Posts Tagged what does broody mean

Daisy is setting on unfertile eggs.

I’ve written about “broody” hens before. But Daisy has never been broody before. “Broody or setting” means the hen’s instincts tell her to hatch some of the many eggs she has been laying. In the wild the hen will lay a clutch of eggs. When she has layed enough, she will spend about 21 days setting on the eggs, keeping them warm, until they hatch into chicks. Awwwwww…………

Now, I shouldn’t have to explain this to you, but you need a rooster to have fertile eggs that will hatch. We don’t have a rooster so the eggs that our hens lay can never become chicks. If I want the hens to hatch eggs, I have to buy fertile eggs or buy little chicks and put them under the setting hen. No one ever said that hens were the smartest creatures in the world. They don’t understand when you slip some chicks under them, and remove the eggs she’s been sitting on, they are not their own. They just mother them as if they were!

All fluffed up, clucking, clucking, clucking.

Daisy has been acting “broody” for about a week. She is all fluffed up and clucking, clucking, clucking. She continued laying eggs every day. But today, when I reached into the egg box she gave me a threatening growl………… “Don’t touch my eggs,” she warned. Daisy has never pecked me. She is the sweetest hen in the world. I gently pushed her from the nest and gave her some hen scratch (treat). But she was back on those two eggs in about five minutes.

We will continue to take her off the nest to eat and drink. We’ll remove the unfertile eggs beneath Daisy. We’ll put buckets in the nests in the late afternoon after all the hens have finished laying for the day. We will put her on the roost at night. Other than putting her in a cage by herself, that is about all you can do to discourage a hen from setting on unfertilized eggs. Why don’t we get her some chicks? Because when we built the henhouse and run, we were only going to have 3-4 hens and it is quite small. But I got “chick fever” and, as a result, have five lovely hens. It wouldn’t be fair to any of the hens to crowd in a few more. So, Daisy dear, get over it. I know your biological clock is ticking but it isn’t going to happen. Motherhood is just not in the cards for you, sweet girl, but if I ever have the room for more chickens, you will be the first to get those little ones you’d like to have.