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.
Leave a reply
Thanks Fn
Still having three aggs a day this weeks not bad as we have only had them two weeks. The fourth one still prefers to be distant when they are all out, but she happpily goes to bed with the others at night.
We will just be content for the time being, it’s husband birthday in a couple of weeks will get a couple new ones thento boost the production over the winter months hopefully.
We have had a rough week! Another of our hens who was broody started to hatch out 8 eggs and killed the first 2 hatchlings! Luckily a friend locally had an incubator and hatched the other 6. Is this a ‘new mother’ thing or do they sometimes just not be good at mothering? The six new chicks will stay under the lamp for 4 weeks and then come back to us and the bottom of the aviary. Will they be warm enough without the lamp at 4 weeks? They can shelter in the shed in a cozy box at night, or at any other time they want to go in there as there is an entrance for them to use between indoors and out, and we will put bedding in.
Hi Christine
An old bird would have thick old knarled legs.
I reckon that she is a slightly less mature bird. Smaller wattles and a pink comb indicate this.
A hen can go broody at anytime after she starts to lay eggs. Older hens are not all perfect Mammys – they have to be broody to sit on eggs and then look after a brood when they hatch.
Can you help, my husband think one of our four chickens is an old bird. How would you tell?
The other three two black rocks laying well and one warren who has laid for the past two weeks, however the other warren is showing a very pale comb )where as the other three are now all deep red and the whattles one the lone one are very small where as the other three are deep coloured and much larger. Is she an old bird who we could use to mammy some new eggs or is she younger. She is much heavier then the other three and has not laid since we took her home, but we are aware it is still only three weeks. She spends most of her day sitting and sleeping, she appears happy eating well and not being bullied what we can see, and we are with them most of the day out in our garden. Thanks for your help
The update is that the egg that started to hatch did finally hatch yesterday afternoon. The chick seems fine but has a lump (dark red and yellow) on it tummy but vent looks fine. Do you know what that might be?
The other egg peeped but never started to hatch.
Hi Emma
eggs can hatch over several days so I wouldn’t be overly concerned about the 12 our delay.
Some people help the chicks out of the eggs – I have never tried this so can’t advise as it’s a very delicate operation.
Also I can’t advise on shifting eggs from the incubator to under a broody hen, having never used an incubator.
I’d like to hear how it all works out eventually.
Help!
On my third attempt at hatching eggs in an incubator 2 eggs are about to hatch! One of my bantams was broody so as the first chick broke through the egg I put them under her so I did not have to use a heat lamp etc. That was 12 hours ago and there has been no more hatching development but I can hear both chicks. Do you think I have mucked up the humidity by moving them, or do they just take a long time to hatch?
Should I help them hatch?
What a fab site.
We took our two black rocks and two warrens a fortnight ago, one of the warrens has been laying now for the past week and the black reck today gave everyone renewed jubilation with a large first egg.
The pleasure we have so far had fromt these four birds is such a pleasure.
Free range of the garden, three days with fresh corn to call them back in, then allowed loose in the garden when family members are around as we saw a fox on the road two days ago, so they are around. So far the best pets we have everhad all kids love them our three are twins thirteen and a six year old.
lOOK FORWARD TO READING MORE.
Thank you so much James! I think, though, we mioght have found someone local, which as this is getting to be a bit of a regular occurrence now, is no bad thing! You are great to have offered and if we decide on the particular breeds you have, we might come a knocking! Thanks again.
Hi amanda, sounds like a cool “chicken playschool’ youve got there!
I do have some hatching eggs but i live in worcestershire so if u want i could post them, there are many good sellers on ebay.
My eggs are:
(white star hens lay 300 large white eggs, very large)
(White leghorn hens lay 250 blue or green eggs)
(Loman brown hens lay standard supermarket eggs, 300 )
(Mrs Pepperpot hens lay 250 smallish chestnut eggs)
(Bantam partridge cochin (i think) hens lay 150 small white egs)
white leghorn x white star
White leghorn x Loman brown
White leghorn x Mrs Pepperpot
Bantam Partridge cochin x white star, loman, pepperpot.
p.s. New cockeral is BEAUTIFUL!
James