Do pullets set on eggs only occasionally?

[_sonshine_]

Will young pullets (mine are 20 weeks) set on an egg then get board and go do something else? Are they just practicing? How do you know if they really are broody? What age do BR become broody?
TIA

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Not every hen will want to incubate her eggs, or go broody. Those who will may only do it occasionally. It's triggered by genetics, hormones, and the voices only they hear in their heads. It's difficult to make a hen go broody, but fairly easy to break their broody spell if you don't want them to set & go on to lay more eggs.

You'll know your hen is feeling broody if she stays in the nest box at night, puffs her feathers, screeches and/or pecks at you when you get near. She also gets a certain look on her face, an inward-turning of her attention, a blank zoned sort of look to her eyes.

There's a lot of great information on this forum about tending to broody hens if one of yours gets that way. A Barred Rock may or may not want to brood, and if so, it will probably be after she's been laying for at least a few months or more. And of course, if you want chicks to hatch you must have fertile eggs under the hen.

and feel free to ask any question about your chickens!

 

[Happy Chooks]

My 26 week old light brahma puffed up like a puffer fish and screamed at me. ***Be careful, it scared the crud outta me** Later she popped off the nest, and I haven't seen her on it again for any length of time in the past 4 days. I'm waiting for her to be on it all night, so I can stick some fertile eggs under her.

 

[speckledhen]

Truthfully, most Barred Rocks never go broody. They are not known for it at all, though there are exceptions. None of mine have ever gone broody and I have two who are almost 4 years old.

 

[awtandrocks]

Quote:
Really! I thought I had done my research and that is one of the reasons i choose to get BRs was because most the stuff I read said they had a tendency to go broody.

Oh well if they don't want to go broody it will be reason to get more chickens

my wife thinks I'm obsessed.

 

[GaDawg]

Must be something in the air... my young Dominique went broody yesterday and when she was still on the nest this morn. I pulled the egg out form under her. She got up later in the morning. She has only been laying for a few weeks and i don't know what kind of mother she will be, but if she does it again i think I will put a few eggs under her and take hers out just to see what will happen.

 

[speckledhen]

Maybe they used to brood, but since hatcheries started culling against broody traits on their higher production layers, BRs rarely brood. My friend, who donated lots of eggs from her BR flock for me to hatch, has one BR hen who is frequently broody, but the hens I have had from there and my own hatchery girls, maybe 10 in all, have never shown any inclination. My blue Orp hen is obsessively broody and two of my Buff Orps, one a hatchery girl and one a breeder girl have gone broody.

 

[awtandrocks]

Is there any breeds in particular that tend to be the most broody or does it just depend?

I'm a complete noob but I want to learn!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
From what I've heard...............Silkies and Cochins: they are broody more often than they are not broody.

 

[shaggy]

Quote:
From what I've heard...............Silkies and Cochins: they are broody more often than they are not broody.

i heard the same thing about silkies ... seems as if there are only 2 real reasons to get a silkie

1. they go broody and make great moms
2. they look funny - like they are wearing pj's