What Does a Broody Hen or Duck Look Like?
This post and my accompanying videos will help you know how to tell if your hen is broody. Most likely if you’re reading this you have a hen or duck sitting on eggs or in the nesting box all day and you’re wondering what’s going on. Does it really take that long to lay an egg?
Congratulations! Your hen is most likely feeling broody.
Broody is when a hen feels like hatching her own eggs. She will lay an egg a day for a week or two and then sit on them and not come off. If she sits on it for 21 days, just coming off for a quick bite to eat and drink, then they will hatch! And she will raise her own young. This way you won’t have to incubate them or buy them from a store. You won’t have to keep them in a brooder either. We’ve always wanted our hens to hatch their own eggs so when it finally happened, we were super excited! (See the last video.)
How to Tell if Your Hen Is Broody
The trick is figuring out if she is truly broody and committed to hatching her own eggs or not. You don’t want to keep taking her eggs if she is trying to hatch them. On the other hand, you don’t want to leave them there for 3 days and she never sits on them.
This is what we do, or this is my advice:
When you go to collect eggs and you see a hen in the nesting box, take note of which one it is. If you come back later and she is still there, make another note. Could she be broody? When you reach under her to get eggs, does she peck your hand or puff up her feathers? These are signs she’s broody. But it can also mean she doesn’t want you to mess with her while she’s laying. Does she get on the roosting bars at night? If she does, she is not broody and will not hatch her own eggs.
The first time we see a hen in the nesting box the whole day, we still get the eggs out from under her. I don’t know if she’s broody and I don’t want to leave good eggs in the coop that could be sold or eaten. And I don’t want them attracting snakes. The next day, we do the same thing.
Notice how long she is in the box for, if she pecks when we try to get her eggs, see if she comes off to roost at night. If the “broody hen” isn’t in the box all day, she wasn’t broody. On the third day, if she is still in the nesting box, we begin to get excited. This could be a true broody hen!
What to Do if Your Hen is Broody
My kids gently lift her off to see which eggs are under her. They know every hen we have and what their eggs look like. (They LOVE watching them lay eggs.) Then they decide which eggs they’d like hatched. They’ll come in the house and get one of Button’s, two of Toasty’s, two of Cinnamon’s and one of Peanut’s. (Assuming you have a rooster per 10 hens, they will most likely all be fertile.) They just need to be 3-10 days old. The kids will put them under the broody hen (named Sunny.) They will keep an eye on her for the next 3 weeks to make sure she stays on them.
When she gets off, she will usually cover her eggs with straw or nesting material to keep them warm and hide them from the other chickens. If it is the most popular nesting box you may want to relocate her and her eggs to the ground in the corner or an infrequently used box. If not, you may want to guard the eggs while she goes out for a break. Otherwise another hen may hop in and can break the eggs or lay their own in the clutch and you won’t know which one it is. You don’t want to start incubating another egg a week or two into the incubation process. It won’t hatch with the others and when the others hatch the broody mom will leave the nest.
Keep watching daily to make sure all is well. You can also candle the eggs once a week by cupping them in your hand and shining a flashlight on them to look for movement. It’s nice to know how many chicks to expect will make it. If any are obviously dead and smell like a rotten egg, you can throw them out. Otherwise they may attract snakes and other chickens who will eat them. Around day 19 start looking for pip holes, listening for peeps, and hoping for chicks. Good luck! Don’t forget to document everything so you’ll know what to expect next time you think a hen is broody.
Types of Hens That Are More Likely To Go Broody
- silkies
- buff orpingtons
- cochins
- australorp
- muscovy (ducks)
- cayuga (ducks)
- buff (ducks)
- silver appleyard (ducks)
Summary:
How to tell if your hen is broody:
- Sits in the nesting box all day.
- Stays there overnight.
- Sits in the nesting box the next day and the next.
What to do if your hen is broody:
- Add more eggs under her from the chickens you want more of.
- Check on her several times a day. Make sure she is still sitting on them.
- Bring her food and water a couple times a day. (We sit with a book or watch her eat for 10-15 minutes then take the food away. Our chickens free range so if there is food in the coop they will all come in to get it, but we save it for special times like broody hens, cold days, etc.)
- You can candle the eggs once a week by shining a flashlight on them cupped in your hands. This helps you see if there is any movement in them and to know how many to expect.
- Be on the lookout for pip holes and eggs hatching around day 19. It’s an exciting process to be a part of!
Check out my videos of our Broody Duck! (There are also 1 or 2 broody hens in the videos too, we just didn’t know if they were committed broody or not yet.) And definitely watch the video of both the hen and the duck hatching their eggs within a week of each other!
Enjoy Your New Hatchlings!!
Here’s a link to the week ours hatched if you want to read the blog post about it. It was exciting for sure!
