I like to play around. I’ve tried a few times to entice a broody by putting an extra fake egg a day in a nest until I had a dozen or just over and leaving them for weeks. One time I used marked real eggs. I did get a broody hen once, but that was in a different nest. Was that successful? The rest of the time it was a failure. While I try to never say never when it comes to behaviors, I’m not all that impressed by this method and I have hens in my flock that go broody.
I agree with Bobbi. If that cockerel or rooster is aggressive toward humans I would not hatch eggs he fertilized. Again it is a behavior, you just can’t be certain on behaviors, but there is a lot of debate on this forum whether human aggression is a learned or inherited trait. My belief is that it is a combination. I believe traits that can lead to human aggression can be inherited but that environment also plays a part.
I’ve turned my flock into one where most of the hens go broody and they are pretty well behaved by carefully selecting which chickens I want to breed based on behaviors as well as productivity or appearance. There are too many good roosters out there to settle for one that is less than good.
No matter what breed of hen you have or how many you have there is no guarantee one will ever go broody. If one does it probably won’t be at a convenient time, that happens a lot. If one does and you don’t have fertile eggs, you can do what Bobbi suggested, get day old chicks for her to raise if you can find them. Or get fertile eggs from someone else. You can order eggs off the internet or even this forum in the right section, but I suggest you find your state thread and chat with your neighbors. Someone within driving distance should have fertile eggs you can get.
So does anyone have opinions on the chances of this working? She's a light brahma, about 8 months old, and yes, it's cold where I am, but she's laying an egg a day!! Also, yes, I am sure all the eggs I've been collecting are fertilized!
