How to tell if my hen is broody

[eenie114]

I am 99.99% sure my Buff Orpington is broody, but is she? She has been in the nesting box all day, and when I open it, she gives me ''The Look.'' She sort of has her wings spread out to the sides, as if to cover as mch space as possible. Whenever I reach in there, she ruffles up her feathers and does the mommy squak. Only problem is, she isn't actually laying!!

Grrrrrrrrrr...... Anyway, does anyone think she is broody? And if she is, should I put a not-fertalized egg under her to help keep her broody unil I buy hatching eggs? My roo Isn' really getting the job done.......

 

[Tiramisu]

That sounds like a broody

An unfertilized egg might work..but you don't want her to stay broody too long before getting eggs since she will set on those for about 20 days, dont want to wear her down too much.
idk

waits for someone else to post that has a better answer.

 

[PunkinPeep]

If she stays on the nest through the night, she is probably broody. That's what i was told, anyway, and it proved true with mine.

She will likely sit on anything you give her until she hatches something (unless she's just practicing, i guess.)

So if you want her to hatch something, i would get those eggs under ASAP. You don't want her to sit there too long, because she won't be eating normally, and she'll be losing weight. You want her to bounce back.

 

[eenie114]

Awww, CRUD!!!!! She wasn't broody!!! Stupid, stupid, STUPID!!!!

I almost cried, I was so disapointed.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Aw, sorry to hear that. BOs do get broody, so there's always a next time!

 

[19hhbelgian]

Quote:
A good way to tell if she's actually broody would be to see if she's plucking her breast feathers. I had a few of my young cochins go pretend broody on me earlier in february - they would sit in the nest boxes and eat my hand when I went in for the eggs, but they were not plucking their breast feathers out. I would have wasted eggs if I would have left them in the nest for the cochins. After a couple days, they decided this was for the birds, and left

Not one of them did any feather plucking even though everything else was there to indicate broody.