What breed makes the best broody hen?

Henthusiast · **Joined:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:28 pm **Posts:** 5

I would be interested in members' views and experiences on what breed makes the best broody hen for incubating eggs the natural way.

wickedwings · **Posted:** Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:18 pm

I don't have experience of lots of different breeds but Silkies sure seem to go broody at the drop of a feather.

swayne · **Joined:** Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:39 am **Posts:** 118

and pekin or silky cross pekin also rhode island reds are top broodies..
australorps or even my old english game bantams have a go as well..

wickedwings · **Posted:** Sat Oct 15, 2011 3:46 pm

Commercial Australorps? Or only them stuck up proper ones?

swayne · **Joined:** Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:39 am **Posts:** 118

he he
mine are far from stuck up lol
my two lorps hatch guinea fowl for me every year without fail..

OakA · **Posted:** Sat Oct 15, 2011 6:59 pm

Of all breeds the Silkie is the most prone to broodiness, but as a pure bred they can be lethal to baby chicks.
They get caught and strangle in the silk, the first you will see is a hen dragging a dead chick strangled with silk around it's neck.
The broodiness characteristic is highly heritable and to make use of this a Silkie cross with any softfeather heavy breed either standard or bantam is the ideal natural incubator.
My preference is for silkie X Wyandotte , but any heavy soft feather breed is great.
Similarly you can use a Silkie x Game and they make a great broody and will fight to the death to protect thier charges.

rainbowhens · **Joined:** Sun Jul 24, 2011 12:54 am **Posts:** 3

I love the silky x pekin I think they are the best of both and make super mums

Woodvale · **Joined:** Thu Oct 20, 2011 1:47 pm **Posts:** 4

I am with rainbowhens on this I have had both pekins and silkies as so called pure and had some accidents with mixing outside and the hens from that are my best mothers by far so now I breed a few each year just for their mothering skills

purefeather · **Joined:** Wed Sep 29, 2010 6:36 pm **Posts:** 736

The above crosses described by Oaklands and Rainbowhens are good ones ,it just depends on how many eggs you want to put under a clucky hen. The Wyandotte cross should be able to cater for more googs than a pekin cross.

swayne · **Joined:** Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:39 am **Posts:** 118

also depends on whats available to you.Its easy to say this bird or that bird..
some people only want to set a few eggs others as many as they can fit under the chook..

what specifically does the poster want to achieve? or is it a general question? i.e. what makes the best broody?

AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

What breed makes the best broody hen?

Who is on the Forum