Can 2 broodies affect flock behavior?

[PhantomSlayer]

Its day 17 for one broody and the other is on day 15. 1 roo and 8 hens(6 if you don't count the broodies). 2 Black Australorp broodies seperated behind a divider so other hens aren't causing issues with the nests and eggs. For the past week I've noticed the flock staying inside the coop alot more often. Today I went to let our geese out to free range and as I was walking past I heard what sounded similar to a purring sound. It continued as I went to the geese and let them out. I checked on the broodies and it wasn't them. I went inside the run where the rest of the flock were. And they were all just chilling. And then I heard it from our friendliest girl Rosemary who is a buff orpington. I've heard short purring sounds when the girls are in the boxes. But never when they were out in the run and it was pretty constant. I continued watching and she suddenly got up and went to the coop door. I didn't stick around cause I wasn't wearing a jacket and its a bit chilly today.

The last egg we got was 4 days ago from our EE. Rosemary is a sweet girl and shes shown mothering instinct as a pullet with our geese when they were goslings. Could it be the broodies or the molting causing the weird behavior of them spending more time in the coop and now the weird purring. Their health seems fine aside from the molting. Or could it be a mixture of molt and broodies causing the odd behavior? Or is Rosemary just being weird lol. She does this weird beak rub against my pants. Most often when I'm wearing the basketball shorts with the mesh fabric that have the holey texture. She sometimes tries jumping up on my leg or shoulder if I'm crouched as well. Shes a weirdo so its not impossible for her to be even more weird.

Rosemary has never gone broody. The only two to noticeably go broody is the 2 current broodies.

 

[Debbie292d]

Having silkies here, I've almost always had a broodie and many times, multiple ones at once, and never seen anything different from the other chickens.

Rosemary sounds like a very sweet loving chicken who wants a little attention from you it seems.

That's a neat idea you have to separate the broodies from the layers. That way they can't lay on the broodies nests as they do here. I have to get eggs 2X day to make sure they aren't getting cooked out there.

Mine will spend more time in the coop when one hen gets dramatic after laying her egg. They call that a song, but to me it's a whole bunch of racket and they all go running in to see.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

Having silkies here, I've almost always had a broodie and many times, multiple ones at once, and never seen anything different from the other chickens.

Rosemary sounds like a very sweet loving chicken who wants a little attention from you it seems.

That's a neat idea you have to separate the broodies from the layers. That way they can't lay on the broodies nests as they do here. I have to get eggs 2X day to make sure they aren't getting cooked out there.

Mine will spend more time in the coop when one hen gets dramatic after laying her egg. They call that a song, but to me it's a whole bunch of racket and they all go running in to see.

None of ours are silkies and yet one of the broody Black Australorps has been broody 3 times this year.

Rosemary is our sweetest girl lol I doubt when the chicks join the flock Rosemary will be any threat. She might even help the mama's lol. Shes been like this since she was a chick. It would be awesome if we got some of her babies. It's impossible to tell though. Out of 8 hens 7 lay brown lol. Our EE is our only colored layer. She does a greenish/blue.

The rest of the girls kept fighting and kicking the broodies out and I wanted our nicer broody to have the eggs of our EE Goldy cause she has an awful personality but pretty looks. She acts like were gonna kill her if were within 5 feet of her lol.

I looked up the idea of a barrier but still having visual of the flock this spring when I was battling with our goose trying steal the goose eggs under a broody hen. Our goose wasn't even broody XD she wouldn't commit.

I also wanted to avoid new eggs being added to the nest if they were to far along. I did have an issue with Nox breaking a few eggs under her each had 13 but I got that cleaned up and rebedded when I attempted to candle eggs at day 13. Nox had 9 when I candled.

I made a rookie mistake and didn't seperate the eggs that didn't look good so they all ended up back under the broodies lol I didn't mark them in a way to know which egg is which. I just marked them to know which broody was on them lol

I don't know why their spending so much time inside but when I go out its usually 2-4 of them right next to the broody barrier.

 

[LaurenRitz]

The Mom will start talking to her chicks as soon as she hears them in the egg. The other hens are curious about the sounds. Maybe they know something special is happening.

My guess is that Rosemary is duplicating the noise Mama is making as she talks to her chicks. I would describe it as a chortling purr. You may not be hearing the mom "talk" because she instinctively stops when you enter.

Edit: didn't realize this was so old. Leaving my comment anyway.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

The Mom will start talking to her chicks as soon as she hears them in the egg. The other hens are curious about the sounds. Maybe they know something special is happening.

My guess is that Rosemary is duplicating the noise Mama is making as she talks to her chicks. I would describe it as a chortling purr. You may not be hearing the mom "talk" because she instinctively stops when you enter.

Edit: didn't realize this was so old. Leaving my comment anyway.

Thats interesting! I can totally see Rosemary doing that lol I wish she would go broody. We would give her chicks in a heartbeat cause shes such a sweet girl.



Yeah I forgot to update people XD Unfortunately our resident broody made a terrible egg sitter this time around. I don't know what was with her. Maybe not as deeply broody as the past two times considering the time of year?. I don't know how but by the end of the 21 days she only had 2 eggs left. Most broke under her. Several nest box cleanings throughout those days because yuckkkk. She got kicked out as her last 2 were not showing anymore developement. First timer broody hatched out one chick. But unfortunately the next day I couldn't hear the chick and upon investigating it was found in the corner outside of the nesting box with ants on it. Sad.. She gave up sitting after I think 26 days?

HOWEVER upon letting her back out the next day our rooster tried killing her. Found her with her head stuck in a corner between the doorframe and wall in a gap they would never bother with usually and our Roo was pecking at her back that was bleeding. She was brought inside for 3 days and then put back in the broody box in the coop and we rehomed our Roo before putting her back out. Since then only a few hen squabbles but no one came out bloody.

Our roo is now at a home with a much larger flock and older roosters to put him in his place lol.


I think he was just a rough lover and he needed more than 8 girls. I don't think itd be a good idea to get more birds going into winter so the plan is to ride out the winter with the 8 hens.

Come goose hatching time if we get a broody she may be given goose eggs to hatch for us or maybe goslings (I want to expand out goose flock a bit). And after we finish goose hatching then the next broodies will probably get chicks to increase the flock size. Maybe another cockerel will be mixed in. If not the person that took Roo said they'll be hatching alot of eggs next year so I can probably buy a new rooster/cockerel from them.

So yeah things didn't go as planned unfortunately.

Our broody/isolation box is not big enough for two broodies at once in the nesting boxes I learned thanks to that lol. So hopefully only one goes broody from now on. I think one of the reasons the only chick that hatched didn't make it was because of how crowded and gappy the set up was with 2 boxes. I think maybe it got into that corner and couldnt find its way back to mama who was still sitting on those eggs. So there some flaws to my set up that need sorted out.


Now! PLEASE LET ALL HENS AVOID GOING BROODY UNTIL ATLEAST MARCH! LOL. Last march was when we got goose eggs so atleast until then so weather is atleast warm enough for them to sit on eggs.

 

[Perris]

Thats interesting! I can totally see Rosemary doing that lol I wish she would go broody. We would give her chicks in a heartbeat cause shes such a sweet girl.



Yeah I forgot to update people XD Unfortunately our resident broody made a terrible egg sitter this time around. I don't know what was with her. Maybe not as deeply broody as the past two times considering the time of year?. I don't know how but by the end of the 21 days she only had 2 eggs left. Most broke under her. Several nest box cleanings throughout those days because yuckkkk. She got kicked out as her last 2 were not showing anymore developement. First timer broody hatched out one chick. But unfortunately the next day I couldn't hear the chick and upon investigating it was found in the corner outside of the nesting box with ants on it. Sad.. She gave up sitting after I think 26 days?

HOWEVER upon letting her back out the next day our rooster tried killing her. Found her with her head stuck in a corner between the doorframe and wall in a gap they would never bother with usually and our Roo was pecking at her back that was bleeding. She was brought inside for 3 days and then put back in the broody box in the coop and we rehomed our Roo before putting her back out. Since then only a few hen squabbles but no one came out bloody.

Our roo is now at a home with a much larger flock and older roosters to put him in his place lol.


I think he was just a rough lover and he needed more than 8 girls. I don't think itd be a good idea to get more birds going into winter so the plan is to ride out the winter with the 8 hens.

Come goose hatching time if we get a broody she may be given goose eggs to hatch for us or maybe goslings (I want to expand out goose flock a bit). And after we finish goose hatching then the next broodies will probably get chicks to increase the flock size. Maybe another cockerel will be mixed in. If not the person that took Roo said they'll be hatching alot of eggs next year so I can probably buy a new rooster/cockerel from them.

So yeah things didn't go as planned unfortunately.

Our broody/isolation box is not big enough for two broodies at once in the nesting boxes I learned thanks to that lol. So hopefully only one goes broody from now on. I think one of the reasons the only chick that hatched didn't make it was because of how crowded and gappy the set up was with 2 boxes. I think maybe it got into that corner and couldnt find its way back to mama who was still sitting on those eggs. So there some flaws to my set up that need sorted out.


Now! PLEASE LET ALL HENS AVOID GOING BROODY UNTIL ATLEAST MARCH! LOL. Last march was when we got goose eggs so atleast until then so weather is atleast warm enough for them to sit on eggs.

Sorry to hear that this didn't work out.

I just wrote an article on broodies; you might find it useful
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...y-the-good-the-bad-and-the-indifferent.79643/

Broken eggs usually indicate thin shells, rather than a clumsy broody, btw.