How long does a hen stay broody?

[Jim Pryce]

It's been a week since, she has been broody. I have been taking the eggs from her daily, & she's been sitting on nothing but a golf ball.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

They don't lay when they are broody, in my experience. Maybe she is stealing eggs from another nest. Yes they CARRY eggs from another place.

I have had one Buff Orpington set for several weeks on fake eggs. Then I finally thought about removing the fake eggs

and she stopped a few days later.

My Welsummer (who went broody) sat for 2 weeks before I entrusted some precious breeder silkie eggs to her, and she hatched them out beautifully.

 

[Judy]

Mine don't usually give up until 5 or 6 weeks, and I've had them stay broody longer.

Besides their habit of stealing eggs, another hen will sometimes squeeze in with a broody and lay in the same nest. I usually know who is laying which egg, and I've never had a broody lay an egg that I know of.

 

[CMV]

I have one that breaks out of being broody long enough to molt and then goes back to being broody. It's pretty much been a life long condition for her, and she is 4 years old at this point.

Except...

this year I wanted her to hatch some eggs for me. And wouldn't you know it- she isn't broody for the first time in her life. It figures.