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 Andi Marie
Great to hear how you raise your incubated chicks – really useful information. What a brilliant idea to use a rubber car mat! Good idea to use a jam jar lid for a water bowl too.
Hi James
Hope that you had a great Christmas too. Not long now until your chicks hatch – hope that everything goes OK.
Hi Haze,
Lucky you – I’d love some Barnavelder and Dorking eggs!
Thanks for the tip on sawdust – I had no idea about this.
Also I love the idea of growing rosemary around the coup and putting it in the nesting box. I am going to take cuttings from our bushes immediately.
Thanks for dropping by to share your hints and tips. Happy Christmas to you!
Hi Everyone,
I too am about to launch on the incubator trail… I got an incubator and some fertile barnevelder and dorking eggs for xmas – yay.
My last lot of chicks have hatched under mum and I have one very proud welsummer mum and 6 mixed chicks running around.
I have set up a “chick house” with a heat lamp one end and a feeder and chick waterer the other.
The chick house is made from corrugated iron but has a wooden base. I have used flywire and an old towel for flooring to avoid the spraddle leg issue with newspaper and the catch on fire issue with hay. This was I can remove the towel and wash it daily to keep the poop issue at bay.
Also I have been told never to use sawdust in with chicks as they will eat it and can get “bunged up” and die as a result.
As far as any flea/mite issues.. as long as I have had my chickens I have grown rosmary around the coop and when I cut it back I throw all the rosmary in the sleeping quarters of my gals.
It smells fantastic and I have never had any issues with parasites – it might be luck but my cats have never had fleas either!!
I would love to hear how you go James and again thanks for a great thread! Merry Xmas and Happy New year to all!
thanks, and merry christmass everyone!
as for the wormer i mentioned earlyer i got one off my vet just the same as cat and dog wormer but in liquid form had no problems at all doin them as they so tame
i hatched mine in a incubator then we moved them outside to the shed with a heat lamp left them for 3 weeks till they got a bit stronger and then strted lifting the lamp each week just a little higher so not to make drastic change. we just used a cardboard box to start with but they got splay legged so i put then on a rubber car mat solved the problem.
for first few weeks i used top off a jam jar for the water bowl and to start with i dropped the water on there beak and they swallowed it but as a week went passed i dipped there beaks in the water and they got hang after bout 2-3 days. as for feed i just looked on the bck of the bags of feed i got as to when to change
hope tht helps james and doesnt go on too much
andi-marie
ps my chickens are very tame they come over fence when i open door and they try sit on my sholders or my arm
Thanks, will do.
7 days till hatchtime and counting.
Fingers crossed!
Hi James,
I honestly think it’s time for you to go out and buy a book on breeding chickens. My expertise only goes so far and we have never incubated chickens manually. We prefer to follow the natural route, which is best for the chickens. Any chicks can bond with a mother hen rather than with Human James.
If you put fertile eggs under a broody hen she will do all the work for you, as I recommended you to do in the past.
You must now keep the chicks warm (heat lamp) and react with them. Fun but time consuming. You also have to teach them how to scratch and survive.
Put small stones in the drinker so they will not drown and replace the water at least twice a day as they will foul the water. Feed them with chick crumbs. And nurture them.
http://www.farmingfriends.com is a great site for general chicken advice and http://www.smalholder.com has a good section on poultry.
Hi everyone,
I am trying to hatch some eggs in an incubator but am having trouble fiding out what to do with them after hatching, could someone tell me like how long before the can go outside, how to do vaccination, what can i feed them at what ages and other important stuff please.
Anything welcome,
THanks James
P.s.
They should hatch about the first of january.
Ill let y’all know how they get on, if they hatch…
Hi Haze,
It’s impossible to say whether the eggs are viable or not. You could give them a go with some other eggs (marking them clearly so you know which is which).
I reckon that it’s best to leave a broody hen for a good couple of days to settle into being broody before putting her on a nest of eggs. As Danny says, your hen could have just been having a duvet day.
Bad luck losing the chicks at six weeks. Let’s hope that the newly hatched chicks fair better.
Firstly, what a great site and a great thread – I think people who raise chickens are awesome – I love the anti-battery hen brigade!!
I was hoping for a bit of advise – I have had 2 batches of chicks the first batch was taken by our neighbours cat at 6 weeks 🙁 The second batch were hatched yesterday.
I have had another girl go broody. She was broody for 1/2 a day when I stuck 10 eggs under her but she only sat for 1/2 the day and was running around this morning till late this afternoon. I removed the eggs from the nest and lo and behold she is back on the nest – are the eggs still viable (should I still them back uder her or are they no longer viable as they have been sat on, reached the right point and then gon cold?
Please advise (if you can)
Cheers
Haze