What breed...

[happyhens]

is your best broody hen? And if you included pics, I wouldn't mind

 

[jkcove08]

Mutts are my best broodies. This hen let me move her into the house. Jenn

 

[Marlinchaser]

Mutt/ cuckoo maran/ this is my Amerucana

I dont think there is a best breed, but there are breeds that go broodie more often. My three all hatched during cold weather, the one in picture decided to start sitting in January had a couple of days around 0 F, so she is definately dedicated to the cause.

Edited to add: some of the breeds have had the broodiness breed out of them.

 

[ChicknThief]

I have heard that silkies make incredible broodies, though I cannot speak from my own experience.

 

[chicken_boy_Kurt]

Hi everyone I'm new but heres my answer: Silkies! My nieghbour had a couple silkies, and he had like 8 cocks and 4 hens (most from eggs his hens hatched). Hes still trying to get rid of those roosters.

 

[Dawn419]

We have 3 Silky hens that constantly took turns going broody over the winter months. Now that the days are getting longer and a bit warmer, and I was going to break down and finally let one of them go ahead and hatch out a clutch they've gone back to laying instead of staying broody. Silly Silkies!!!

Our Silky page.

Our bantam Cochins were another breed that went broody quite often...we sold the Cochins because there was no way we needed 6 broody hens...we want eggs!!!

Hope this helps!


Dawn

 

[jab91864]

My silkies love to go broody. I brought one in the house in Dec and she hatched eggs for me. I tried bringing another in but the change made her change her mind about sitting...lol.

I have a chantecler that has gone broody several times this winter... again now. I think maybe I will slip some eggs under her.

Julie

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

I love silkies when it comes to going clucky, but I have found them to sometimes be clumsy moms or just not protective enough. Same with Cochins, also their loose feathering kept strangleing half of their chicks.

For the past 3(almost 4) yrs I have been working on a breed of my own.. Now those girls now how to go broody and take care of their babies.
Wonderful when it comes to adopting chicks too.
I am not 100% sure what to name my breed yet, I am stuck between Booth Creek Games and Booth creek Ranch hens(since we do live on the Booth Creek Ranch). Which one do you think is better?
I am not sure where the super broodiness comes from, they have no major broody breed in their ancestry. They will tree any cat that even dares look their way from 5 yards distance(you should see them go), my dog has been viciously attacked himself(he is very afraid of any clucking, fluffed up bird now).
Easy to handle tho, and I can even take them out of the nestbox, but them beside it and they will just sit there clucking and not move a muscle. Funniest thing is when I just open the latch to the coop door all broodies will literally screech and growl as loud as they can.
Calm birds when not broody and always up for a cuddle. Super layers of small to medium sized, cream eggs(get 1 a day per hen).
Next month I will try to deliberatly get 4-5 broody so I can shove most of the hatchery chicks under them, shouldn't be too hard considering that I have 5 broody right now just because I acctually let 2 of them sit, now all of them think they get to do that.
My day pretty much consists of constantly throwing hens out of nest boxes......

I guess I think they are perfect because they are fast, elegant, VERY independent/hardy and very efficient when it comes to reproducing. They can cover up to a dozen large eggs, but they themselfs are not very large at all. They out hatched/reared my silkies and cochins last year.

Anyhow, enough of my rambling, now some pics if my darlings.
This is one of the hens of my breed, I hatched those 2 chicks in the bator and just gave them to her. The chicks also are BCGame/BC Ranch Hens, one is a black red and the other a cinnamon(most likely female, since I only seem to get females of that colour)

An Adult Cinnamon hen:

And a Black/Mahogany red hen, she is the best of my hens, colour wise(I love dark red on black or blue):

Anna

 

[happyhens]

Thanks for the replies everyone!
fancyfowl- those hens sound great! Any idea what breeds are in the mix? If you don't want to say, that's fine to

They are really pretty! I really like that first one there.
Cute pics, marlinchaser and jkcove! Thanks for sharing!

 

[airmom1c05]

My only broody hen so far is my little tiny silkie Serama bantam. She is currently setting 5 little eggs due to hatch on April 4th.

Penny