This may be a dumb question and have debated asking it but I just have to know. Will I know? I have some hens that sit on the eggs until I gather them. Sometimes they peck me a little but let me have them. No one really fights me. One young hen clucks real loud after I take the eggs. She's only 7 mo and just started laying. She's a Cochin. Which I know are known for broodiness. I've heard people say that they growl and you will know. If mine want to hatch I want them too. I just gather the eggs several times a day because my Buttercups are egg eaters. Thanks.
Buy some golf balls and replace the eggs with those. If the hen doesnt get off the nest when you approach her and sometimes trys to peck you there is a good chance they are broody. The temperment signs depend on the hen.
best and easiest way I know to be sure a hen is broody is when she sleeps on the nest instead of roosting. Here`s a great link for broodies.......Pop http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html
You will definitely know. If you want to test them, use golf balls or fake eggs and leave them. If they stay on the nest...and start getting loud...mine either growl or a make a loud screaching noise. Since you have egg eaters, the golf ball thing make work for them as well. They will get the hint that nothing comes from the golf balls and may stop eating them.
love broody hens! they are so protective and will peck you. if you think she is broody, leave the egg under her, and check every now and then to see if she has gotten up, she will to eat and drink but thats about it, if she goes right back to the nest, then you have a broody hen. one of my BO just went broody a few days ago, but it wasnt her nest she was interested in, she is on my turkey hens nest, so they are sharing it! TOO cute!
I'm getting some tommorrow. I will have to go buy some. NO one golfs in this family. We are baseball people. I love my Buttercups and they are the sweetest birds I have but those little eggeaters also get in the nest box and scrap all the shavings or straw out everyday. I'm in the process of putting up taller lips on the fronts. Darn little Butters.
Some hens hang out for a while in the nest box during the day, taking their sweet time before, during & after laying their daily egg. And they don't like their special time interrupted by some person's bare hand poking around beneath them grabbing for eggs. That's why they growl & peck & complain. But when a hen stays in the nest box at night instead of going up to the roost, she's probably going broody. Broody hens get an almost fanatical look in their eyes, they puff their feathers out and flatten their bodies over the eggs. When approached they growl or shriek, sometimes setting off the rest of the flock with their alarm. Some can & will peck or bite, really hard.
