Is my Hatchery Rhode Island Red broody?

[ArekE]

I have a RIR that i think might be broody. I have heard that it is very unlikely for her breed to do so but she is showing all of the singes. Even though she is just an egg production bird she would still always growl, peck and now more recently came storming out of the box and attacked me like a rooster. This has been going on for a while but starting yesterday she stayed in the box overnight. Also i have heard that if RIR do go broody they arent very good mothers. So do you think she's broody? And is she likely to be a good mother?

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I always let my broodies set for at least 3 or 4 days before allowing them to keep the eggs. This insures you don't get stuck with partially incubated eggs.
It is definitely possible that she is broody. Can you get a pic?
As for her Mothering skills you would just have to give her a shot. If you want chicks and she proves to be a poor mother you can always remove them to a brooder.
Good luck

 

[ArekE]

Ok i will probably just let her set because i think she has been trying for a while and a little time away from the roosters should help her grow her damaged feathers back.

 

[Ugadano]

When mine go broody, they stay on the nest even at night, and I can pull them out in the middle of the floor and they stay fluffed out and just sit there and cluck for a while, then try to go back in. When I reach under them for eggs, they act totally different than one that is trying to lay. They will lift all feathers and fluff up and complain as they sit there defiantly, where the laying hen will either be silent or peck me, or jump off the nest if it's a flighty one.

I have always had a few 'Production Reds' amongst my laying hens. I'm told these are RIR and NHR cross, but don't know for a fact. They have always been my 'most likely to set' layers. I have 3 of them now and I have to break up one every 3 or 4 months. I have had one setting at the right season occasionally and brought home day-old chicks from the feed store to slip under her in the night with a red lens head lamp on, and they have been very good mothers. Dang it's so cool to watch them prrrrr and scoot chicks back in under her!

I finally put a plastic leg band on the hen I thought was my repeat setter, but others joined the club. I have one Red hen setting right now, and it's nearly Christmas in Oklahoma, USA, North America! BRRRRRRRRR! If I knew for absolutely certain that my BSL rooster was covering even my older heavy breed hens, not just the younger set of WLs he grew up with, I'd toy with the insanity of letting her try to hatch a small clutch in the dead of winter. I don't have a place to keep them warm if it gets wicked cold, which it will do Jan and Feb here (think ice storm city), and If I set them today, they'd hatch around Jan 8th. I'd sure have an early start on any layers, and I really want my own free range broilers for a change, but I don't want to have to create a place in the overstuffed garage! Ugh! Now I have to break up a hen from setting! I have a wire small cage with wire bottom that hangs in the outer run up high and that works well for 'setters jail' as long as it's not freezing or raining, which it has been. I can hang it inside if I have to. Good luck with your girl and babies!

 

[ArekE]

When mine go broody, they stay on the nest even at night, and I can pull them out in the middle of the floor and they stay fluffed out and just sit there and cluck for a while, then try to go back in. When I reach under them for eggs, they act totally different than one that is trying to lay. They will lift all feathers and fluff up and complain as they sit there defiantly, where the laying hen will either be silent or peck me, or jump off the nest if it's a flighty one.

I have always had a few 'Production Reds' amongst my laying hens. I'm told these are RIR and NHR cross, but don't know for a fact. They have always been my 'most likely to set' layers. I have 3 of them now and I have to break up one every 3 or 4 months. I have had one setting at the right season occasionally and brought home day-old chicks from the feed store to slip under her in the night with a red lens head lamp on, and they have been very good mothers. Dang it's so cool to watch them prrrrr and scoot chicks back in under her!

I finally put a plastic leg band on the hen I thought was my repeat setter, but others joined the club. I have one Red hen setting right now, and it's nearly Christmas in Oklahoma, USA, North America! BRRRRRRRRR! If I knew for absolutely certain that my BSL rooster was covering even my older heavy breed hens, not just the younger set of WLs he grew up with, I'd toy with the insanity of letting her try to hatch a small clutch in the dead of winter. I don't have a place to keep them warm if it gets wicked cold, which it will do Jan and Feb here (think ice storm city), and If I set them today, they'd hatch around Jan 8th. I'd sure have an early start on any layers, and I really want my own free range broilers for a change, but I don't want to have to create a place in the overstuffed garage! Ugh! Now I have to break up a hen from setting! I have a wire small cage with wire bottom that hangs in the outer run up high and that works well for 'setters jail' as long as it's not freezing or raining, which it has been. I can hang it inside if I have to. Good luck with your girl and babies!

I would try to pull her out but i'm terrified cause she has made me bleed before. So obviously she is very protective of her eggs as she always has.

 

[Ugadano]

I have had them peck me too and did NOT like it, try again: wear long sleeves and gloves, when you reach in with your 'off' hand and quickly grab her neck, she will tuck in her chin, but you can stabilize her without squeezing tight at all, and that hand is now too close for a peck. Keep holding with first hand, reach in below with your other hand and gather eggs. Once you've done that a few times, you probably will not need the gloves again. The farther away your skin is, the longer 'strike' distance and the harder the peck will be. Like a horse kick, I'd rather have been very close if they decided to kick and be shoved over by hock and haunches than be out at the end of the swing and catch a hoof to the head with all he could muster.

 

[ArekE]

Well i think its about day 6 or 7 and she hasnt showed any singes of leaving

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I would say then that you have an official broody. Be sure and mark any eggs you give her.