Good luck whatever you do.
We have 5 breeds that are a year old. Only ONE of the black Australorps has gone broody. We’ve given her chicks 2x so far. She is currently raising the second batch. She went broody in Aug at 7 months old. We bought some chicks, put them under her in the middle of night. She did a great job. She sorta went broody in Dec, but when we put her in the brooder space (where she previously was broody and raised chicks), she became un-broody. Then, she went broody again in Feb. she was broody for about 2.5 weeks and we gave her day old chicks. Again, doing a great job. No other chickens have shown the slightest hint of broodiness. So, in our case it seems just one of our chickens is hardwired for broodiness.
Although from a fiction book, the idea of a bucket may have come from some old-wives tale. We do know that a broody chicken will look for a safe space, often darker, to brood/hatch/raise chicks. So, creating darker/draft-free/cozy nests, would be one step to encourage the behavior. Using fake eggs is another encouragement.
On BYC, under Articles, you can find info on breeds. Within these articles it indicates how likely that breed is to go broody. There are other charts on various sites that also provide this info.
We have 5 breeds that are a year old. Only ONE of the black Australorps has gone broody. We’ve given her chicks 2x so far. She is currently raising the second batch. She went broody in Aug at 7 months old. We bought some chicks, put them under her in the middle of night. She did a great job. She sorta went broody in Dec, but when we put her in the brooder space (where she previously was broody and raised chicks), she became un-broody. Then, she went broody again in Feb. she was broody for about 2.5 weeks and we gave her day old chicks. Again, doing a great job. No other chickens have shown the slightest hint of broodiness. So, in our case it seems just one of our chickens is hardwired for broodiness.
Although from a fiction book, the idea of a bucket may have come from some old-wives tale. We do know that a broody chicken will look for a safe space, often darker, to brood/hatch/raise chicks. So, creating darker/draft-free/cozy nests, would be one step to encourage the behavior. Using fake eggs is another encouragement.
On BYC, under Articles, you can find info on breeds. Within these articles it indicates how likely that breed is to go broody. There are other charts on various sites that also provide this info.
