Hen don't want to brood

[Albert Ward]

Just need some advice from you guys. I have two hens that started laying in the middle of June. The one started brooding yesterday and she does not want to move an inch. She is sitting on 16 eggs. The other one just stopped laying all of a sudden but don't want to sit on the eggs at all. She's got 18 eggs. Any ideas of what I can do? I thought it good to close her up in her nest with eggs but as soon as I open her up again, the only thing she can think of is to go free ranging with the rest of the flock. At first both hens where laying in one nest so I collected the eggs on a daily basis only leaving two or three. When the one hen start brooding, I put back enough eggs for her to sit on. I took three or so eggs and put them in a separate nest and the other hen continued laying in her new nest, but now she is on strike like the rest of South Africa and does not want to sit on her eggs or lay another one. Should I increase her wages or should I just fire her??????

I've got two other hens laying as well and I expect them to start brooding soon.

Regards
Albert

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Not all hens go truly broody--not even when they start to act a little broody. And first year layers are especially bad about this. Out of my small flock of 9 Buff Rock hens only 2 of them truly went broody this year. Two others started but abandoned their nests after a day or so. This seems to be about normal.

My RIRs, on the other hand, NEVER went broody. Boy, do I miss them!


Rusty