Has anyone gotten their birds to brood?

[practic]

In my quest to get my cots to brood I have separated the hens that that nest into small groups. 1 male, 3 females. 2 of the hens are laying in the same spot but not sitting on them often. The other is nesting by itself. This seems to be paying attention to her egg (laying on it instead of next to it. She drags it over to a new spot when The other birds mess with her). I don't feel like she's doing a great job because she does get up a lot and spends a lot of time off the egg. I'm thinking about removing the other birds as to remove any distractions... So my question is; has anyone noticed change in behavior when birds that have spent significant amount are separated? Also, if anyone has had success at this id love to hear about it.

 

[nicole camp]

The best way is to use wooded or fake eggs to make them go broody. It also depends on the breed though.

 

[practic]

EDITED so it makes sense

In my quest to get my cots to brood I have separated the hens that that nest into small groups. 1 male, 3 females. 2 of the hens are laying in the same spot but not sitting on them often. The other is nesting by itself. This one seems to be paying attention to her egg (laying on it instead of next to it. She drags it over to a new spot when The other birds mess with her). I don't feel like she's doing a great job because she does get up a lot and spends a lot of time off the egg. I'm thinking about removing the other birds as to remove any distractions... So my question is; has anyone noticed change in behavior when birds that have spent significant amount of time together are separated? Also, if anyone has had success at this id love to hear about it.

 

[practic]

The best way is to use wooded or fake eggs to make them go broody. It also depends on the breed though.

Do u know the science behind the wooden egg?

 

[nicole camp]

The fake and wooden eggs cause the birds to go broody. The amount of eggs under her determines when she should start incubating. So if she has a lot of them then she is likely to stay on the nest more. You don't have to move her from the other hens. I've found that the other hens often give the mother a break and try to lay next to her. If you have noticed chickens often lay in the same box. Which is actually there way of sharing the duties of mother hood.

 

[Ntsees]

Cots have had their broodiness bred out of them. Only few will brood.

 

[dc3085]

In my quest to get my cots to brood I have separated the hens that that nest into small groups. 1 male, 3 females. 2 of the hens are laying in the same spot but not sitting on them often. The other is nesting by itself. This seems to be paying attention to her egg (laying on it instead of next to it. She drags it over to a new spot when The other birds mess with her). I don't feel like she's doing a great job because she does get up a lot and spends a lot of time off the egg. I'm thinking about removing the other birds as to remove any distractions... So my question is; has anyone noticed change in behavior when birds that have spent significant amount are separated? Also, if anyone has had success at this id love to hear about it.

We can be sure that coturnix have been raised in captivity for over a thousand years. Some sources have suggest it could be several thousand years, that it's possible coturnix have been bred in captivity longer than chickens. In that time, we have managed to damage most of their wild instincts. I have seen one member on BYC who claims to have had a coturnix hatch it's own chicks. This is the only example i've ever seen. Most times when a coturnix goes broody she will abandon the eggs early because they just don't know how to incubate them correctly. If you want to encourage broodiness, set her up in as close to a natural environment as possible. Lots of plants and rocks for cover and a sand covered floor. Make sure she isn't being disturbed by any other pets you may have. Then just stop collecting her eggs. In the wild a bird lays 6-10 eggs before they begin to incubate them, so make sure you allow her to do this. Keep in mind that you can do all of this and the bird still not care brood the eggs.