When do hens most often go broody?

[BoundlessLove]

Same situation with my ducks!
I have two broody ducks moving nests around and hiding eggs.
It’s a hide and seek game about three times a week.

 

[ValkerieGunn]

Hens go broody only when your eggs are infertile.

Hens also go broody after your chick goals for the year are complete.

 

[thecatumbrella]

Is it the empty cage being stored?
Or are they just waiting for you to walk under...

It just hangs from the rafters when not in use! This person has Silkies, of course.

 

[RPw1690]

I had one stubborn Black Marans brooding for a month & a half in spring, feeling sorry for her, finally left her two Marans eggs, of which she only hatched one, someone ate or broke the other one. Within 2 weeks of hatching the chick, she was back laying, still in the nursery. Then two more young ones from the year before went broody for well over a month, so I left a Guinea fowl egg under the more reliable hen, she wasn’t moving her nest box around. All these birds were hatching wooden eggs.
The Guinea keet hatched, now 3 more Marans hens say, “Hey, I gotta get me one of those”; now 3 more birds are trying to hatch keets. All these birds persisted much longer than an egg cycle, but I don’t have the heart to break them.
It’s really funny how quickly the keet mingled with the flock, very good flier but still quite small. They sleep with the big birds now, faster than Marans chicks ever did.
(1st photo, keet is next to hatch mom’s left foot)
(2nd photo, not her hatch mom, not her dad.)

 

[DurtyGirlzLandscaping]

They go broody when they want a break from all their sisters, being bossed around by all the so-called seniors who know better, or because they want to move away from home!

 

[mopalia]

I just keep a dog crate in the run, not because they need it regularly, I put it in when I was integrating them when they were chicks and it was such a pain to get in I left it in there. Besides, they like perching on it

This cracked me up - I salvaged a dog crate for no reason and then I had a hen raise 12 chicks from a hidden nest when they were free ranging! I had to bring in one chick that wasn't doing well (took him 3 days to stand and walk) and then one more for company. The dog grate moved to my living room. When it was time for them to go out, the crate went into the run. Now they are all integrated, and I was thinking about removing the crate, but you are right, all the chicks love perching on it. No more rooster, but in case she gets ideas again, I think I'll just leave it!

 

[Pukka Punyals]

Hens most often go broody 2 days after you put the broody breaker back in the garage.

Hens most often go broody during a heatwave to force you out of your air conditioned house to check if they need more food that they're going to ignore.

Hens most often go broody when your human brooded chicks are already 3 weeks old and want nothing to do with the puffy weirdo making bomb sounds.

Hens most often go broody when you already have 2 in jail, thereby forcing you to go pull out yet another pen for a makeshift jail and making you wish you'd grabbed that free dog crate at the roadside that you thought you couldn't possibly need.

Hens most often go broody when they haven't laid in over a year but somehow still have enough maternal hormones in their system to trigger the desire to brood, to the point where they need to be broken 3x (so far) in a single summer.

(Obviously I'm being cheeky here, but I couldn't help but rant as I just pulled the broody breaker out of the garage again after only 48 hours. All the others are also true, because hens most often go broody to keep us on our toes!)

I live on a Greek island and as soon as the temperature starts to go over 35 degrees, at least one of my darling girls will go broody. I have two at the moment - Fergie, a Bantam cross who goes broody at the drop of a hat, and Casemiro, who I'm also treating for sourcrop. Not only do they require waitress service for food and drink, but I have one broody cage, and have to construct more when needed from plastic crates kindly donated to me from my village shop. These usually sit on a table in a covered area protected by fencing wire. But to make matters worse, even though the girls have nesting boxes in the hen house, everyone prefers laying in the crates, so the others are greatly annoyed with Fergie and Casemiro, because they are hogging the laying boxes of choice. And it's now 40 degrees plus, so blocks of ice in the water containers are a necessity. Life is such fun.......