And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Genesis 9:7
I am now more than a year into my adventures of raising chickens. I'm still early into my venture, but in this short time, I've learned a thing or two about chickens and their quirky behaviors. And I'm still learning more every single day.
Genesis 9:7
I am now more than a year into my adventures of raising chickens. I'm still early into my venture, but in this short time, I've learned a thing or two about chickens and their quirky behaviors. And I'm still learning more every single day.
One thing that I've learned is that all broody hens are not equal. What one broody does, another may not.
I learned this during my first summer with chickens. One of my pullets (a female chicken under one year old) was spending more time in the nesting box than usual and when I would check on her, she would fluff up and make the infamous Velociraptor sound.
I took a short video, posted it on a chicken group and every single person said "broody." Well, turns out, she wasn't broody at all. She was just hateful. And still to this day, she is just as hateful as she was then when she's laying an egg. She did eventually go broody and hatched out a sweet little clutch of babies, but her Velociraptor growl didn't mean she was broody. She was just moody.
I learned this during my first summer with chickens. One of my pullets (a female chicken under one year old) was spending more time in the nesting box than usual and when I would check on her, she would fluff up and make the infamous Velociraptor sound.
I took a short video, posted it on a chicken group and every single person said "broody." Well, turns out, she wasn't broody at all. She was just hateful. And still to this day, she is just as hateful as she was then when she's laying an egg. She did eventually go broody and hatched out a sweet little clutch of babies, but her Velociraptor growl didn't mean she was broody. She was just moody.
So, in hopes of saving someone else the headache of trying to figure out if they have a "Moody Broody" or just a "Hateful Hen", I thought I'd give you a list of signs to look for to determine if your girl is broody.
1. She'll puff up and growl.
A broody hen may puff up and growl if you mess with her while she's on the nest. This is something I have found to be true most of the time with my broody hens. But, it hasn't been true every time. My sweet girl, Annie, wasn't much of a growler, but she did puff up. And my friends' broody wasn't much of a growler either. So, if you have a hen that's puffing up and growling at you and sounds like a Velociraptor when you go check on her in the nesting box, she may be broody. I say "may be" because my girl "Lucy" growls like that any time she lays an egg. I rather enjoy catching her in the nesting box so I can make her puff up and growl by teasing her.
2. She'll spend all her time on the nest.
A broody hen will want to spend all her time on her nest, incubating her eggs. She will generally only get off the nest once a day. She will get up to stretch her legs, poop, eat, drink, and dust bathe before going back to her nest. One of my broody hens would get off the nest twice a day while her broody sister would sometimes only get up every second day. Either way, she will spend the vast majority of her time on the nest. She won't roost with the rest of the flock either, but opt, instead, to sleep on the nest.
3. She'll pluck her chest feathers.
If you've heard the phrase "feathering the nest", that is exactly what happens. A broody hen will sometimes pluck the feathers out of her chest and feather her nest with them. It's said that a bare-chested broody can make better contact with her eggs to better determine the temperature and humidity of the eggs. After all, she is the one responsible for keeping them temperature and humidity at the right levels for hatching so she'll want to do the best job she can. I have never had a broody pluck her feathers when setting on eggs or any other time, but it does happen.4. She will have big poop.
A broody hen will want to keep her nest as clean as possible. She knows that a messy nest means messy eggs and that can cause bacteria to grow inside the eggs which will result in embryos that stop developing or fail to hatch. Since she is only getting off her nest once a day, she will have to "hold it" until she gets up to relieve herself and that makes for quiet a large pile of chicken poop. This is something you are likely to notice. With my own broody hens, I have noticed the larger than normal piles of poop each time. You may not notice it at all if you have a small coop and enclosed run because the poop will likely be trampled before you see it.5. She will stop laying eggs.
Once a hen goes broody, she no longer has the need to lay eggs because she will want to hatch them instead. For this reason, she will completely stop laying eggs until she has either (a) hatched her babies and raised them to the point of "weaning" or (b) she has "broken" and is no longer broody. Once she has begun laying eggs again, she is no longer broody.6. She'll make a strange clicking sound.
When a broody hen gets off the nest, she may make an unusual clicking sound. (She will also likely walk around fluffed up and growling.) This clicking sound will later alert her babies to food. I'm not sure what the purpose of the clicking sound is while she is setting, but, so far, all of my broody hens have made this sound.
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