Questions on broodiness

[glassdragonfly]

If you want a broody hen get a silkie! Mine and her half silkie daughter go broody every 2 or three months.If I'm not breaking one it's the other! I love the sweet little things! Great mamas,too. Don't even use my incubator anymore.

 

[MLG1900]

If you want a broody hen get a silkie! Mine and her half silkie daughter go broody every 2 or three months.If I'm not breaking one it's the other! I love the sweet little things! Great mamas,too. Don't even use my incubator anymore.

Hahaha, Yeah I have read that about silkies. I don't want to offend anyone...but I don't like the look of silkies or cochins. I think it has something to do with the crazy feathered feet / legs.

I love my orpingtons and americanas. When I originally got chickens it was just for eggs. I never had a rooster. Then my BO broody surprised me and I got fertile eggs from a friend. She was such a good mother. She was not really TOP of the pecking order but when she was raising chicks. OH MY. Did she defend those babies fiercely. I was SHOCKED!

And after having a mother hen raise babies, I realized it was SOOOOO much better than brooding them myself. LOL!

 

[MLG1900]

That's interesting about your hens- I have the opposite problem in that I don't want any eggs hatched but I now have 2 hens who will not leave their nesting boxes, even though they've stopped laying, and I see signs a few more will follow. I am a new chicken lover and owner with 14 hens, a rooster who lives with one of the hens, and 4 guineas. This just started in the last few weeks and it has been below freezing most of the time, as well as impossible for chickens to come outside and exercise due to ice. I don't mind if they're broody or not laying eggs, I just was wondering when this will stop, if anyone knows. One coop contains my mid-size hens and they are so fascinated at the hen who won't come out that they stare into her box constantly, eliciting growling. One of my other hens seems to want to raise every egg that is laid by any hen in her coop, and if she can get on 4 different ones she is in heaven! This is interesting behavior as long as everyone stays healthy and safe. Any input from those who have experienced broodiness for a long time? Also, MLG, I would be interested in your descriptions of your hens as they go along. As I said, you WANT chicks and I run screaming from the building at the thought!

It is still winter here in Southern NJ. So I don't think any hens will be broody at this time. I just noticed that the first time I brought home 14 hens and used to take eggs from them all the time without issues. (5 buffs O's, 5 americanas, 2 RIR, 2 Barred rocks) Then that summer the one BO went broody. My flock had reduced to about 10 hens by then, so I was looking forward to having some new birds in the flock. So that year, I purchased 6 americanas and 4 hens hatched from mother hen. Boy did I have lots of eggs! Anyway, these new birds did not like me reaching under them for eggs at all. They are very vocal and peck at me or leave the nest. I thought, if I left them alone maybe one of them would go broody but none of them did. Being that I collect eggs every day, I wondered if that had anything to do with them not wanting to set. I like the idea posting below about adding eggs to the nest boxes and to keep collecting my own eggs.

 

[MLG1900]

dont leave your eggs in the nest boxes to encourage broodyness, instead get some golf balls or fake eggs as decoys. Leaving your eggs will result in rotten or broken eggs. This could lead to egg eating or just a disgusting mess.
Continue to gather your eggs daily and if you have a broody someday you can start saving eggs for up to a week before placing them under her.
You want all the eggs to begin at the same time so the chicks hatch at the same time.
i have a persistant broody right now who i have to break AGAIN! Silly girl, doesant she realize its 25 degrees and a foot of snow outside?

Thank you! That is a great idea. This way I get to use my eggs until I see broody behavior. I was wondering if there was a time of year that broodiness was more likely. Spring or summer for instance. But since you say you have one broody at 25 degrees outside. I guess they can do it any time of year? Do you have a heated coop ?

 

[MLG1900]

I have representatives of a breed (American Dominique) that have a reduced capacity for becoming broody. Most of those birds do not become broody during their first egg production season. Those that do go broody in the first year are typically doing so late in the summer before onset of heavy molt. Hens in their second season of lay are much more inclined to go broody and they can do so at any time during the egg-laying season although they are most prone to do later in the summer. Older hens still are much more inclined to become broody and also produce fewer eggs, even when not going broody.

Game hens present another story. Younger hens / pullets in their first season of lay tend to produce larger clutches before going broody when compared to older hens in the same location at same time. I state again "tend". If the game hens are fed a lot of quality feed, then they tend to produce larger clutches than hens with less food. I have also seen smaller clutches for broody game hens during extended drought. Clutch size can vary because of the duration of laying to produce the clutch or the average interval between successive eggs. I am not sure which is more important.

What I think it typical with free-range hens getting all nutrition through foraging is they start producing eggs when the hen is at peak weight. Over the following days she looses weight even when she can forage all day. Generally, by time hen goes broody she is noticeably lighter than when she laid first egg of clutch. Still she is heavy enough to loose more weight as she incubates clutch over next 21 days plus. She looses weight then even though she can eat at her discretion. The hen looses even more weight for the following couple weeks as she sees to the food needs of her chicks first. My hens are at their lightest when chicks are 10 to 14 days post-hatch. If hens ways too little at any point during incubation or brooding, their is increased risk of her aborting the reproductive effort. Hens provided free-choice access to nutrient dense feed do not exhibit the same degree of weight depression during the broody cycle.

There is a hormone system regulating broodiness, but some how something about the hen's physiology starts and stops that hormone cycle. It may be status of liver and its ability to support oogenisis, or it maybe because of some limiting nutrient like calcium or phosphate reserves in medulary bone.

This is a question that has interested me for a long time. Books so far have not adequately explained things to me.

Thank you for all this information. I am encouraged by your comments about older hens having a higher chance to become broody. I have seen some questionable behavior in my 4 year old hens that have never previously been broody! It is still pretty cold outside AND these girls have only just started laying eggs again after no eggs since maybe November. I figured it might be unlikely that they will become broody but I will remain hopeful!

 

[cmom]

Thank you! That is a great idea. This way I get to use my eggs until I see broody behavior. I was wondering if there was a time of year that broodiness was more likely. Spring or summer for instance. But since you say you have one broody at 25 degrees outside. I guess they can do it any time of year? Do you have a heated coop ?

Some birds go broody when the hormones kick in. Most of my birds do tend to be more broody in the spring but sometimes there is an exception.

 

[50-45-1]

? Do you have a heated coop ?

No heat in my coop but what their body heat produces.

 

[PirateGirl]

In a flock of 4 year old chickens most have never gone broody and one has gone broody every summer about 4 separate times each summer. They all have the same food, weather, and treatment. I collect eggs daily as I don't have a rooster. She'll sit as long as I let her whether she has eggs or not, whereas none of the others care. I think it's very much an individual thing and I don't think it's something we can induce, however we can attempt to break it, or give them fertile eggs and let them incubate. Even with my ducks I have one that is more prone to broody tendencies and others that really don't care. I have never had a broody over winter. They instinctively know when the appropriate time of year to raise chicks is, spring/summer, with the best weather and ample food supply.

 

[aart]

Have had birds go broody all year around, one I let set in a frigid Jan/Feb.

 

[centrarchid]

I have had broodies start any month of year. Even with American Dominiques that go mostly in heat of summer, two of those hens went broody in last 45 days. Patterns in frequency, no only one season or another without exceptions.