I've pondered the same thing when Ivy goes broody. Trouble is, those production birds don't go broody.Good morning everyone. I'm so sorry to hear of some of your troubles with your hens, especially since they are so young. I really feel for the production breeds and those that own them. I do not have production breeds but still some of my girls will give me 5 to 6 eggs a week. Henrietta lays about 8 eggs before she takes her break. Old momma hen, when she is not broody and laying lays 6 days in a row before skipping and she is close to 7 at least. Only 1 of my girls has produced a soft shelled egg, and that was Butter, and it was her 2nd ever egg. I've been thinking, my chickens have access to layer feed, for the most part they ignore it, prefer grass, bugs, whatever they find in the manure pile and for some of them snakes and minnows from the creek. What I do different them most is if I have a broody hen, I do not break her, she either hides, or I intentionally let her set. I know being broody can be hard on the hen, but if I know where she is I see to it that she has fresh water available and food. On average after the chicks hatch *not counting momma hen* they care for them 5 to 6 weeks before they are done. That is a 8 or 9 week break their body gets naturally from egg laying. I wonder if where most of us chicken keepers for many reasons break up that broody we are doing more harm then good to her body. I know many of us can't have roosters, or are at our limits so we have no choice but to break them. I feel though that the broody break, plus the normal break they take through winter and molting helps the hens in the long run in preventing reproduction problems. Now I may be completely wrong on this, but its just my train of thought.
Also, what would you do if a broody sat for 30 days? I was going to allow Ivy to work it out for herself but after 30 days of sitting with no eggs, I encouraged her to get up and she did.
This is the main reason I'm planning to get her some fertile eggs next time she's broody, she really wants a hatch and I'm happy to help her do that.