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Owenjnior

In the Brooder
Jul 3, 2025
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Hi everyone, my name is Owen. Started raising childrens a few of with my 3 beautiful buff orpington and now my two hens are laying with already 30 eggs they are now stressing me because they are reluctant to sit in their eggs. One of of them would sometimes sit the whole day and the following day she's out and go back to the nest after few days. I was hoping to have more chicks but given their reluctant behaviour or laziness I'm so worried.
I'm new to this please help
 
Patience Grasshopper....
Instinctual behavior is difficult to predict. Some breeds, metabolisms and conditions very. Some will never while some may never seem to stop. Spring time you may have a better chance of a broody. Sometimes leaving the clutch pile and letting it grow bigger and bigger, will trigger instinct to stay put and sit.
Welcome to the byc site.
 
Hello Owen, and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
Just because a hen starts to lay eggs does not mean she is going to set them and hatch chicks. She has to go broody first and that is hormonally driven. It is completely dependent on the bird. With only two hens, neither of them may go broody. You may have to invest in an incubator if you want to hatch chicks from your flock.
I strongly advise that you collect and discard the eggs that have been laid and left out for these non-broody girls. They are not good. What you want to do is to collect the fresh eggs everyday but leave behind some fake eggs clustered in one nest. If you find a hen on that nest of fake eggs day and night and she acts very protective of them then she's likely gone broody. Then you can give her a set of hatching eggs that you can collect over the course of a few days.
 
Owenjnior said:
Hi everyone, my name is Owen. Started raising childrens a few of with my 3 beautiful buff orpington and now my two hens are laying with already 30 eggs they are now stressing me because they are reluctant to sit in their eggs. One of of them would sometimes sit the whole day and the following day she's out and go back to the nest after few days. I was hoping to have more chicks but given their reluctant behaviour or laziness I'm so worried.
I'm new to this please help
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Welcome to BYC! Good luck with this adventure!
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow

As the others have mentioned above, broodiness is hormonal driven, some breeds have more potential for broody hens, other breeds not so much. You can't tempt broodiness, it's either there or it's not. You might want to search out those breeds that have the tendency to go broody, like Silkies or Cochins if you want chicks.

Welcome to our community!
 

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