How can I make my chicken go broody?
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chickens | 344 comments
Every now and then I get an email from someone who desperately wants a chicken to go broody. Going broody means that the hen suddenly fancies raising a brood of chicks and will sit on the eggs constantly to incubate them until hatched.
You can’t make a hen go broody. It’s like trying to make X more amusing, or sexy. Either X has the tendency to be amusing or sexy or does not.
If you want to breed chicks you need an incubator or a broody hen. There are strains that have a tendency to go broody. Bantams (a small breed of chicken) are well known to be more prone to broodiness. They can be great mothers. Despite this tendency, we have six bantams and only two have gone broody over the past three years.
I have been told that Silkie bantams go broody at the drop of a hat. Some pals that had a shoot and raised pheasant eggs, used Silkie bantams with great success. But you could buy a flock of Silkies that never go broody. It’s the luck of the draw.
Mrs Boss is the one bantam chicken in our flock that goes broody regularly. Her comb gradually pales from red to pink and she will sit in the nesting box, caring for any eggs that have been laid. She is not bothered about the progeny and will happily sit on anything as long as it’s egg shaped.
It’s important to check your chickens every day and lift a broody hen off the nest. Left sitting, a broody hen may not move. If not shunted out of the nesting box to eat and drink, she will die. The sad fact is that without a cockerel to fertilise her eggs, an undisturbed broody hen will pointlessly sit on a nest of unfertilised eggs indefinitely.
If you have fertilised eggs and want to breed, a broody chicken is a boon. Settle her in a quiet place with her own supply of food and water. She will get up every now and then to stretch her legs but she will care for her eggs.
A bantam will generally be a good mother. Any sitting hen connects with any chick when she hears the first cheep. A hen sitting on eggs will generally accept all fowl that emerge from an egg that is placed under her. This could be a pheasant, guinea fowl, partridge, quail, duck or chicken. We haven’t tried ostrich or peacock (it’s a question of space).
It’s important to provide a safe environment, well away from the rest of the flock. Chickens do not go all gooey eyed when new, trembly legged chicks emerge. There is a pecking order. Need I say more?
Mother and chicks retire earlier than the other chickless hens each evening and so need a separate apartment for the first few weeks. Initially, the mother hen teaches the chicks how to drink, forage and run from danger (under her protective wing) from the word go.
Think laterally and protect your precious chicks from danger. A large stone in the drinking saucer will stop them drowning in the water. You also need to check that bullying is not going on. If this is happening, fence off the separate apartment.
I am very fond of Mrs Boss. Heaven knows why – she is broody on and off all summer. Her broodiness is a problem for us. It affects the rest of our small flock. Broody hens will chase other normal egg-laying hens out of the nesting box. Egg production goes down.
I have learnt that leaving Mrs Boss to her own devices is a downward spiral. She will not give up. She is resolute and single minded unitil I escort her to the prison cell broody coop. Now I clean out the broody coop and pop her in as soon as I spot her comb going pale. I feel a pig but if I catch her early in her broody state, her stay at Her Majesty’s Pleasure is just a matter of days.
She puts in a vociferous High Court appeal every time I pass by the run and her broody coop cell. This is ignored until her comb turns red again. Then the prison doors are thrown open and she rushes out for a dust bath.
If anyone needs a broody hen I would gladly lend Mrs Boss, although I would miss her because it takes three to four months to hatch and nurture a brood until they are old enough to fend for themselves.
My dream is that one day we will be offered fertilised eggs around the time that Mrs B is going broody. There was a fleeting hour or so this spring when someone needed to hatch out some duck eggs.
“Do you have a broody hen?”
“Well, yes. Mrs Boss.”
“I might bring round some duck eggs.”
Danny had a happy day imagining baby ducks swimming in a teeny pond (upturned dustbin lid in the chicken run.) Mrs Boss hovered in the nesting box. Finally we had the call. No duck eggs. Mrs Boss was popped into the broody coop and egg laying by the other hens erupted for the day. Chickens save up and the shells are harder.
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Hi Ronnie
Just retrieved your comment (April 1st) from the spam filter – sometimes comments drop in their by mistake.
Thanks for your input.
Hi Karen
Some chickes have a tendancy to go broody a lot (like Mrs Boss) although, when the days shorten she stops being broody. She could go broody any time between April and September. She is prized for her broodiness rather than her egg laying!
Some of our hens have never gone broody and they are all three or four years old now.
Hi me again.Just another question.Is it normal for a chicken to be able to go broody all year round.Or as only mostly thought in the spring.
thanks
karen
Hi Tom
I like james have no experience in buying fertile eggs off E-bay but i know that you should makesure that the fertile eggs are no older than 7-10 days old or hatchability decreases dramaticly. also shipping might jumble them around to much but like i said i have never incubated eggs off E-bay so best of luck!!!!!!!! And if you have any more questions ill see if i can help.
Hi James thanks for your opinion i’ll let you know when i candle them if i see proggress.Thanks!
Oh and if any one needs chicks ill be happy to either send them some or Give them some names of Hatcheries i know who have a great variety!
Thanks for the info.
Karen
xxxx
Hi Ronnie
Sorry to hear about your hen. Foxes are a real pest around here since the hunting ban.
I’m not sure whether your eggs will be viable having been left out in the coup in that temperature. You could try incubating them for a week and the candling them.
Hens are pretty stubborn creatures they will lay where they want. You need to make a nesting box that is warm and dark and cosy to tempt them.
We have wooden floors and use sawdust.
Hi Tom
I have no experience of buying hatching eggs on Ebay. Sorry.
James is pretty experienced when it comes to incubating eggs.
Hi Karen
Hybrid hens can reproduce if you also have a cockerel.
James has given you good advice here, I think.
Hi James
Thanks for the advice.
hi tom, i have bought eggs off ebay with varied success, however i have found that happy-chicks are very reliable egg sellers on ebay.
hi karen!
Yes, any laying hen with a cockerel wil lay fertile eggs however with age the fertility rate goes down and a cockshould have a maximum of 10 hens to “look after” for good fertility however if you really want to get chicks you might want to separate him with say 4 hens for about a week andincubate only thier eggs.
hi
I live in Spain and currently have pigeons ducks and chickens (warrens).
Love youre forum.very interesting.
My one general question I have and it is probably a very stupid and nieve question,but if Warrens are hybrids can they reproduce?. I have a cockerell who is doing his ‘business, but as yet the chickens are too young to be broody so I havent been able to try as they are 18 to 20 weeks.
I have kept free range hens for a long time but never hatched my own.
thanks.
karen
Hi everyone. Do you have any experience buying hatching eggs off ebay. If so, did you recieve fertile eggs which hatched.
Thanks Tom
Sorry one more question i hav. 5 chickens and 4 nesting boxes but my hens refuse too use the nesting boxes. the boxes are just 5 foot long by 2 foot wide platform with 4 dividers creating 5 little sections basically a tic tac to board on a wall.Though all they seem to do is poop there in the boxes.You think you could give me some examples of what your nesting boxes look like because im tired picking my eggs off the floor. Also some of my friends have steel grate floors the kind with holes to minimize cleanup but i have a solid plywood floor what about you guys?