This hen has gone broody. It means she is going to stay on that clutch of eggs and not move until she hatches out baby chicks. See the glazed fixed expression in her eyes? Nothing will force her off brood. Going broody should be a natural part of most hens’ life. Unfortunately, hens going broody stop laying eggs for at least three weeks and often longer as she nurtures her new chicks. Most large egg productions would shut down if all their hens decided to go broody in spring so that God-given trait has been selectively bred out of most breeds.
What are some of the signs that your hen may be ready to set some eggs? The glazed expression, not wanting to leave the nesting box, if she is a free-ranging gal, she might disappear and return with chicks in tow.
When a hen is broody, and you take her off the nest, she will not move or run, and all her feathers rise. “Now don’t get your hackles up” is an old farm expression that comes from this. If you remove her from the nest and move her to a new location, if they are seriously broody, it will not break brood off that hen. So, now you are ready to set some fertilized eggs under that gal.
When one of my layers go broody and can maintain brood and hatch chicks, I consider them a treasure. “Mommy,” my broody hen, is a Buff Orpington one of several breeds that are known as good mothers. Silkie Bantams love to hatch eggs, and many flocksters keep Silkies just for that purpose. In this post, I am going to share some of the mistakes commonly made when you start trying to hatch out your own chicks.
Don’t try to leave a broody hen in with the other layers. I left Mommy in the nesting box because I wanted to show what might happen to her eggs when she got off to get a drink. I went to select six eggs to set under her, and when I checked on her that evening, several other hens had used her nest while Mommy got off to get a drink and laid more eggs in her nest. Now I can’t tell which ones are the setting eggs that have already started developing and which ones are fresh eggs that will not hatch. The fresh ones will turn rotten, explode and ruin all the eggs. If I had marked the eggs when I placed them under Mommy, I would now not have a problem identifying the hatching eggs.
Another big problem is what happened next. Here comes Rosie. This very curious Brown Leghorn got into Mommy’s nest and broke open one of the hatching eggs. If I had not been there to clean up the mess quickly before it got on the other eggs, all the eggs would have been ruined. There was a viable embryo developing in the egg that was cracked opened.
This is not the only reason that you want to separate the broody hen and her eggs. If you allow a hen to brood in the nesting box or even in the corner of the coop, if her eggs are unprotected, when they hatch the first thing the rest of the flock might do is eat them. I allowed a broody turkey hen to set on some hen eggs in a nest of fresh straw in the corner of my coop. Unfortunately, as soon as they hatched, my sweet hens ate all the newborn chicks. It was heartbreaking. I learned a valuable lesson on poultry behavior to realize the flock will protect itself from all perceived intruders, which is how they saw the newborn chicks.
It is important to isolate the broody hen, but I like to keep her inside my large coop so that the rest of the flock can get acclimated to the new chicks as they grow. I encourage you to try raising some chicks with the help of a broody hen. It is an amazingly rewarding adventure. Be happy today!
