I do work that she's made for? Haha

 

[azygous]

Do you have fertilized eggs? If so, they should be full-size, not pullet size. Chicks would not survive in small pullet eggs.

As to how many, it's up to you, but I would give her no more than six this first time. There's a trick to sitting on a lot of eggs without breaking them, and when the chicks hatch, too many can also result in crushed chicks. She's just a beginner.

It's a huge job incubating eggs and then rearing chicks. I would make it easy for her this first time.

 

[sawilliams]

Do you have a rooster?

 

[Midlife clucksis]

Yes, we have a rooster. I'm pretty sure any eggs the ladies lay would be fertilized. He's quite randy!

 

[adlynch]

I just recently had a opr.

My orpingtons are only six months old, and have been laying for between 2 and 8 weeks. One of my ladies seems to be broody already, but she's not laying any eggs. She's only sitting on the fake egg in the box. What do I do now? I don't mind her brooding, should I give her eggs from my other ladies? Is it too early to be broody? Any advice will help. Thank you!

One of my Orpingtons recently went broody at 8months. She only successfully hatched 1 chick. She was sitting On several eggs from various chickens. I honestly had no idea she gathered so many. Half way though she kicked a few out of her nest and then collected more. Which is probably why we had such a poor hatch rate, because after the chick was born she left the other eggs. This is probably why they say young mom's aren't the best! However, she has been a wonderful mom so far!

 

[Midlife clucksis]

That makes sense. Since mine isn't collecting eggs to sit on, hopefully I won't have that probably with her. I'm going to give her three or four eggs from the other ladies and see if she sticks with them. I purposely got orpingtons because I want them to brood, so breaking her just because she's young seems counter- productive to me.

 

[RodNTN]

Sounds wise