Can you encourage a hen to go broody?

[TheAmundsons]

Just curious! We'd love to try our hand at hatching some of our eggs under one of our ladies, but we haven't had any of them seem too interested in staying on the eggs. We have 1 rooster and 9 hens, all just over a year old. We know our rooster has been doing his job because we have saddles on 5 of our 9 girls! The hens we have a 1 RIR, 2 EE, 1 Barred Rock, 3 Salmon Favorelles, and 2 Golden Laced Wyandottes! Our rooster is a RIR. We aren't hoping for a certain breed mix, just excited to try to hatch some of our own offspring! Are there any health concerns we should be aware of with crossing any of our hens with our roo? Thanks in advance!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

None of those breeds tend to go broody. I did have an EE raise several broods for me. But there is very little you can do to encourage the hormones leading to setting.
I've found that having extremely comfortable nests and having eggs in the nest tends to result in setters.
If you want to try it, use excelsior nest pads or tall dried prairie grass in a secluded darkened nest. I like plastic nest pads for cleaning but they tend to discourage broodiness.
Get some ceramic or wooden fake eggs and leave them in a couple nests.
If you really want a broody hen, get a silkie or bantam cochin. They seem to be those who are annoyingly often broody.
Other breeds to try are Sussex, shamo, Penedesenca, Orpington, Nankin, Malay, Games, Delaware, Dorking and Brahma.

 

[50-45-1]

I have had all of your breeds go broody at one time or another except the 3SF's. I have never had those.
You can not force broodyness, only provide conditions that may appeal to a broody as stated above.
Right now i have an isa brown that is broody. I did not think that happened either.
Good luck!

 

[TheAmundsons]

I don't know how I didn't see the notifications for these responses, but thank you very much! I recently learned our breeds aren't super common broodies, but I was just wondering there's anything we can do to encourage. It looks like we have a pretty good setup, and aer doing what we can based on @ChickenCanoe recommends. We have 2 ceramic eggs that we leave in the nest boxes at all times, or they won't lay in the boxes! Even though they've been laying for a few months now, they still need guidance. Oh well! We are planning to get a bunch of chicks, including brahmas, in our order later this spring, so hopefully we'll have luck with her being a broody! Thanks for the help again!

 

[elmo]

This may not work for you, but this is what I did: I just stopped collecting eggs. Once a clutch of a sufficient size built up in one of the nest boxes, the senior ranking hen claimed that nest to brood.

Then the other hens started laying their eggs in another nestbox. When a sufficient size clutch built up in that box, the next highest ranking hen settled in to brood there.

We had only one hen remaining, so while the other two were off their nests for their daily break, I stole a couple of those eggs to build up a clutch for my third hen to brood (didn't realize I was going to cause a staggered hatch in that clutch, oh, well).

The number of eggs a hen will decide is sufficient to brood may vary. For our hens, it was about six or seven, although the third hen was content to go broody on only four eggs. Turns out she was the type to go broody even on one or no eggs.

 

[varidgerunner]

Broodiness is entirely genetic. If you get a chance to witness chickens that have their natural wild instincts intact, you begin to realize that almost all common breeds have been "dumbed down" significantly to meet modern production based ideals and housing arrangements. Instances where the more modern breeds do go broody, they don't seem to do as well, and many times it is very sporadic, not all females inheriting the urge. With birds that have their natural tendencies intact, ALL females should go broody as soon as they lay their first clutch of eggs.

 

[Folly's place]

I've also had hens of these breeds become broody, sometimes. If you leave a few eggs in a nest, do mark them so there's no confusion! Magic marker, 'x' them, or add the laying date.
Your chicks will be 'barnyard mixes' except for the RIR's, and at least half cockerels. Have a plan for them!
Mary

 

[TheAmundsons]

Thanks for all the help! We may try leaving a few in the nest boxes. What do we do about the eggs getting cold before a hen decides to sit on them? It’s still in the 40-50s during the day, and gets below freezing at night. When I collect eggs at lunch, most are still warm, but when we collect the rest in the evening, they are cold. This wouldn’t allow the chick to form, correct? We are still doing s lot of research about hatching so I could be wrong about that!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks for all the help! We may try leaving a few in the nest boxes. What do we do about the eggs getting cold before a hen decides to sit on them? It’s still in the 40-50s during the day, and gets below freezing at night. When I collect eggs at lunch, most are still warm, but when we collect the rest in the evening, they are cold. This wouldn’t allow the chick to form, correct? We are still doing s lot of research about hatching so I could be wrong about that!

Cold eggs are OK before a hen starts incubating. Frozen eggs are not though and if they freeze, they won't hatch.

 

[Folly's place]

I'd wait another couple of weeks before actually saving eggs to hatch, because of the cold at night.
Mary