how can you incourage a hen to go broody

[andy]

im hoping for my buff orps to go broody , so i can put the incubater away,
am i right in thinking that gold buff orps are a good broody hen ??
if they dont end up going broody can i incourage them to ??

 

[Chirpy]

Nope, sorry. There's nothing that a person can do to encourage or force a hen to go broody.

There are some breeds that are more likely to go broody, like Silkies.

 

[FarmGirl01]

I have a flock of Barred Rocks and Orpingtons. The only ones to go broody are the BR. I placed about 10 golf balls in the nest that is used the most. Twice a day I collect the eggs and put them in a safe place in the barn. In about a week or two one of the hens went broody. I think thats probally the best you can do is offer a nest full of "eggs". Good luck.

 

[92caddy]

You can make a hen go broody, by putting her in a small box or something, with air vents of course, whatever you put her in, it has to small enough that she cant move around alot and it HAS TO BE dark. You may have to keep her in there for a few days or even a week. You let her out once a day to eat, drink and potty for 15 or so min., then you put her back in. I put fake eggs in with her also.

Ive had some hens go broody in 2 days and some it took almost a week, but it does work.


or you could let some eggs in the nest at all times, removing the older eggs everyday, sometimes this has worked, and it may take a few days also. I mark the eggs that were laid today, I remove them eggs tomorrow and let what was laid in the nest tomorrow, marking them so I know to remove them eggs next and so on.........................or you could let some fake eggs in the nest at all times then you dont have to mess with marking eggs and so on. The fake eggs I use are either wooden or glass...............Good luck..............

 

[hinkjc]

My buff orps are good broody girls. All I have to do is leave a nest of eggs in the coop too long (6 hours or so) and they are happy to tend to them for me. lol I find them impossible to stop from going broody, even collecting eggs hourly. These girls sit on air and are perfectly content..hoping for a contribution to her nest.

I just had a pheasant hen showing signs of wanting to brood. All we had to do for her was put an egg in front of her. She gently pulled it in and kept right on sitting.

She's up to about 14 in her nest, so we'll let her hatch and when she gets up we'll grab the rest up to finish incubating inside.

Jody

 

[92caddy]

I had a phes hen hatch out her own chicks lastyear, but she got away and trying to keep them chicks in was a pain in the butt, they were getting out every tiny little hole that they could, so we put them all in a cage and then all she did was pace the cage and stepped on the chicks, so then we made em a pen out in the yard that she didnt pace and the chicks couldnt get out of, but then one day a wind storm blew the top off and a few chicks got out, we left her out to fix the roof, I turned my back for not even 5 mins. and they were all gone. I have a phes hen wanting to sit on eggs now and I wont let her cause I dont want to go through all that again this year. If I do let her hatch her eggs, I'll take the chicks and put them in a brooder this time. ...............