Can a chicken be partly broody?

[chickenlittle21]

I have a 7 month old buff orphington who shows all the signs of being broody besides being in the nesting boxes all day. She goes into the nesting boxes for about an hour once or twice a day. Whenever I go near her in the nesting boxes she fluffs up her feathers and starts grumbling. So can a chicken be partly broody?

 

[AltonaAcres]

Yes, more often than not.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

it definitely sounds like she is broody!

 

[LikeTurkeys]

Yes, they can. It often takes patience to wait for them to be fully broody. I had a few chickens who would growl and puff up their feathers even when they were not broody. Case in point: Miss Grumpy Hen.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, they think about it and then may or may not go fully broody. Give her a couple of golf balls or fake eggs and see if she gets serious about it. Or, alternatively .... I did NOT want my hen to go broody last October when we had a freak heat wave. So I took her off the nest and gave a belly bath in a water bucket to cool off her underparts. I then closed off her access to the nests for the rest of the afternoon. She walked around clucking, as @aart says, like a ticking time bomb. I had to repeat this for three days but it definitely did the trick. NOTE: only do this on WARM days! You don't want to chill your bird!