Broody and no roo?

[Granny Heeney]

Mollie has no access to a fella (Leroy's been gone for 3 mos now) but is determined to sit on anything Scrambled and Dumpling put in the nest boxes. :-o Does this happen a lot? (I've only been a chicken momma since Feb.) I know Silkies are often used to hatch all sorts of stuff, but without a roo? Well, 9 Volt is out in the playpen with Pearl nearly every day--about 8' away from the big girls--they can see and hear him but but they've never even been in the same pen.

 

[Bunnylady]

Hens don't know whether or not the eggs they lay are fertile. Silkies are the uber-broodies - some folks have had them try to hatch rocks. I had one that was "setting" on the bare wire floor of a rabbit cage for months; I finally had to let her hatch an egg to get her up. I've had others set for months on a nest that other hens kept putting eggs into; I'd check every day and remove any pipped eggs or chicks, and the girls kept going all summer (not recommended, BTW; a hen can kill herself brooding. These girls were doing a good job of taking care of themselves, and I was kind of curious about how long they'd go, but I did eventually leave a chick with the one who just wouldn't quit to finally bring her broodiness to an end).

 

[Sheepshape]

Oh,some hens are just Broody Babes. A rooster?????.....why bother with a rooster when you can sit on infertile eggs, stones, or even fresh air? Seriously though, the presence or absence of a rooster has nothing to do with broodiness. Pullets (a hen in their first year of life)and mature hens often just undergo the necessary hormonal change, often in late Spring or early Summer. They will then just sit....wherever and whenever they want, eggs or no eggs. As Bunnylady says, some will brood to death (especially if they have nothing under then to hatch). A 'normal' broody will get up daily to eat, drink, preen, stretch, and pass the hugest, smelliest pile of poop known to man. The TerminalBroody won't get up at all....she'll just sit there until she dies. Thankfully, these are rare and have to be lifted daily.



Some hens are destines to spend all their lives as broody hens. Large breeds are the usual culprits....Orpingtons, Brahmas, Jersey Giants etc. I keep Brahmas. They are gentle, beautiful giants, but born to sit. Being large, they can sit on 15-20 eggs, so can hatch you a complete flock if they ever lay enough eggs to do this! I had a lovely Dark Brahma called Mrs Grey

Mrs Grey was huge. She lived until she was almost 10. During her long life she laid less than 100 eggs....the rest of the time, she was broody. She hatched dozens of chicks.She was something of a Terminal Broody and I lifted her daily, placed her with food/drink and left her with food/drink at beak's length when she was sitting.

So, back to your broody. If you want chicks and have/can get fertile eggs....fine. If not, then that broodiness needs to be broken. Some broodies are ultra-mean. They will make a nasty growling noise, fluff up their feathers when you approach, and then try to take your fingers off with vicious pecking if you approach them. This type needs oven gauntlets, and movement to a place where their bald breasts (they pull out their breast feathers when broody) come down on cold tiles etc. and they are not allowed to sit/settle. Now this works for most, but the most broody still continue to sit. Some folk then start to spray them with cold water, but I'm way too much of a softie to do this. I usually relent and give them eggs or replace rubber eggs with chicks hatched on the incubator etc.

Let us know what you plan to do.

 

[Granny Heeney]

I love the Brahmas! So far, there's been 4 Brahma pullets I've tried to get to adulthood, with various tragedies claiming all but Pearl. Starting to feel cursed! X-( As for Mollie, though, she came out to eat and drink with the other 2 yesterday morning, then I spotted her out and about for a few minutes halfway through the day, so she's not getting stooopid with it. LOL My bestie and her hubby have 4 coops of Phoenix of various colors...I bet she'd loan me a few eggs... Since Moll's lowest on the totem pole and so small, do you think the BRs would mess with her chicks if I let her sit a couple eggs? I ain't going to do it if I'm going to wind up with more dead chickens--that horrible, month-long monsoon we had in the spring was directly related to the loss of half my flock; not sure I can handle more bodies this soon. Argh. It can be tough being a chicken momma, huh?

BTW, thank you SO much, everyone, for sharing your wisdom!

 

[Mini Horses]

I like to put my determined broodies into separate pens with a lovely darkish nest fertile eggs. I can control water/feed being there and no other hens add eggs (didn't this past Spring and had a mess! eggs added, different days of set, 2 on a nest -- bad for me). Get set up & move them at night. Most will settle & stay.

Two hens are certain they want to set now...been couple weeks .. and I am considering penning, adding eggs, then in a few days, exchanging eggs for newly hatched chicks. They can be a mom more quickly and I can get then feathered before real cold sets in. Just looking for anyone incubating a hatch that will be here very soon.