Jennifer Greene Sullivan
April 11, 2018
Why are broody hens so moody?
This week I’ve had my first experience with a moody, broody hen. I must admit that I am very proud of her because she has taken it upon herself to sit on a nesting box that holds a hodgepodge of other hen’s eggs.
Last week, I began to notice that most of our laying hens were choosing one of the lowest, middle nesting boxes to lay their eggs. Each day, there would be two or three mixed colored eggs until that particular box contained ten eggs. Next, those laying hens took the adjoining box and laid each day.
Finally, these egg layers had two adjacent nesting boxes filled with ten eggs of varying origins. However, I noticed that only the original box had warm eggs. Which one of my beautiful future mothers was sitting upon these eggs? For four days, I fed the chickens without seeing the broody hen, but on the fifth day, I found her. She was one of the Rhode Island Red hens with the black tipped tail. Our little Dollie is a very moody, broody girl.
I decided to leave the eggs with her inside the original nesting box, but take eggs inside the adjacent box because none of the other hens were broody. It was important to let Dollie finish out her three week quest to become a surrogate because a moody, broody hen without chicks can injure herself. Broody hens that never receive chicks will refuse to leave the nest and begin to refuse to eat or drink. Some chicken experts will purchase or incubate chicks to allow a broody hen to raise them so that her mood will break, and she will no longer have the drive to sit.
I am very excited to see how Dollie’s broody mood ends; I hope it ends in ten healthy chicks. They would be our first chicks incubated and brooded naturally without our intervention. So again, I ask: why is a broody hen so moody? Because she is FRITO-LAY
(Yes, I did make this joke up myself!! 🙂
Curvaceous Chick's Coop 
How did Dollie and eggs fair?
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We had 12 eggs with 7 hatchlings. They are now in the coop with adults. All hatchlings that Dollie raised are doing great. I have noticed that they escape every now and again, but Dollie always calls them back.
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It’s fun watching how a mother hen raises their babies, isn’t it? Good to know they are doing well.
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I was worried that they wouldn’t be accepted in the coop with the other hens and rooster, but Dollie is a great protector. Hens are FIERCE mothers!!
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I let my hens raise their babies in the coop, too. The very first time, it was a single chick, whom I named Pip. He was so cute and his mother didn’t let anyone get near him. She even pecked our rooster and put him in his place when he got close. After that, the word spread that “picking on babies is mean” and I haven’t had a problem since. That was two and half years ago, and we’ve raised so many chicks in the coop that my flock doesn’t think too much of it. And the babies grow up knowing their place in the “pecking order” so there aren’t as many squabbles as there would be if I had kept them separate and tried to integrate. I like that. It’s less stress on me and the chickens!
Enjoy Dollie and her babies! They are a lot of fun.
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