4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[mrsdolittle]

First post in the forum - been a lurker for a year and now need some advice from those more experienced.

 

I have three hybrids - all just over a year old and a joy to have. One, a black rock, has always been pretty useless as far as egg laying is concerned. She only ever laid for about two months last autumn and they were always really poor quality - soft or thin shelled with blood/meat spots (and fed to the dog..)- and then she just stopped. As the other two do their job every day it doesn't matter, she is healthy in all other respects, is very sweet natured, so I figured it's just a genetic glitch, and they're pets after all.

 

However over the last two days she has taken to sitting in the nest box. All day. She is really docile and when I turfed her out for the third time yesterday I noticed she has no feathers along her breast bone. She won't come out to eat and when I lift her out she waits five minutes and creeps back in.

 

Do hybrids go properly broody - has anyone ever successfully hatched eggs from one? Or is this a phase that'll quickly pass, bless her.

[Egghead68]

Just check her rear end to see it's not squelchy. My hybrid kept returning to the nest box when she was deveoping peritonitis (since treated successfully). Hopefully it's not that but the soft egg laying does mean she's at increased risk.

[laurmurf]

She sounds broody to me - so don't fret too much!

I had a blackrock type hybrid go broody on us several times over her 6 year life. I think they must be closer to the 'real thing' than other hybrids. Your description of her laying habits suggests she's a good bit older than POL, was that what you expected when you got her?

 

Anyway, yes it sounds like she's broody and if she sits tight then she could hatch fertilised eggs as long as you've got the spare accommodation and plans for the boys.

[mrsdolittle]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Checked her back end thoroughly (as you do...) and everything is as it should be.

 

She was definitely POL when I bought her last year, she was the first of the three to come into lay and the first out again!

 

My 8 year old daughter would love to hatch chicks, but I'm not sure she (the hen, not my daughter!) would see it through. Couldn't bear to embark on something doomed to failure and the issue of cockerels (I'm in urban Dublin) is always a sticking point.

 

I'll just have to bear with her until she gives up. As I get no eggs from her anyway it's not an issue and to be honest I find her behaviour strangely endearing.......

[Leeloo]

I have a black sex link who is so broody! She went broody last fall for about 6-7 weeks and I think the cooler temps and shorter days helped snap her out of it. She's broody again now. It's been 8-9 weeks and she's still going strong so I locked her out of the nest box today. It's been long enough! She would be great if I wanted to hatch chicks, but I can't have cockerels here so it's just getting to be annoying. I thought about getting her a sexed chick or two, but I can't really set up a proper broody environment so I decided against it. I would feel really bad if it died!

[shemybelle]

Hi

 

My Rhode Rock has just started laying, and I've noticed that she sits on the egg far longer than my snowdrop sits on hers. The Rhode Rock isn't broody, but she seems more inclined towards it, if that makes sense?

 

Lx

[Leeloo]

Hi

 

My Rhode Rock has just started laying, and I've noticed that she sits on the egg far longer than my snowdrop sits on hers. The Rhode Rock isn't broody, but she seems more inclined towards it, if that makes sense?

 

Lx

 

Yes, that is how Zoe is! She always has to sit on the egg a while after she lays it, even when she is not broody. My husband was working in the yard a few months ago and decided to check on them. He opened up the Eglu and caught her in the middle of laying so he caught the egg in his work glove. She freaked out on him, started shrieking, and wouldn't stop! She was so mad he took her egg away before she was done with it! My Australorp doesn't sit on them at all. It's like she has better things to do than sit there in the dark on an egg!

[hopingforchickens]

My speckledy has gone broody mad - 3 times this year , this time I have been very strict, only opening the house when I know one of the others are going to lay then whipping the egg out and closing it again. They all sleep out in the WIR so 2 or 3 nights out in the cooler weather has cured her... for now. But it only takes me not collecting the eggs one day and she's at it again! Hoping she starts laying again soon, as I was getting used to 3 eggs a day again

[Joolz1965]

My Speckledy hen has just gone broody. Have turfed her off three times this morning alone. I found another egg in the water glug this morning - obviously the broody is stopping the others laying!! Cheeky madam!