Can environment cause broodyness?

[HumbleAmerican]

As for the barred girl…. She’s mid pack. None of my chickens are cranky though. I have LOTS of room.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I've done that in the past. I've found my method works just as well, and as fast, about 3 days. Plus it allows them to walk around, exercise. I have a pen I sometimes use as a brooder, grow-out pen, bachelor pad, whatever's needed, adjacent to the hens' big run. It's probably about 20x40 and has a Rubbermaid storage shed about 6' square by 4' high for a night time coop and daytime shade. I just put my broodies in there. There's no place for them to nest and they get over it pretty quickly. I turned my 3 broodies out of it this morning and only one went back to a nest this evening, so she's back in jail, er, rehab, tonight. Three more days should do it.

well that will likely work

 

[BigBlueHen53]

well that will likely work

Thank you, here's hoping! The other two weren't as dedicated as this one.

 

[spiceholler]

we just tossed a third into our broody pen (our former duck house).

we also just found a clutch of 20 eggs under said pen. the third broody was sitting on them!

the first two have been there for a little over a week so we're considering a slight modification to the setup and we need to make it quick.

i think the easiest solution is to make the only option in that pen roosting. so we'll just add some 2x4s and hope we can get the girls on them. thoughts?

we have tried the cool baths in the past but didn't have much success. maybe we'll try again more regularly.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Brahmas, and Orpingtons seem to be my most determined broody ladies.

That makes sense, probably among the most broody breeds other than Cochins and Silkies.

There are lots of breeds that don't go broody and lots that do so regularly.
I always tell people to first select a breed by their ability to handle one's climate, which it seems you have done. Next choose for one's wishes. Characteristics that meet your wishes as well as egg color, laying frequency, docility or aloofness, tendency to be setters, etc..

 

[FunClucks]

My only broodies so far have been one Starlight Green Egger (twice last year, which I broke, and once this year, I let her hatch chicks, and she's been an excellent mom!), and one Prairie Bluebell (I broke her this year). The PBE may just have gone broody because it was spring and she could hear the SGE's newborn chicks peeping - her brood didn't start until just after the SGE's chicks were born. This same chicken was not broody at all last year, so I do think environment may have something to do with it.

Both of my broodies have been non-setting breeds, while the buff orpingtons and olive egger haven't been broody at all. Go figure.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

My only broodies so far have been one Starlight Green Egger (twice last year, which I broke, and once this year, I let her hatch chicks, and she's been an excellent mom!), and one Prairie Bluebell (I broke her this year). The PBE may just have gone broody because it was spring and she could hear the SGE's newborn chicks peeping - her brood didn't start until just after the SGE's chicks were born. This same chicken was not broody at all last year, so I do think environment may have something to do with it.

Both of my broodies have been non-setting breeds, while the buff orpingtons and olive egger haven't been broody at all. Go figure.

That's just the way it goes.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Blue, there is one issue that can prolong broodiness with your method rather than the wire bottom cage. As long as a dedicated broody can sit down on a solid surface, they can keep their abdomen warm. That will continue the hormone cycle. The sure way to break the cycle is to get cool air to circulate around the abdomen.
That is the sure-fire method used for thousands of years.

Thanks, CC. I am aware of what you say. I tried my method last year as an experiment and it worked well, as I had more than one broody and only one cage. This happened again this spring, I was dealing with three broodies. If my method does not work on my last broody after this second attempt, I will definitely go to the cage method on her.

A dedicated broody won't start laying eggs for some time after broodiness is broken,
Nature assures broody hens don't lay eggs. That prevents a staggered hatch which would result in dead embryos when the first few hatch and the hen decides to take the chicks away to eat and drink. She won't continue to sit because her job is to care for her charges even if there are eggs still developing.

I understand this as well. Nature triages for the living, not the not-yet-living.

 

[HumbleAmerican]

Update. She hatched 6 1 dud. 1 pip but dead.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I keep broody birds. I cull for flock size.

We culled 3 broody birds last year and kept our ol faithful barred rock. Of those three we culled two were 8 month old RSL from my RIR/Barred Rock stock, the other was a tractor supply RIR.