makinga hen broody

[clintwilson59]

does any one have any tips or tricks to make a hen go broody? i have 2 slkie hens that are supposed to go broody all the time but so far they havent

 

[Lollipop]

Silkies have a huge urge to brood. My Asils do also. If they are young, that may account for the reluctance. I`ve been successful leaving 2-4 eggs in the nest to encourage them. Seldom takes long, a week or so, sometimes. When you are satisfied they are locked on the nest, go to them at night and replace the old nest eggs with a clutch of fresh ones. If you hve to move her, do it now, at night, so she wakes up in her new quarters and is not stressed later. Always good to pen them alone when they set as then other hens can`t add more eggs and mess up the hatch. Good luck.......Pop

 

[Tropical Chook]

If they're anything like these Thai chickens I have, just show them a picture of an egg....

Jokes aside, I've got mine to go broody several times simply by placing a few eggs in the nesting box. With that said, mine are related to the Thai game fowl so the also have a strong drive to go broody. In fact, that's all they do, or so it seems....

 

[clintwilson59]

i keep eggs in the nesting box but so far its a no go. im not sure of their age but they are laying

 

[pgpoultry]

Get some dummy eggs or golf balls to leave where you would like them to brood. At the end of the day broodiness is down to a hormonal change, and you can encourage but not directly cause that.

It's getting a bit late in the year now as spring to early summer is the peak time for broodiness (though I have just had 2 of my Brahma hens go broody again.....they are always broody!).

Silkies Do tend to go broody easily, so hopefully a little gentle encouragement will get you there.

sandie

 

[Lollipop]

Quote:
Don`t despair, Clint, They`ll get around to it.........Pop

 

[GwenDellAnno]

I don't think you can really "make" them go broody. I tried this spring (April ~ I wanted May babies) and it was a no go. I had a hen that I thought a likely candidate. I put her in a smallish dog kennel covered with a quilt (to make it dark) with fake eggs in it. She was locked in there. Once a day (usually in the morning after the other hens went out), I closed the door to the coop and let her out in the coop for about 20 minutes to eat and drink (and hopefully poop). Then I put her back into the dark kennel for the rest of the day and night. I kept this up for about 8 days. When it became obvious that she wasn't going to go broody, I gave up my "experiment".

Then in mid-July, I had a hen just go broody on her own. I usually collect eggs a couple of times a day. When I went this particular evening, she was sitting tight in the nest box and hissed at me and puffed up. So the next morning, I got the covered litter box (they were using as a nest box through the winter) and fixed it up by the dog kennel. (Boy... that dog cage is coming in handy these days!!) I lifted her up with a towel, moved the eggs into the litter box nest and put her into it. The kennel went in front, with bedding, food and water in it. She didn't come out daily, but was in and out (and did those big stinky dumps) at least 6 - 8 times throughout her 21 day stand. AND NOW I HAVE SIX OF THE CUTEST LITTLE FLUFF BALLS.

All of that to say.... they will go broody when their hormones say to go broody and not before. Apparently some people have had success with the above method. Guess you'd have to try and let us know if it worked!!

 

[clintwilson59]

i wish there was some kind of feed that had that hormone in it or some way to safely manipulate that hormone. That would be usefull for like if you had layers and didnt want them to brood you could just lower their hormone levels.