What chicken breeds are most likely to go broody?

[Trish1974]

TRUE Araucanas are very broody. Every single one of my 9 Araucana hens and pullets went broody this summer, and the ones I let sit were excellent mothers. The youngest ones were 8 months and the oldest 5 years. Though they are hard to find you may get lucky and come across a breeder's cull. Where are you located?

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Hie guys!

I want to add two new hens to my backyard flock but I want hens that are most likely to go broody.

Any advice on which chicken breeds that I should buy that are the most broody ones.

My BCMarans. I finally gave up and just gave her two chicks.

 

[Quackter]

I don't know anything about the Cochins, but I definitely second the Batams. They are excellent moms. They will adopt chicks they didn't even hatch. I can remember watching two Batams hens fight over each others chicks, the chicks were close to the same age and if they got close together, both hens basically said they are all mine. It was so funny you'd seen one working by with two chicks in tow and think something must have got some. Then the other hen would come by with the missing extras following her following her. The the next day it might be flipped.

 

[varidgerunner]

Go broody when they are old, or one out of ten goes broody doesn't really mean a good broody breed. Neither does "is always broody, in danger of starving to death if not forced off the nest". I like a broody hen that you can notice she laid an egg, and you can figure on ordering some hatching eggs to have her set on in about two weeks. About all of my birds go broody after they lay their first 10 to 15 eggs, which might be around six months of age if it's warm when they hit six months.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Of my six BO's, I think five went broody their first year, shortly after they started laying good, essentially stopping production for the summer. That was last year. This year not a single one has gone broody out of the ones I have left . So I don't know! They just do what they want to do!

 

[Dharmachick]

Go broody when they are old, or one out of ten goes broody doesn't really mean a good broody breed.

If you research it online, you can find the broodier breeds.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm not a believer in the broody instinct has been bred out of some breeds of hen. I sincerely hope nobody can produce any evidence that this so. It is such a basic drive that any hen bred to the point of allowing self extinction isn't really a hen at all.
I do believe some breeds are more inclined to go broody than others.
There are quite a few pieces of anecdotal evidence claiming that a particular breed ascribed to be non broody will in fact sit given the right conditions.
In some keeping arrangements a hen doesn't get many of the stimuli that may help to encourage broody behavior. Imo and it is an opinion but it is based to some extent on observations here, the presence of a rooster may help, as can a healthy pile of eggs and in particular, the sight of another broody hen.

 

[Acre4Me]

We’ve had a number of breeds (no BO and no silkies). The black Australorps are the most likely to be broody in our current flock. One has raised 3 batches of adopted chicks. Her BA sister has tried to be broody2x, but gave up after 7-10 days. We had a Legbar go broody, but we broke her, so not sure if she would have stuck to it long enough.

Currently we have some new breeds that are only 15 weeks old, so will be interesting to see if they turn broody.

Good luck.

 

[varidgerunner]

If you research it online, you can find the broodier breeds.

Why would I need to find out what the internet thinks is a broody breed when I have chickens that brood 3+ times a year from the time they are six or eight months old until they are 15 or 20 years old?

 

[varidgerunner]

I'm not a believer in the broody instinct has been bred out of some breeds of hen. I sincerely hope nobody can produce any evidence that this so. It is such a basic drive that any hen bred to the point of allowing self extinction isn't really a hen at all.
I do believe some breeds are more inclined to go broody than others.
There are quite a few pieces of anecdotal evidence claiming that a particular breed ascribed to be non broody will in fact sit given the right conditions.
In some keeping arrangements a hen doesn't get many of the stimuli that may help to encourage broody behavior. Imo and it is an opinion but it is based to some extent on observations here, the presence of a rooster may help, as can a healthy pile of eggs and in particular, the sight of another broody hen.

Of course the brooding instinct has been bred out of production breeds. That is the primary means of making them production breeds. Self preservation, territory establishment, and lots of other things have been almost completely erased. No natural chicken would lay 200 eggs a year. They lay a clutch and set on them, only when conditions are right and they feel like it. You couldn't make much money in an egg production facility if your hens laid 30 eggs a year. If my hens eggs disappear from the nest, they consider it an unsuitable nesting site, and eat their eggs as soon as they lay them for a couple days until they turn off egg production. Once they turn it off, they won't start again until they are moved. You can replace their eggs, but only until there are a couple dozen at most, then they turn off egg production and set. The only way you can experience a chicken in it's natural form is to keep birds that haven't been dumbed down by selective breeding for egg or meat production. And you won't find birds like that at any hatchery or feed store.

Early chicken breeders selected birds that were too stupid to notice their eggs were missing, that didn't mind being in the proximity of other chickens that were nesting, that didn't set on eggs as soon as there was a clutch. You are basing everything on chickens that have had hundreds, perhaps thousands of years of being selected for unnatural traits. The birds traditionally used for hatching were always present, until recent times, when it became unfavorable to possess those birds, and as incubators became prevalent. Birds with all of their natural instincts intact, very different from what you get at hatcheries and feed stores today.