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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OMG – I am sorry **HUGS**
I wish you all the luck with your new batch.
My first lot are due on Tuesday so I am getting a bit excited. Unfortunately half of Australia is in the middle of a massive drought and a current heat wave and the other half are having flooding rains so there is a lot of sick and dying chooks here.
Anyway I am sure it will work out for the best!
I’ll keep you all posted!
awww so sorry for you james betta luck next time
Hi James
What a shame. How disappointing.
Let’s hope the next batch works out for you.
No chicks have hatched, i think that may be because of a power cut
a few weeks ago which lasted 6 hours. A shame but i have more eggs arriving imminently which are light sussex x warren, which i may (hopefully) have more luck with.
Sorry about the sad post.
James.
Hi James
Ah the joy of the first egg! We are still waiting for our hens to come into lay again.
The towels sound like a good idea. A large stone in a saucer of water is the simplest drinker. I used a small drinker with little pebbles all the way round for my guinea fowl keets. You need to change the water several times a day as the chicks will foul the water.
Hope the hatching goes well.
Hi Haze
Those chick water fountains are good but I’ve never seen one for sale around here.
Hi James,
Yes I have heard about the stone or pebbles in the water bowl – but I use a chick waterer (it was only $7.00 and was well worth it – how ever I have seen my chicks jump into (and out of) ice cream containers filled with water, so how they would drown I do not know. But I guess better safe than sorry!! Please let me know how you go with your hatching. I am excited for you!!
(Sorry about the late post, this is about christmas day, have been away)
After a month of no eggs i got bored of going down to the nest box, however today (25th not 30th)i thought well i might as well, lo and behold one creamy white egg, still warm.
5 minutes later the agg was boiled and i had the most amazing egg ive ever eaten! what an amazing xmas present from ruffle! two eggs a day ever scince. In reteurn the got two new friends and a new henhouse with a much larger nesting box, courtesy of omlet, i would recommend it to anyone, especially someone in the city but it doesnt really go with my country garden.
Tomorrow for the first chicks, and happy new year all.
🙂 Good luck haze! (-:
James
P.S. am using old towels for chick flooring whick my mum suggested and an air pellet tin for water, but i have been warned to put a flattish stone in the middle of the tin to prevent them drowning. Anyone else heard of this?
Hi Haze,
I do hope that someone in Two Wells wants your Barnie eggs!
I’d love to hear how you get on.
I am going to try your trick with the rosemary. Thanks again for the tip.
Hi Andi-Marie,
My chooks are not interested in the rosemary at all. I think it may be a bit too “strong” of a flavour for them. We grew the rosemary in pots from cuttings (it is really easy to strike) until it was forming into a little bush. My hubby put pea straw and chook poo around the base as a mulch then put chicken wire over this to stop the girls scratching them out and now have a little rosmary hedge going.
If there is anyone local to me I have about 6 Barnie eggs that didnt fit in my incubator and are probably not going to be viable in 21 days – So if I can get them to you I will. I would love to get some other breeds going – I am really keen on the Orpingtons and some Malaysian Game….so if anyone would like to do an egg swap…. I am in Two Wells SA Australia and my email is hgoulden@baonline.com.au drop me a line and we can try to sort something out.
how do you keep the rosemary upright as my chucks would peck it all down