How often will hens get broody?

[ChickAficianado]

My hen just hatched out one chick. It wasn't a smooth experience. Momma hen was obsessively broody (Silkie hen) and we picked up 6 fertilized eggs. One broke (appeared to be just yolk), one hatched, and on about day 23 or 24, I opened 3 eggs (yolk) and one that had a chick that couldn't peep or move. It's legs and body were wrapped up in the red string and sac. Momma wouldn't take it and I didn't have an incubator for it. Not a good ending. Next time I will either let die by itself in egg or have an incubator for emergency care (getting the yolk sac to dry). (Has anyone else had these kind of issues?)

ANYWAY, if my lone silkie chick is a rooster, I have to start over. Will my silkie get broody several times a year or only once? She was broody in the summer (100 plus temps daily), which may have made it hard on her and the eggs. Someone told me that chickens get broody once a year, but I'm doubting that. Can anyone confirm?

 

[Kevin565]

Yes your hen will go broody more than once a year especially since it's a silkie.

 

[sourland]

Frequency of broodiness varies from breed to breed and from individual to individual within a breed. Once or twice a year is normal for hens of many broody breeds. Given that she is a silky, she will probably go broody several times a year. I have had silky hens incubate and raise as many as 5 broods in a year. Yep, some will set even in the winter.

 

[AinaWGSD]

It really depends on the individual hen. I had one hen go broody on me this spring, we had a hatch in the incubator shortly after she started setting so we gave her the chicks to raise. After 6 weeks, she was done being a momma hen and went back to laying. Then she tried again about 2 months after she was done being broody the first time, in the middle of the intense heat wave. Didn't want to risk loosing her to heat stroke on the nest and didn't need any more chickens with almost 20 adolescents running around our small backyard already, so I put her in a broody buster to break her. Took her another 2-3 weeks after breaking the broody spell for her to go back to laying. Then a week and a half ago she went broody on me again. This time we are down to just 8 chickens and are looking at expanding the flock again soon so I went ahead and got her some hatching eggs. So my one orpington hen has been broody 3 times this year, although it's hard to say if she would have been broody more than twice if we had given her another clutch of eggs to hatch the second time around.