Pushing aside the straw to gather eggs

[katydidagain]

Bill says hens covering up their orbs is an early indication of broodiness. Is it?

[KSALguy]

no it just means one hen got in and scratched around after some of the others had alreayd laid an egg, some hens feel the need to re shape a nest from time to time, and also if your nest boxes are too big and open this encourages them to hang around and look for stuff to get into,

i had one mixed hen of unknown origens that was both overly friendly with me and would look for any excuse to poke around in a nest box, she never broke any eggs to eat but she shure would scratch up the bedding in a box i guess looking for goodies, i guess thats not a bad thing sence at that time there was quite a few mice that would hide in some of the nest boxes

[katydidagain]

I'm glad to know. I have 2 roos who were supposed to be someone's dinner last fall that are separated from the hens. Even though circumstances dictate that I give up chickens this year, I would been very tempted to put put a few girls in with the fellas. I've always wanted to "experience" natural hatching and brooding.

[KSALguy]

haveing broody hens makes the world right some how for me lol,

[katydidagain]

I so hoped one of mine would do it last year; they didn't. The only broody hen I ever saw was Henny Penny the bantam hen the local hatchery gifted me when I bought eggs and rented an incubator as a kid. She had maybe 10 under her when we returned from vacation. At the time I thought she was just behaving oddly; before we went away, she let me pick her up and followed me around but suddenly she became growly. She totally freeranged; sadly she disappeared later that summer.

[VA Susan]

Originally Posted by katydidagain

I so hoped one of mine would do it last year; they didn't. The only broody hen I ever saw was Henny Penny the bantam hen the local hatchery gifted me when I bought eggs and rented an incubator as a kid. She had maybe 10 under her when we returned from vacation. At the time I thought she was just behaving oddly; before we went away, she let me pick her up and followed me around but suddenly she became growly. She totally freeranged; sadly she disappeared later that summer.

Katy,
If you'd like, next time my Banty, Little Dove, goes broody I could send you some of her fertile eggs to hatch out. They would be half Banty and half either RIR or Red Star, assuming her female offspring would go broody like her. They would be larger than a Banty so could cover more eggs. Ten of her 11 eggs from last time were fertile. We gave them to our cat. We replaced her eggs with some eggs from our layers.