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 Christine
How disappointing and maddening. Did you shift her off the ‘nest’ morning and evening during the ten day run up so that she would be shaken out of her trance like state and feed and drink? If you move a broody it’s best done in the evening a day or two before you introduce the eggs as she sometimes she needs to reorientate herself. I moved Mrs Boss an hour or so before I introduced her to the eggs this time and she was a bit unsettled (this is a broody hen that tops the broody chart constantly during the summer). Initially, I thought that she was going to reject the eggs as she had to be encouraged to accept them. Perhaps the move and the eggs was just too much at once for your hen.
Egg laying does tend to tail off as the summer goes on unless your hens are really good layers (a good laying breed doesn’t always guarantee an egg a day, even in summer). Very hot, cold or wet weather can put a hen off lay. Also if you leave a broody in the nesting box this will discourage laying amongst the other birds.
Best of luck with incubating the eggs yourselves.
One of our black rocks took to the floor fortnight ago, so last week got her half a dozen eggs to sit on. Made her a nest all dry and individualised, introduced the eggs to her and bearing in mind she hasn’t moved for the past ten day guess what, she’s up and about. Tried for two days, she won’t go near them. She has not laid any eggs whilst she has been sitting, so thats two now out of the four that have stopped laying. Anyone any idea what is up with her please. Anyhow trying to incubate ourselves, but not holding out any hope but will try. Took home two beautiful exchequer leghorns yesterday 6 weeks old they are fab.
Hello Amanda
I have no idea what it is that you found. If you don’t have a cockerel your hens would not ‘lay’ anything with veins.
It could be the remains of something killed by another creature. Or it could have been passed by one of your chickens. How old are your chickens?
Today we found an odd looking thing in the garden that I am assuming came out of a chicken. It was a membranous bit attached to two balls of blood with veiny bits running through them. Were these eggs that went wrong? Our chickens do not have a cockerel
Hi There,
I have just discovered your website and have had immense pleasure reading comments.
We live in Wadhurst, East Sussex England and are currently looking after our neighbours chickens whilst they are away for the summer.
On a recent visit from my girlfriends we started a debate about chickens, and how they lay an egg every day regardless and the process of how the eggs are fertilised.
This may sound a bit of a wierd request, but can anyone tell me how the cockeral fertilises the eggs. We assume that they mate everyday as birds do!, and whilst on Day 1 the chicken lays an egg, at the same time she must be producing the next egg – so if Mr Cockeral does his bit on Day 1, the egg produced on day 2 will be a fertilised egg(fertilised on Day 1). And thus on Day 2 the egg will be born fertilised on Day 3, and so on each day? Is this right?
Thanks
Thank you, I’ll get my son to help me improvise some sort of separate coop and nest today. Maybe with his help I can distract Ricky and shoo Mom into her own quarters.
Hi Dee
The mother hen and baby chick should be separated from the rest of the flock until the chick is big enough to fend for itself – at least half the size of the mature birds. Hatching can stretch over a couple of days so there might be more baby chicks arriving.
I have seen mother hens and baby chicks in with the rest of the flock and they have survived but I wouldn’t recommend the practice.
Help! please? I have three chickens – a Barred Rock Rooster (Ricky) and two Rhode Island Red hens (Bertha and Bertie). Bertha decided to go broody on me, so I let her sit on a clutch of eggs – not thinking ahead to the fact that she would probably hatch them. Anyway, I got home today to find that she had hatched an adorable little black chick. Here is my problem. Ricky doesn’t allow anyone in their yard, I have to clean after they go in for the night. (I’ve gotten extreme bruises and cuts from his attacks) I clean the coop while they are out during the day, blocking the door so he can’t get in. Bertha and Bertie weren’t hand raised, so they are nearly impossible to catch. What I need to know is, if I leave the chick in with them (she’s being very motherly and protective) will it be okay? I’m sure it’s warm enough, temperatures here are 100°F during the day and not cooling much at night.
Hi Christine
Yur poor hen needs to be tempted into the run. There are so many predators that could get her and standing out in the rain does her no good at all. Try scatering wild bird seed (or pasta) in the run. A mini Hansel and Gretel trail of two bits might tempt her towards the run.
Otherwise try picking her up. I usually wear gloves when handling the chickens (if they do peck you it doesn’t hurt). Place your hands either side of her body (over her wings) and pick her up. Put her under one arm and pet and talk to her all the way back to the run. Hens liked to be held close. Have a little treat in the run to distract her when she is realeased and hot foot out of the run.
Within time she will want to return to the run at dusk.
If you suspect that she is being bullied provide alternative shelter in the run for her. I saw a hen sheltering in an old coal cuttle once.
Anyone got any advice. Had terrible weather here for the first time since we got the hens, three will come when called back into the run, but still the fourth one is slower(I think she choses not to hear) and will not follow into the run, so hence she is out in the rain hiding under a bush. I don’t want to shut her out the run with the others in so they then all follow her out, so there I am soaking wet trying to get the fourth chicken into the dry.Have to say I gave up and went in.
They all go in at dusk on their own so will they come to any harm being out in the rain, they do have the freedom to come and go as they please, but they do look very bedraggled tonight.