Undecided broody hen

[HarrietB]

I bought two goldtop birds a few weeks ago ( silkie x sussex) as they are renowned for falling broody easily. Ive kept this breed before and have always been impressed by their laying, broodiness and general long life!!


I put some eggs in their hen house to encourage them to go broody and left any eggs that they added to the clutch, It ended up having 21 eggs in and so i have marked the clutch and started to take any new ones away. One of my hens happily sits on the eggs until about 11.30 in the morning and then she gets off. she has plucked the feathers on her underside and so i thoguht she might be tempted by becoming broody but its been a while now and she still hasnt sat for more than half a day at a time.

Should I be making the nest more private for her? Ive not separated her incase it caused her any distress but im not sure if the 3 other hens are annoying her


Any ideas?

 

[Basil G]

I separate my broodies because my rescue thinks eggs left in the coop over night mean extra dinner. And when ever they leave the eggs to take care of business the others stomp on their eggs. I currently have a broody silkie on 11 of her eggs in the mud room in a cardboard box because going anywhere is limited she stays on her eggs

 

[the3ofus+oursixchicks]

I bought two goldtop birds a few weeks ago ( silkie x sussex) as they are renowned for falling broody easily. Ive kept this breed before and have always been impressed by their laying, broodiness and general long life!!


I put some eggs in their hen house to encourage them to go broody and left any eggs that they added to the clutch, It ended up having 21 eggs in and so i have marked the clutch and started to take any new ones away. One of my hens happily sits on the eggs until about 11.30 in the morning and then she gets off. she has plucked the feathers on her underside and so i thoguht she might be tempted by becoming broody but its been a while now and she still hasnt sat for more than half a day at a time.

Should I be making the nest more private for her? Ive not separated her incase it caused her any distress but im not sure if the 3 other hens are annoying her


Any ideas?

why would she pluck her feathers on her underside for?

 

[Basil G]

Broodies pluck their feathers off their chest/underside, but like I said before she isn't acting completely broody, unless she is one of those hens that goes half broody and is not a reliable mother.

 

[HarrietB]

For anyone who read my post last week - I bought some gold top hens because I was desperate for a broody to raise my chicks this year, I had been tempting my hen with a lovely nest filled with eggs and she was showing signs of broodiness but not settling down. In I got bored of waiting and I bought some eggs and set them the incubator. Literally the next day she goes broody!!! Typical!

So I have eggs in the bator and under my hen im sure there is a lesson here about being impatient with mother nature

 

[Basil G]

I just found something that might make your hen go broody. They just did a scientific research or study and if you take tin foil and put it above the nest box it increases their likeliness of going broody by 48% or something like that!