Thursday, January 15, 2009

broody hens

Lori asked in a comment (previous post) what "broody" means, so I'm going to go down memory lane with the chickens again.

Old-time breeds of chickens lay a clutch of eggs (twelve to eighteen eggs, usually no more than a hen can sit on and hatch); then they'll stop laying and start setting on the eggs. They get very grumpy. If you reach toward a hen as if to get her eggs out from under her, she's liable to peck you. (Chicken-pecks don't hurt much, and as a kid I'd stick my hand in the nest and let the hen peck away at me.) The maternal instinct starts the day she starts incubating those eggs. Hens like this are called "settin' hens", and it used to be common to hear the expression, "madder than an ole settin' hen".

While a hen is incubating her eggs, she'll only get off the nest once every two or three days to eat, drink, and poop. And let me tell you, it's a huge poop when she saves it up for so long. (My apologies to those of you who might be eating breakfast.)

Modern breeds seldom, if ever, go broody; it's been bred out of them so they'll produce more eggs.

When I was growing up, as I've written before, my mom kept chickens. Once in awhile a hen would "go broody", and Mother had a perfect solution: She'd put the hen under an upside-down bushel basket (the old-fashioned fruit-basket kind, so it was dark) for a couple of days with no food or water. When the hen was let out, she was over her maternal spell and would start laying eggs again in a few days.

Guess what I found on Youtube? a video of a broody hen!


8 comments:

  1. lol Thanks for letting me know!! I am such a city girl!! Now I know something!!

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  2. Very educational!

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  3. I was so amazed, the first time I spotted chickens here in Portland. There are a LOT of people keeping them, considering this is a fairly large city...our neighbors across the street and a gentleman along my route to the library. I took Dylan for a walk to the library yesterday and the gentleman saw us and came outside...we stop and look every time we walk by there, so we're a common sight! The man has even given us fresh eggs. The hens were way back in the corner of his lot when we got there but the man brought feed out to where we were on the sidewalk and of course "the ladies" had to follow...just so Dylan could see them up close! The kindness of people is amazing. Dylan was SO tickled!

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  4. My grandmother had those broody hens. We used to have to gather eggs when we'd go visit and I was always afraid of them. Some eggs just didn't get collected on the days we did it. 'On Ya'-ma

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  5. I remember those settin hens. Helen

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  6. As long as I keep those eggs collected and they dont find a good hiding spot to collect them for hatching I can mostly keep mine from going broody. I have had a black austrolorp, buff orpington, and speckled sussex go broody on me. The silkies will go broody easily, I have used them to hatch before. The Serama go broody easily too.

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  7. Hey there...I loved this entry. My hen sounds like a mad dog...like acutal growling LOL She means business. But she lets me put my hand under her all day long if I want to without pecking me. I have two that make that same noise in the video LOL They are just amusing aren't they.

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  8. Sorry I posted that last comment before I read on...thanks for telling us...

    I'm so ignorant when it comes to farm stuff...I really need to get out more...lol

    Have a good weekend

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