I guess broodiness is contagious

[Bluerock]

Three of my twenty hens have gone broody in the last 12 days. Guess it's catching...

 

[fshinggrl]

Wow! I hope you have more than three laying boxes!

 

[happytxchick]

I think you may be right. I've had two go broody in the last couple of weeks. Very frustrating b/c I have five nest boxes, but they only choose to lay in two. Sooooo, I keep having to catch the broodies off of the nest, and grab the newly laid eggs (I marked the "baking" ones with a pencil).

 

[4 Love of Baby Chickens]

Like heck! I have 2 broodies that have 3 chicks each that they hatched out yesterday and last night.

Another one of my hens is determined to go broody as well. I only have 13 laying hens. I need every laying hen I can get to keep up with my egg orders.

 

[happytxchick]

Quote:
I'm right there with you. I've had to call my egg customers, and let them know it will be a little while before they'll have eggs again. Good thing they are my friends!

 

[Bluerock]

Luckily I made plenty of nest boxes, all movable, and I can't bring myself to "waste" a good broody. So, they've all been moved to their own pens with a clutch of eggs each. What really stinks is I was getting 16-18 eggs a day from 20 hens for the last couple of weeks, and today I only got 10. Either the other hens are ticked that somebody wouldn't get out of "their" box and laid outside, or they're catching the same broody bug that got these three hens.

 

[sheila3935]

Guess I'm lucky I've only had 1 go broody and she hatched 6 last Thursday.

 

[emjay]

I think you are right too.
I had a second buff hen go broody on the 15th , two days after I set 42 eggs in the incubator.
I have a buff hen sitting on duck eggs right now, she went broody the end of March, those eggs due Easter Sunday, now, tonite, I have an EE pullet broody ??????? what the heck?? 3 broody's in less then a month, plus a bator full of eggs, help me........hahhaha.

 

[Miss Red]

I feel ya'lls pain. In one of my claret coops, ALL TEN hens are sitting. Four from another with chicks... Three trying to sit. Hopefully it doesn't turn into lat year where I had 20 sit within 4 weeks of each other.

 

[Barrdwing]

I've got the opposite problem. One hen with chicks, one broody on a nest . . . and six more that were broody as all heck by this time last year, wandering around the yard looking innocent. I have a pile of eggs waiting for a broody hen, and they're going to outdate!

Last spring I was tearing my hair out because of nine broodies all at once, and no eggs I particularly wanted to set! I had plenty of birds at the time and didn't need all that broodiness. <sigh>

I gave up two days ago and ordered an incubator.