encourage a chook to go broody?

nic · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 2:52 pm

Is there anything i can do to 'help' my girls go broody? I have light sussex's as well as my blacks, and prior to this I couldnt keep my light sussex girls from sitting,(there was no rooster to fertilise their eggs), now i have a rooster and they wont even consider going broody???! I was hoping to use these girls(sussex's) for incubation, but am now seriously thinking about buying an incubator.
the pen has an extra 'room' where i can separate them from the other chooks and it has some lovely nests in it that all the chooks are happy to lay in, but no-one will sit!
Except for one of my black girls who I thought had been killed by a fox or dog a couple of weeks ago, then she popped up one day near the shed, and I discovered the clutch she had been sitting on, i made the mistake of moving her for her safety, but this took her off the nest, and she abandoned it.
Am i just being impatient? or is there something i can do to encourage them?...or should i buy that incubator?

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

A few cosy nests about is all you can do.

Hens have a basic cycle, they lay a clutch, go broody then take a break then start all over again. Of course some breeds have extraordinarily long clutches and hardly go broody, while others go broody often. At this time of year, most hens will have started in ernest in laying a clutch, depending on clutch length they'll progressively go broody. Given you have a breed with some record of broodyness, at a guess I'd say you should have one or more broody within six weeks or so.

wickedwings · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:37 pm

So what constitutes a clutch or how do the girls decide when they've got enough eggs to sit on? And do they continue laying and sitting for a while or do they lay all their eggs in one spot first and then commence sitting? How long will an egg remain viable while it's just sitting in a nest before it needs to be sat on or incubated?

OakA · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:10 pm

Under normal circumstances a hen could lay 18 or 20 and then sit if she has stolen a nest, the first eggs will still be viable and hatch, she would of course roll the eggs each day as she lays her next egg.
About the only way you can encourage her to go broody is to leave eggs available to set on, either her own or each day remove her egg and replace it with a false egg to ensure hers are not broken until she sets, then allow her 2 or 3 days on the nest to become properly broody, move her to a quiet place and after 24 hrs give her the clutch to set on.
Older hens will go down and set sooner than pullets.
They are unlike turkeys where you can lock them on a nest in the dark and in 2 or 3 days they will start to brood the eggs.
If you ever need to move a hen into safer surrounds do so at night and keep her covered in the dark for a couple of days.It is essential to keep her quiet and undisturbed for that time and only let her off for a feed, toilet and a drink for a short time each evening for the first 3 days, then uncover her at night so the next morning she can establish her own routine.She can be locked in for the first 24 hrs in complete privacy to allow her to settle in without need for a feed or drink.

marbaker · **Joined:** Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:04 am **Posts:** 1

Sussex hate to be moved I have lost nest in he past because I have had to move them so if its at all possible don't move them just let them be

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