when will hens start sitting on eggs

[donjr721]

i was just wondering, when i should see the hens sitting on the eggs. they just started laying last week. they are all 24 wks old, combination of rhode island reds, comets, and dominiques.

 

[kano]

. Mistery. They tend to go broody in spring or summer. A few can be broody in winter. Some , never in there lives.

 

[CMV]

None of those breeds are particularly broody, so I wouldn't expect any of them to sit on eggs. Broody hens are hens that are hormonally charged and will sit on a nest of eggs to hatch. Broodiness is not a desired trait in laying hens because the broodies stop laying for a significant period of time. A lot of your production breeds like RIRs and GSLs (Golden Comets) have had broodiness bred out of them to increase their laying. If you want to hatch some eggs either get an incubator or a silkie hen. Silkies are well known for going broody.

Good luck.

 

[Judy]

I've got one broody now, an EE. I've had Australorps and Kraenkoppes go broody as well. There are several other breeds that often go broody, including Dominiques. This site tells you which:

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

And here's a great article on broodies:

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

 

[donjr721]

that's good to know, we mainly wanted them for egglaying. thanks. i guess if we want chics, we will have to hatch ourselves.