Will they naturally go broody?

[Phisch]

Hello!

Our group of 11 hens who are about 6 1/2 months old have around half laying already. We would love to see them have babies (we have one roo). Some are laying in the corner of the coop and we’ve been eating those. At least two are laying in the crate set up as a nesting box and we plan to leave those alone (candying to check for fertilization). With enough eggs in the box, will a hen naturally get broody and sit on them? How many is enough? How long after an egg is lain is it viable for this sort of thing? Should we just take the eggs until we have a broody hen?

 

[HeartsDelight]

What breed are they? Some are very prone to brood, some almost never do.

Have you checked any of the eggs you ate looking for the fertile ring? Until you know the hens and roo are both getting their jobs done, any candling or incubation is useless.

 

[GotCoop]

In my experience it is usually a few months after they start laying that they may go broody (depending on breed). If you do get one to go broody, take some of that days eggs and the next, and put them under the broody hen. Mark the eggs because other hens will continue to lay in the same box with the broody...remove unmarked eggs over time.

 

[Acre4Me]

Time will tell.

First batch of our chickens included 6 breeds, 14 females. Only ONE of those 14 has gone broody, ever. She has gone broody 3x (at 8 months, 10 months, and 1 year old). She has raised chicks we’ve given her 2x - so, we’ve never allowed her to incubate eggs. We always remove eggs a couple times a day, but we do leave fake ceramic eggs out there. There are 2 others of same breed/age, never once thought about setting/going broody- only the one girl. So, my observation is that it is an individual thing. You can have a breed that tends towards a higher likelihood of going broody, but it’s individual. In addition, some will go broody and sit but not long enough, some will sit and hatch, but not care for the chicks (or worse, kill them).

Recently, we purchased 2 more of that same breed (Black Australorp) from same breeder, will be interested to see if either goes broody.

Good luck.

 

[50-45-1]

Leaving eggs in the nest box is a good way to end up with rotten or broken eggs.
Collect your eggs every day.
Put some golf balls or fake eggs in the nest box instead, then when you see a hen starting to go broody, start saving the eggs you want her to hatch pointy end down, unwashed and un refrigerated for up to a week.
Good luck!

 

[aart]

Should we just take the eggs until we have a broody hen?

Yes!

These are the signs I look for:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

 

[noregerts]

In my experience, it won't matter what you do or don't do. They will go broody when they are ready and no hints like eggs left in the box will matter. I have a couple of hens who go broody over and over starting in the Spring. It's maddening. 80 percent of my gals have never been broody. Mixed flock of BO, welsummer, black Australorp, black star, white leghorns, Easter eggers, barred rocks, and a few homegrown mutts.

 

[noregerts]

Yes!

These are the signs I look for:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

Fluffy screeching pancake hahahaha. That's a very accurate description.

 

[Phisch]

What breed are they?

Six are buff orpingtons and five are ameraucanas (one of those is quite a bit larger and has no cheek feathers so we’re not sure what she is).

 

[Phisch]

We’re back to collecting their eggs then! No one has spent that much time in the coop and no one is doing pancake expressions. We sure wouldn’t mind if one did though!