Informal research poll on broodiness

[LaFleche]

This year we have 18 broodies and counting...

 

[aquila]

I have hens that go broody raised by hens, and from incubator-hatched chicks from the farm store. Some have been incubator hatched and then raised by broodies from a few days of age. Most all of my broodies have been from my gold laced wyandottes or BYM with them in their ancestry, other breeds I've kept (silver and blue laced red wyandottes, wellsummers, easter eggers and buff orpingtons) have not brooded for me, though with the exception of the SLW I haven't been keeping as many or for as long. Broodiness seems to be heritable at least to some degree, at least from my limited observations.

My flock all free range from mid-morning to dusk and are secure in a coop at night, except a few adventurous young ones who sometimes nest in trees or barn rafters in the summer months. They all find their way back to the coop by their first winter.

I feed a little bit of all flock raiser 18% protein, free range and garden scraps with free choice of oyster shells in the barn if they want them.

We keep at least one rooster, but didn't at the start and even then the glw tried to brood.

Our flock broods enough to be sustainable but still give good egg production, however I still would like to see more broodiness in my flock as sometimes its just one a year and not always well-timed (for example, hiding a clutch in a hay field about to be mowed).

I hope to use roosters hatched from the eggs of my broody hens over my flock in the future and see if this increases broodiness in the offspring.