Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[MEMama3]

I think the phrase "you can't make a hen go broody" is meaning that you can't make a bird that lacks the desire or instincts go broody. Some birds are known for their broodiness and they can easily be encouraged to sit. My silkie/ee will sit only anything that remotely looks like a pile of eggs. If I want to hatch eggs I just put out a pile of golf balls and I know she will be in there within an hour or two. Am I making her go broody??? Not really. She's already technically broody, I just gave her something to sit on. I could leave my barred rock with a pile of golf balls for a month and she may not ever sit on them. It's just not in her.

I think people confuse broodiness with sitting. Just because your bird is up and about with the flock does not mean she isn't broody or wants to be broody.

 

[TeaChick]

That is what you would think the golf balls are for, they say you can't make a chicken go broody but to put golf balls in a nst to see if that will make them sit, isn't that almost the same idea as getting them to go broody?

We have 100 chickens and pick up the eggs twice a day because, according to one book I read, to many eggs will cause some hens to brood if you do not pick up the eggs frequently. One English Game hen we have is just very broody so we decided to hatch the old fashion way and moved her to her own area to sit. She sat and raised the chicks twice, is finishing up on raising this last brood right now. I never did the golf ball thing, the Game Hen was down in the main chicken house, kept getting broody, so I grabbed enough eggs, put them in a new nest, moved her and she sat right on them. The second time she would not sit when I put eggs in the nest so I wondered, well what I I put her back down with all the laying hens, and sure enough she sat after a few days. Again I moved her to the secluded area, that time she was agitated for a few hours, but did eventually sit. A few buff orphingtons went broody but when I moved them they never even sat, one even started eating the eggs, it seemed they would only go broody down in the main house, which we did not want, so we gave up on those.

Now with these chickens that we want to reproduce, we have decided to make a large area just for sitting hens. Somebody is going to give us a few English Game Pullets, so that helps with they worry of having enough sitting hens. This is because they know we do the old fashion hatching and would like a few of the Polish Laced and Amerigana Chickens for themselves.

Basically, they issue with broodiness is if I left to many eggs in a nest for a long period of time during any given day.

Thanks for posting this; I'll have to try it. I also like the idea of making a separate space for the sitting hens.

 

[TeaChick]

I think the phrase "you can't make a hen go broody" is meaning that you can't make a bird that lacks the desire or instincts go broody. Some birds are known for their broodiness and they can easily be encouraged to sit. My silkie/ee will sit only anything that remotely looks like a pile of eggs. If I want to hatch eggs I just put out a pile of golf balls and I know she will be in there within an hour or two. Am I making her go broody??? Not really. She's already technically broody, I just gave her something to sit on. I could leave my barred rock with a pile of golf balls for a month and she may not ever sit on them. It's just not in her.

I think people confuse broodiness with sitting. Just because your bird is up and about with the flock does not mean she isn't broody or wants to be broody.

This makes a lot of sense.
I'll have to put a pile of golf balls in my nesting box and see what my hens do. ;-)

 

[Viollettt]

It makes me wonder if setting a fake chicken in a nest box for a while would work the same way that golf balls show them to start laying in that spot.

I have in mind one of those fake rubber chickens you sometimes see... Not sure one of those would help but it gave me a laugh. I can see my hens looking in at it....

 

[TeaChick]

I have in mind one of those fake rubber chickens you sometimes see... Not sure one of those would help but it gave me a laugh. I can see my hens looking in at it....

I'm going to try leaving eggs in the top nest box (to get them to start laying there instead of in the bottom) and a pile of golf balls in the bottom (to see if my Bantam Cochin will go broody). =)

 

[pmcatnip]

I think people confuse broodiness with sitting. Just because your bird is up and about with the flock does not mean she isn't broody or wants to be broody.

This is a good point. My current broody has sporadically tried sitting since late summer so she's probably stayed feeling broody this whole time. I can't blame the poor girl; we really confused her when we put chicks under one of the other broodies instead of her. Looks like she really wants babies of her own.

 

[fisherlady]

This is a good point. My current broody has sporadically tried sitting since late summer so she's probably stayed feeling broody this whole time. I can't blame the poor girl; we really confused her when we put chicks under one of the other broodies instead of her. Looks like she really wants babies of her own.

We have a hen that gets crazy jealous any time another hen has peeps, she will try calling them for food and in general become a pain to the real broody Last spring we had 2 hens hatch out clutches in May and Janeway bothered them for about 10 days and finally decided to sit herself and hatched out 6 peeps mid June. About a week later one of the original broodies decided she was done and abandoned her 4 little ones. Janeway immediately adopted the orphans and kept them with her for another 5 or 6 weeks. Every broody is different, which is why you see such a variety of answers to many questions on this thread.... what works for one person's broody may not work for another person, so numerous solutions to the same problem.

Janeway and her mixed brood... If you look closely you will see a white face tucked under Janeway's right side... that is the 4th orphan, a white silkie mix who always insisted on sleeping under her...

 

[TeaChick]

We have a hen that gets crazy jealous any time another hen has peeps, she will try calling them for food and in general become a pain to the real broody Last spring we had 2 hens hatch out clutches in May and Janeway bothered them for about 10 days and finally decided to sit herself and hatched out 6 peeps mid June. About a week later one of the original broodies decided she was done and abandoned her 4 little ones. Janeway immediately adopted the orphans and kept them with her for another 5 or 6 weeks. Every broody is different, which is why you see such a variety of answers to many questions on this thread.... what works for one person's broody may not work for another person, so numerous solutions to the same problem.

Janeway and her mixed brood... If you look closely you will see a white face tucked under Janeway's right side... that is the 4th orphan, a white silkie mix who always insisted on sleeping under her...

Okay. Stupid question: What is that you have them in?
I'm looking for a better setup than the one I currently have.

 

[TeaChick]

We have a hen that gets crazy jealous any time another hen has peeps, she will try calling them for food and in general become a pain to the real broody Last spring we had 2 hens hatch out clutches in May and Janeway bothered them for about 10 days and finally decided to sit herself and hatched out 6 peeps mid June. About a week later one of the original broodies decided she was done and abandoned her 4 little ones. Janeway immediately adopted the orphans and kept them with her for another 5 or 6 weeks. Every broody is different, which is why you see such a variety of answers to many questions on this thread.... what works for one person's broody may not work for another person, so numerous solutions to the same problem.

Janeway and her mixed brood... If you look closely you will see a white face tucked under Janeway's right side... that is the 4th orphan, a white silkie mix who always insisted on sleeping under her...

Very cute babies and Janeway is beautiful!!!
Point taken: different solutions for the same problems (or answers to question) with different ppl and different broodies. =)

 

[fisherlady]

Okay. Stupid question: What is that you have them in?
I'm looking for a better setup than the one I currently have.

No stupid questions!! Actually, that is a storage bin which I got for $5 or so at WalMart in the laundry or storage area.... they are plastic and stackable and make awesome broody nests. If a hen gets broody and nests somewhere I don't like I can move their nest into one of these bins and leave it in place for a day or so, then simply cover the broody with a towel and move her (bin and all) to a place of my choosing. I also use the bin in our established broody hut area in the coop, once the hen hatches we can pull the bin for cleaning and put it back or remove it completely, depending on size of clutch and temps, etc... I will see if I still have pics of it from when we got them.