I have 4 RIR hens and 2 golden comet hens one of my golden comets it huge. She lays huge eggs. Each egg she has laid in the past week has been a double yoker. We also have a very nice looking roster that is mating with the hen. So i know her eggs are firtile. I just want to know how to get her broody. Me and my dad were looking at buying some chicks from Tractor supply but we have never been threw the hatching deal. So we though why not let one of the hens hatch some. Also what will i have to do after she is broody????
You can try not collecting the eggs for a while. If you collect them everyday, then she won't have anything to set on. That being said, chickens go broody when they want to. There is no rhyme or reason, they just get the notion. Good luck!!!
You bend over, or hold them at eye level, shake your finger in their feathery little face and say very sternly: "You will not sit on those eggs and you are NOT allowed to go broody!! Do you hear me madam???" Guaranteed,, she'll go broody within a week.
You can go spend money on an incubator...that's when the hens will usually go broody....LOL No, but honestly,....just depends on the hen...and MOST of the time...sex link hens don't do broody...they are bred to lay eggs...
Golden comets almost never go broody, just not what they have bred into them. RIRs are also not very broody birds. 1 out of 20 of those may go broody. You can't make a bird go broody. If they are inclined to go broody they will, otherwise you need an incubator or a bird that is more of a broody breed. Matt Morganton, NC
You can't make a hen broody. You can do things that would encourage it but you don't have breeds that go broody often. You could do everything possible and never have it happen. Those chickens were bred to lay as many eggs as possible and hens don't lay eggs while broody so very good laying breeds don't go broody. Most bantam breeds were bred to go broody all the time. It's not uncommon to have a flock of good laying standards and then a couple bantam hens to hatch eggs for you. If you want to hatch eggs you need another hen of a breed known to do so or an incubator.
I say get a foster hen to sit on those eggs. I have four bantams and two have gone seriously broody. My first girl that went broody was my Japanese buff and she hatched 6 out of 6 eggs on her first try. It doesn't matter if the eggs aren't banty sized - she'd steal all my standard hens eggs and go sit on them! She sure was a sneaky little stinker! Now one of her foster babies (I only kept 1 of the 6) has gone broody just like her (foster) momma... it's so sweet.
I wish I could loan you my broody hen. I'm on here trying to figure out what to DO about her! But we made several improvements to our coop in the last few weeks. We put in lighting. We added a heat lamp. We took out the shavings bedding (except for in the nests) and changed everything to sand. We started getting "flock blocks" inside the coop as well as their food and water. and voila! One of our BO pullets is sitting on a fake egg filled with sand and a golf ball and has been for about a week. I told my hubby he made so many coop improvements, she thinks it is springtime and time for chicks.
