can you get a hen to go broody?

[milleryardchx]

We have a rooster now for a little while and we want to see if he is doing his job and we want a few chicks sooo if i leave a two day supply of eggs which is about a dozen will one of my hens want to go broody or is that wishful thinking?

 

[Slywoody]

Wishful thinking. Hens may never go broody. When they do, you'll know. Good Luck Woody

 

[EricShane]

after two years I finally had one of my 50 hens go broody.. lol

When you want them to, they just take longer.. and when You dont want them to, they always go broody!

 

[Snap62]

It depends first on the breed of hens you have. Some breeds are layers only, and will never set, while other breeds may go broody quite often.

I've had good luck with all OEG and Silver Laced Wyandottes

I have seperated a few hens fro the others and gave them their own rooster. I marked their eggs, and kept them rotated as needed. This would sometimes send them to brood.

Good luck

 

[sillybirds]

I don't have a lot of experience with broody hens, but I can tell you that at one point I had to take out the golf balls and fake eggs from my nest boxes, because it made two of my hens (a Delaware and a black Australorp) go broody.

 

[SproutGirl]

I think Sillybirds might be right. Our RIR went broody in the freezing cold of last November when for some reason (I can't remember why right now) I piled all of the wooden eggs into one nest. We usually keep one in each nest, but I had put them all into a single nest for some reason (nest cleaning?) and never moved them back. The next day, she saw those eggs and was determined to sit on them despite the absolutely frigid temperatures and the fact that she was an 8 month old RIR!

 

[gritsar]

As someone who desparately wants a broody I can tell you I've tried every trick in the book, including "salting" a nest with lots of eggs (all my nestboxes have golf balls in them anyhow).
I have come to the conclusion that a hen will go broody when she's darn good and ready and not a second before.