Today, Tiny, my 8 to 9 month old pullet went into the hen house. So did her sibling, Naughty. Tiny started screaming "BOK-BOK-BOK-B'GAWK! BOK-BOK-BOK B-GAWK!" I knew what that ment. She was going to lay an egg or sit on one. She sat down, and then her sibling left the hen house to go look for bugs. And then Tiny was alone, peace and quiet in the dark. She tucked in her egg that she laid a few days ago under her belly and her wing. She sat there, checking on her egg every few minutes. I tried to take her egg (just to see what would happen) and then she started muttering "bok bok bok bok bok bok bok....." then when I took it more away from her, She started squaking "BOK BOK BOK BOK B'GAWK!!!!!!" It means she didn't want her egg taken, so I gave it back and she settled down. Is she broody? Sometimes Naughty would come by and say "Hey watch'a doin?"that would some times distract her but the real question is does she want to raise chicks? Her egg is not fertilized. She must think it is.Tiny did not have a mother, I got her from a feed store as a chick. She knew nothing about raising chicks becuase she never had a mom. All other chickens don't care. They just lay an egg and go away. I was wondering, does she have what it takes to raise chicks? Does she know what to feed them, how to find food for them, how to protect them, what to teach them, how to keep them warm and so on?
Well, hens don't know fertile from nonfertile; they go broody from instinct based on the environment. Try to get a fertile egg or two and put them under her.
What 20736 said. They don't know if it is infertile or fertile as far as they know, it is an egg, it is in their box and she will hatch the dang thing! lol Yes she sounds broody to me, you can do a few things. 1. Let her hatch fertile eggs, you might be able to find some. If you go with one, you might want to see how long she will sit on the non-fertile ones, since she is new at this. My first broody, she was new to that too, but she sat right through the whole 21 days and hatched out three. 2. Break her of it. Just by moving her from the box, and keep moving her until she is like "whatever" i had a broody just a few days ago, she just started to sit, but i took her out of the box like six times and she didn't go back after that. You could also put her on a wire bottom cage so air gets under her, i heard about that one, but i have not tried it yet.
Thanks, I forgot to mention that Tiny will only be broody for a period of time. She will sit on an egg for 30 minutes, and then walk away. I wonder why. She still doesn't want anything to touch her egg even after she's left. Also, ( I know this is off topic ) Tiny just got a scrape on the tip, so I put some neosprin on it ( a medicine I heard that can be used for chickens ) and then I wrapped a band-aid on her toe. Was this okay? P.S I forgot to say that I was hoping for Tiny to ADOPT newly hatched chicks.
