i made my hen broody!!!!!!??????

[amirfarmer]

i have a flock of chickens....i decided to make my hen broody..i took my hen and putted her in nest box with six eggs.....i placed nest box in washroom and i locked her down there.......today is her 8th day....i went to check her three times a day....food and water is also there.....when ever i checked her she was always sitting on eggs....today was the first day i saw her eating food..i got scared that she might abandoned eggs than after half an hour again i went there and i saw her in her nest sitting on eggs......today i also saw that there were seven eggs...........PEOPLE SAY THAT YOU CANT MAKE A HEN BROODY BUT I DID.......the breed of my hen is DESI HEN....found in pakistan.....I WANT to make sure that my hen is realyy hatching eggs or not......PLZXZZ TELL YOUR OPINION

 

[Skhan]

your question is not clear to me?hen goes broody by her own ..not by force .....and are you candling your eggs?

 

[amirfarmer]

i candle eggs 4 out of six looked fine on day 15

 

[amirfarmer]

i am asking that am i got successful in making my hen go broody....today is her 18 th day

 

[Skhan]

had you candeled your eggs are they growing?????

 

[Skhan]

sorry i dint seen your previous post thats good 4 out of 6........but very less amount

 

[amirfarmer]

fingers croosed

 

[chooks4life]

From my experience and what I've read, I don't believe it's possible to force a set/brood.

Since going broody involves the hen going into a complex hormonal state, it can't be induced just because you lock her away with eggs. For a very broody-natured hen, seeing a complete clutch can hurry up the commencement of her "setting", if she's already in that hormonal state, but if she's not physically ready it just will not happen no matter what you do.

Times of extreme distress, psychological or physical, can induce very rapid onset breeding processes, like a hen that's just survived a near death injury often tries to reproduce and rear offsping immediately thereafter even if she's old and has never shown maternal instincts before. But even then they can't just begin brooding unless they were already in that state. They can't do it at a moment's notice even when they want to. She doesn't have a "broody button" that she turns "on" based on seeing eggs and being stuck with them; it's a state of body so to speak, not something she can choose, and is based on the season and her health in most chickens, though it varies based on breed and environment. It's akin to a pregnant woman deciding to give birth based on being in a bedroom and on a bed. It doesn't work like that. The body is ready when it's ready.

Some hens are so highly maternal that they will adopt eggs or chicks they find, but brooding's not as simple as just sitting on eggs. Their breast feathers are shed when they're getting ready to brood, their body begins to burn fat and muscle to maintain a steady brooding temperature, and their body slows down in its requirements for feed and water; their mental state is also altered.

They can tend to chicks when not hormonally bound, but brood, no.

I've had very maternal hens (and roosters, tom turkeys, etc) attempt to brood eggs when not in the correct hormonal state for it and they just can't physically do it. For one thing, the breast feathers being shed to allow brooding is a function of those hormones, so the males can't do it except in a hot summer, and the females can't do it out of their "season".

Best wishes, sorry to disagree, but who knows, it's possible I'm wrong and you've got the one exception to the rule. I doubt it though; plenty of people have tried this before and failed.