Enticing a broody to sit

[janiedoe]

My hens are laying so many eggs right now. I feed two dozen a week back to them, another dozen to my dogs, I give away about 2 dozen a week, and my husband eats 3 a day. Today I decided to place a fresh (today's only) dozen in a nesting box so that my proven broody mama can see them. Hopefully she will decide to sit. A couple of new eggs have been deposited in there within the last couple of hours but Lucy hasn't found them so far.
I'm not going to interfere at all. No moving the eggs, no candeling, nothing.
I may, however block the nest off from the others if she decides to sit. She is the top hen and her rooster's favorite. She has been broody about 4x in the last two years. I let her hatch last spring (2 little cockrells) and she went broody once in the fall but was very easy to break. I'm wondering if she has lost the desire to hatch. I'll know soon.
Nothing ventured....

 

[Perris]

good luck! but what will you do with all the extra chickens, and in due course, even more eggs?

 

[featheredplanets]

You may have already but remember to mark the eggs if she broods where the other hens can access her nesting box!

 

[janiedoe]

good luck! but what will you do with all the extra chickens, and in due course, even more eggs?

I generally find a multitude of people who love free eggs. As for the chicks...they'll probably all be cockrells! (That's what happened last time)

 

[janiedoe]

You may have already but remember to mark the eggs if she broods where the other hens can access her nesting box!

I have a big green penciled "x" on all 14 eggs now. Thank you for the reminder!

 

[janiedoe]

You may have already but remember to mark the eggs if she broods where the other hens can access her nesting box!

I have a big green penciled "x" on all 14 eggs now. Thank you for the reminder!

 

[janiedoe]

If Lucy sits and they hatch, the real fun will be trying to match offsprings to roosters and hens.
I have an esster egger rooster (black orp& Ameraucana mix) & a cuckoo marans/wyandotte mix rooster. Hens are Easter Eggers, glw, slw, barred rock, langshan, buff orp., rir, and cuckoo marans.

 

[Perris]

As for the chicks...they'll probably all be cockrells! (That's what happened last time)

snap! exactly the same for me

 

[janiedoe]

No interest in the eggs so far, other than another egg laid in the nest. So 15 eggs there now. I will just mark that one and leave it. This is not a favorite nest box. It is on the lower level inside the coop. They prefer to use the outdoor nest boxes in the run.
It is going to be in the high 40s (farenheit) here tonight. I've read that the female embryo is more likely to survive lower temperatures so I will leave them another night or two and see what happens.

 

[janiedoe]

My experiment didn't work, Lucy refused to sit on my timetable. "On my timetable" being the operative phrase. I removed the eggs after 3 days with no sign of interest.
She is sitting in the favorite nesting box now though, growling and doing the broody eye twitch. So now I have 3 hens brooding, as my two 8 month old cuckoo marans are also sitting on eggs in another coop. They've been sitting for a couple of days. I'm going to be in chick heaven in less than 3 weeks.