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Do you think chicks raised by broodies are more likely to go broody themselves? I'm finding my mixed-bred chickens seem to be more prone to broodiness and I've heard pullets raised by broodies are more likely to go broody, so I've been keeping a few pullets out of every broody-raised brood in hopes they will be good broodies in the future. I don't know why I love broodies so much, but I do. I'm afraid with all this emphasis I'm putting on cultivating broodiness that I'm going to end up with 80 broodies this spring!
I used to wonder why anyone would bother keeping mixed-bred chickens when you could have purebreds, but after culling my first flock, a lot of people gave me mixed-bred eggs to help me start over and I have to say those mixed-bred chickens are my absolute favorite. They lay better, they're unique looking and good broody moms. Now probably 75% of my flock are mutts.
I don't have any adult female raised-by-broodies chickens right now. All the girls surprisingly were picked off by hawks. Yay me. You'd think they would be more hawk savvy....unfortunately, even if they were hawk savvy, they were also the smallest birds out free-ranging so they got picked off first. I do have a single black bantam cochin that was broody raised but she is not laying yet.
All of my SUPER BROODIES that are crosses from my own flock were incubator hatched and broodER raised. But that doesn't seem to have affected anything. I used to think the same thing...........I would plan on selling all my mixes so I could keep purebreds. Now, I would almost rather keep my mixes. They are better "quality" birds. Lay better, hardier, go broody and do a GOOD JOB. The birds I had that not only fought off hawk attacks but fought off a hawk attacking their babies were my own "mixed" broodies. Those girls are awesome.
