HOw do YOu make a chicken go broody?

[muscovy94]

How, because i have a duck egg i want hatched and some silkie eggs i want hatched but i don't feel like getting my incubator out. IS there a way to make a hen go broody? It would be a silke hen.

thanks.

 

[JewellFarm]

Not to my knowledge.......

 

[kcravey]

Dont think you can *make* them want to sit there for 21 days. They either tend to get broody or not... When one does get broody, that is when you want to add the eggs. There may be some "trick" - but I've never heard of that - just tricks to get them OUT of broodiness.

Hey there is a kid on youtube that incubates eggs on his desk using a desk lamp. He just gets a thermometer, puts it by the eggs, then sets his lamp down till the temp shows 100. At the end he sprinkles some water on them and they hatch! Pretty smart kid!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I don't know about making them go broody, but I always keep wooden eggs in all my nesting boxes and remove the real ones. I feel like I am killing several birds with one stone. First, it teaches them where to lay. Then they think it is an egg and start brooding sometimes. There are a few other reasons I do that, but they are irrevelant to this topic. There is no guarantee. No amount of sweet talking will work. I just keep at least a handful of chickens that are known for brooding along with my layers, so I also won't have to incubate, because I am terrible at it. Give it a little while, and count down the days, and if no luck, start the incubation. I don't blame you for wanting a silkie to do the job for you......duck eggs are harder to hatch out than chicken's.

 

[muscovy94]

well i have one silkie broody but she is sitting on silkie eggs, and i want them hatched too, but i also want the duck egg hatched too without getting the bATOR out. Is it even a good idea to let her set now? because by the time they would hatch it would be december and i'm scared they would get cold and die. any thoughts? should i just wait till spring to let her set?
i guesss i could always just get the bator out...

 

[WriterofWords]

I just look at them and sternly say: "You are NOT going to go broody and there will be no hatching from you young lady!" Sure enough, within 24 hours they all go broody...

 

[onthespot]

another thing you might do is take a big ol' deposit on some of her eggs. That is about a guaranteed way to get her to quit laying and set tight.

 

[catdaddyfro]

You might start leaving about 8,9,10(whatever you think she can cover) eggs in a nest. Sometimes this will trigger one to go broody as they think they've laid a clutch of eggs of their own to hatch. I've done this before with a little game cross hen I had. Matter of fact I'd usually get her to hatch off two batches by taking her newly hatched chicks from her and replacing them with another setting of eggs.

The only thing about this is you might run out of time to set the duck egg before its too old. I have a hard time keeping up with all my little game banty type xbreeds trying to keep them from getting a clutch of eggs so they won't go broody and hatch right now,as I don't want chicks this time of year and would rather have the eggs to eat or sell. Even still if I do keep the eggs gathered from their hiding spots they'll still sometimes go broody anyway.

catdaddy

P.S. If you put out eggs in the nest make sure you mark or date them someway so you can know how long they've been there and which ones to replace as they get older or specific ones you want hatched.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Oh! Is that all there is to it?!?! I've tried all the tricks - darkened nestboxes, tons of eggs left in the box, there are always golf balls in the nests. Let's see, also begging, pleading, threatening. Standing on my head and bribing them with scrambled eggs and yogurt for the rest of their lives...
I have a supposedly broody breed and not a SINGLE broody yet!

I'm broody deprived.

 

[Marlinchaser]

Quote:
That usually works for me.

problem is once youve said that and one goes its all downhill. I have 2 now that ARE NOT going to go broody, that get removed from nestbox 3 or 4 times a day. Good thing these hens listen to me.