Help getting Broody

[fuzzerd]

We want atleast one batch of chicks this year, but nobody seems to be broody! Is there any way to incourage or fource broodyness?

 

[milleryardchx]

I'm in the same boat you are i tried leaving golf balls in the nest box but to no luck. I ended up making a homemade incubator.

 

[Judy]

Nope. It's a hormone thing. Commercial breeders have been trying to breed it out of them for generations, to increase egg production.

But there are some breeds that do go broody pretty dependably. Read here:

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

 

[ERayR]

Quote:
None that I know of. We used to keep a couple of banty hens around because it seems they are always broody. Just replace the banty eggs with what you want hatched. Works real well. I have even hatched duck eggs that way. However you must make sure chickens do not have lice as the lice will kill the ducks.

 

[Judy]

ERayR is right, you can put whatever eggs you want under a broody.

Also, other breeds and more or less likely to go brood; all my breeds were chosen partly because they at least sometimes do. Henderson's tells the likelihood for different breeds, though I don't know how accurate this is:

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

The most dependable breeds are listed in the Broody article, though. I had 3 Kraienkoppes and all were broody.