Please recommend a breed that makes excellent mothers!

[FireTigeris]

Sorry no clue on the more recent questions...

look for the nearest chicken swap and go?

 

[jennh]

I have three super broodies. Cleo, my black cochin, Henrietta, my BO (who sits on NOTHING

), and Betty, my Barnevelder. Last year Isabelle , My Lt Brahma, helped Cleo "mother" her chicks. Any of the really big, heavy birds are usually good broodies. JMHO

 

[DancingHen]

Orpingtons make wonderful, attentive mothers. I would recommend that you allow your orpingtons to try raising their chicks, and also add some of the other breeds mentioned to increase your odds. I think most mother hens will do their best to protect their babies. And Orpingtons are large birds able to hatch and care for a large number of chicks. Good luck.

 

[chickened]

Orps are good mothers and go broody well.

 

[mlward]

I have a bantam buff brahma that is approx a year old and she has attempted to set on eggs more than once. I finally allowed her to hatch some, the babies are 1 week tomorrow. She is a very good mom. To the point that I have to wear the leather gloves I use to load the woodstove to change out the babies' food & water. Normally, she's very shy & sweet. Oh, and I have a buff orp that joined the broody action a couple days in. They are sharing the enclosure. They each hatched 1, but the brahma seems to have taken over the mothering and the orp is still sitting on 3 eggs.

 

[cashdl]

Both True Araucana hens and roos make great parents. The hens go broody often, but when not broody tend to lay all year which is nice. I have a roo that will sit on the eggs when the hens need a break. They tend to be an expensive bird and hard to find, breed, hatch, and raise, but truly worth the effort. Just another Idea.

They are a truly unique chicken

They make excellant mothers - she hatched 11 out of 12 eggs and raised them all till they got to old to be brooded over. She used to still sit on them when they were almost her size.

They lay beautiful eggs

Lanae

 

[Cowgirl71]

I want to thank you all so much for your input.

At this point, I think I'm gonna let one of my Buff Orp/Barred Rock cross hens try and raise some chicks. I'll see how it goes. I'm not all that optimistic, because mine are really mellow (most of them will let me reach under them while they're broody, no problem. My meanest hen half-heartedly pecked me the first few times I reached under her, and then soon quit). But maybe they'll be more aggressive toward cats and other predators, IDK. But I've got lot's of extra fertile eggs, so I think I'll try sometime this summer, and then decide from there. I want the hens to hatch me some Guinea keets first though, so it'll be a couple months before I experiment. But if the Orpingtons are sufficient, I'll stick with them, otherwise I'll be wanting some LF Game birds.

 

[java girl 2]

I have the best chicken breed for you!!

they are JAVA CHICKENS I have them and they are the best breed I have had in the 3 years I have had chickens. I have buff orp, small splash cochins, javas and some other chickens as well, BUT NOT ONE OF THEM ARE LIKE THE JAVAS!!! If you want a chicken that will go broody, that raise there chicks and are very protective of there chicks in the coop and when they free range plus they are very sueet chickens , the cocks LOVE the chicks and they are very smart birds even as chicks. THEY DO NOT EAT AS MUCH FEED AS THE BUFF ORP BECUECS THEY LOVE TO FREE RANGE MORE THEN ANYTHING BUT DO VERY WELL IN THE COOP AS WELL. I have 8 java hens and 2 are broody, 2 have chicks and the cocks are with the hen and chicks. The one hen has 5 java chicks,8 buff chicks and 5 turkey chicks!!

 

[java girl 2]

OH, P.S. if the java hen does go broody and does not have chicks they will brack up and go broody in about 2-4 weeks and will not stop going broody till they have chicks!!!

 

[chickened]

Javas are an old world breed that have not had the broddies bred out of them. They are a parent type to modern breeds.