I agree. I have two hatchery Black Australorps, one of which is broody now, not unusual for them. And Australorps are certainly great layers, when not broody. My personal choice would be Kraienkioppes, though, as they are a relatively lightweight large fowl (similar to a Leghorn,) excellent moms and quite tame and people friendly, and lay a nice medium egg when not broody. There are some other breeds that are good about going broody but will not be so productive. In the end, though, if you only have a few, it's the luck of the draw with most breeds whether you get a broody. Other breeds such as cochins and buff orps often go broody. http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html
Australorps or Orpingtons. I have both breeds sitting right now and they have been for weeks and weeks..and weeks..
Quote:I have a hen that goes broody when the wind blows. She lays consistently in between broody phases, but she's broody so much that I cannot count on her to be a consistent layer. She just turned a year old this week, started laying in January, and has gone broody 3 times since January... and it's only August. Each time she goes broody, we don't get any eggs from her for about 6-9 weeks. In fact, she just started laying again 2 weeks ago after her last chicks were old enough that she abandoned them, and she is going broody again already. So if you are looking for something that goes broody a lot, ya gotta know that she's not going to lay a LOT of eggs because they don't lay when they're sitting on a clutch and raising chicks.
Sussex,I have 2 hens raising chicks one other was broody till I moved her and the rest of her flock to a diffrent pen.
