We have Sapphire Gems, Barred Rocks, some Barnyard Mixes, Easter Eggers, etc. We usually collect eggs daily, but recently we've been trying to leave some in the nesting boxes to maybe encourage the hens to go broody and sit on them.
We started with leaving roughly 6 eggs in a nesting box yesterday to encourage our hens to go broody. The hens seemed unfazed, simply laying their daily eggs on top of them and going back about their day. About 2 more eggs have accumulated on top of the original broody pile, sitting there cold with no hen to sit on them. I know you can't force broodiness, that's not my intent lol, I just am confused on why none of my hens have ever been interested in raising eggs.
Mark some eggs and leave them in a nesting box for a while like you started doing. You most likely will have to leave them for a long period of time and swap out fresh ones every now and then. Leaving the eggs in the nesting box won’t snap them into being broody right away and some won’t bother sitting until there are a good 14-15 eggs piled up. Your barred rock might be your best bet on going broody with being heritage breed (although my hatchery stock never did). My best broody’s aren’t from a Hatchery, but a breeder who focuses on older heritage lines. I specifically invested in these because I wanted to let the hens brood every spring to refresh the flock yearly. A lot of the hatchery stock have had the broodiness bred out of them, but not all. My hatchery welsummer, speckled Sussex and Orpington have gone broody along with my bantams, but they are all heritage breeds. Here’s a picture of my English Orpington hens (from the breeder) and one of her chicks she just hatched out this morning.
I see, that makes sense! That picture is adorable, by the way.
And yes, I've in the past looked up all the breeds in my flock and their likeliness of going broody, and the Barred Rock seemed like the only one that had the best chance of ever going broody. I'll keep watching those eggs I put in the nesting box and make sure to swap them out frequently. That is also a wonderful idea to get your chicks from a brooder that specializes in breeds that haven't had the broodiness bred out of them. We do get our chicks from places that sell chicks that aren't prone to going broody, and I'd really like to have hens that regularly go broody every season. Thanks!
They do seem like a lot of fun, lol! Although I see a lot of threads about people saying too MANY of their hens are broody! It shows how different people are, I would be overjoyed if even one of my hens went broody!
Although maybe I just needed to wait longer. I'll keep trying and see! I want to get breeds that are prone to being broody, like Orpingtons, Silkies, Cochins, Brahmas, and Sussexes someday. Our flock is made up of commerical breeds that aren't as good at being broody, which can be incredibly frusterating sometimes, especially for me lately!
