Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

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curious chickee said:



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My 2y.o. free range leghorn went broody on 21 eggs that were laid over time by 6 hens. First time broody and we didn't notice that she was broody and had other hens continuing to lay in her nest for a while. She abandoned the nest at about 25 days. 11 of the eggs were sloshy yolky messes and the rest were 16-ish days developed - had feathers and large veiny yolks (I didn't find that she'd abandoned them in time to try incubation). She is absolutely done being broody. I left her with them for a day trying to see if she'd go back but no way. My question is - will she definitely go broody again, and if so, any ideas on when? We were all so disappointed we are ready to try again!
 
slmwatts said:
My 2y.o. free range leghorn went broody on 21 eggs that were laid over time by 6 hens. First time broody and we didn't notice that she was broody and had other hens continuing to lay in her nest for a while. She abandoned the nest at about 25 days. 11 of the eggs were sloshy yolky messes and the rest were 16-ish days developed - had feathers and large veiny yolks (I didn't find that she'd abandoned them in time to try incubation). She is absolutely done being broody. I left her with them for a day trying to see if she'd go back but no way. My question is - will she definitely go broody again, and if so, any ideas on when? We were all so disappointed we are ready to try again!
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There's no guarantee that she will go broody again. I don't think that leghorns are known for going broody and her doing so may have been just a fluke. Many breeds just do not have a strong broody instinct, or none at all. They are bred for egg production only.

There are numerous breeds that do have a strong instinct to set. Consider getting a few hens of this sort if you'd like to have a hen hatch chicks.

You may find that the leghorn will go broody again, and soon-just that there are no guarantees.
 
NysiaAnera said:
By happy accident, we ended up with 8 Buff Brahma chicks last spring. I have fallen in love with the breed! They are huge, so sweet, and so pretty!
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They are huge and Pretty----Beautiful chickens. I sold all mine because I was not happy with the amount of eggs I was getting from that breed----no where close to some of the not so pretty breeds, But the chicks sold good till the bird-flu scare messed things up for me---then they had to go.
 
I have actually never known how many eggs by Brahma gals have been laying, because all my birds lay large brown eggs, and we have 33 hens right now. Actually, 5 of them are Easter Eggers, so they lay blues and greens, but the other 28 lay large brown eggs. But we mainly have them for meat and eggs for us, so it is not so important for them to lay large numbers of eggs. We do sell eggs, but we don't rely on them for income or anything like that.
 

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