Looking for broody hens, will pay 60 $ each!!!

[poultry_admin]

Very Nice Patrick!
Rest assured any PhD candidate studying anything poultry related has a special place among us! So, welcome again to PTO!
I am sure I am not the only one interested in the outcome of the study, so please keep us posted!

There is a hen going broody in my wife's flock. She's sitting a lot, but not yet fully zoned out. She might be a candidate. I'll get WLLady to join in here.

[WLLady]

hey i'm the wife poultry_admin mentioned . Doing a PhD is a challenge in itself, and you want to couple that with broody hens? I'm impressed LOL. (Good luck too!!!) I have one that is threatening....she's screaming and poofing, but she is also ranging off and on during the day. you might be able to entice her to sit with a quiet place. She's only JUST a year old, so might be confused about what good old mother nature is telling her. i can try and give her some golf balls (which is what she is currently trying to protect...) but i'm not sure that she'll get the point.....i'm not adverse to giving her some eggs from one of my old layers, my rooster that's with them is over 6 years old and shooting blanks so they aren't fertilized....i can leave a few in a nest and see what happens..... i think if she's going to go i should know in the next week or so. i can easily set up a nest in my layer coop where she is comfy and see what happens. if she doesn't end up on it, one of the others might....

[AustriaLorp]

Thanks so much for your support everyone! In my MSc project in Zoology (in Innsbruck, Austria) I already looked at the impact a broody hen has on chicks in 2014 but that was all on my own budget so the analysis was very basic, the sample size small- However, I did find some interesting long-lasting effects on the behvaior of the chicks. f.e. the brooded chicks were more active, and performed more foraging behavior up to a hundret days of age (broody hen removed at 42 days), probably even beyond that but I had to stop there for practical reasons. now in my PhD there is a larger budget- the possibility to investigate the microbiome of the chicks and with a lot of summer students and automated tracking software, much more behavioral analysis will be possible. If you can provide your broody with fake eggs, water and food in close proximity and she goes reaaaallly broody (you know when you move them out of the nest and they just "fall" on the ground like a bag of potatoes, purring and huddling:)) that would be really great. I could pick them up a week before the planned hatch (20th of may), or maybe even earlier to give them time to settle in. please keep me posted! thanks so much!!

[Robbie]

I'm just wondering if it would help the research to stick with hens that are proven broodies. You might see more consistency in the results?

[AustriaLorp]

Yes, ideally I would go for that- you mean by breed? Like silkies/brahma/cochin etc? there is of course variation between hens too, even if they become broody- most of you backyard farmers are very aware of these inter-individual differences. but for our purpose; sitting on the eggs for at least 1 full week+acceptance and rearing of chicks for at least 5 weeks will qualify the hens as suitable. We are most interested in the overall differences (microbiome and behavior) between brooded and unbrooded- so the differnces (overall trend) should be apparent independ of the breed of the mother.

[WLLady]

Mine is definitely broody. I have her on 4 golf balls. I will be passing close to woodstock/403/hamilton on saturday if you want her....pm me if you are interested. She os completely flat to the nesting box and screeching at everyone within 10 feet. Lol