The Mystery of the Broody Hen

I have a broody hen.

Which is a bit of a mystery.

Why?

Because I currently have no roosters. We lost our last rooster, Edward the Fifth, this summer. I’m sad. I really enjoy roosters. I like their crowing. I like how they protect the hens. Next Spring, I’d like to get another rooster (or two). Maybe a Partridge Chantecler rooster. We got six Partridge Chantecler chicks last May–all female–and I really enjoy them. Our Chanteclers have some variation in their appearance so I can tell one from another, unlike our other breeds.

Anyway, back to our broody hen.

We had no rooster at the time she began to sit in her nesting box so I was surprised that she became broody. Obviously, without a rooster to fertilize eggs, they won’t hatch, but I wondered if it were possible that the eggs were fertilized while Edward was still around. I asked Grok, X’s AI, about this. It said that the sperm can remain viable in the hen’s reproductive tract for up to 2–4 weeks after she’s mated with a rooster.

Mystery solved. (Nancy Drew would be proud of me.)

The problem is that I can’t remember exactly when we lost Edward. And I don’t know exactly when the hen became broody or how long she sat on her nest before I became aware of it. I mean, we have more mature hens than we have nesting boxes so they take turns using the nesting boxes. Since the hens all look very similar, I can’t tell if I’m seeing the same or different hens in any box. Sometimes I thought a hen might be broody, but it ended up being a false alarm.

I don’t want to disturb the hen or remove her eggs if there’s a possibility they might hatch. I could candle an egg (shine a light through it to see if there is chick developing inside), but I’ve never done it before so I don’t know how. I know theory (more or less), but don’t have experience. I’m also reluctant to try to get an egg from the nest because broody hens are rather mean. They get an evil look in their eyes, they puff up, and they peck. Hard.

I’ve only had two broody hens before. I stopped our first broody from laying on eggs because at the time we didn’t want a larger flock. We let the second broody hen hatch her eggs about two years ago. (This is a video I took of the second hen, when I first suspected she was broody: Broody Hen Video

I asked Grok if a hen will voluntarily give up if her eggs don’t hatch. It said that a hen may abandon her nest if she doesn’t detect development in the eggs or if time goes by without them hatching. However, some hens persist longer than others. Grok said that a hen might become weakened if she refuses to give up because she doesn’t eat or drink as much. So it might be necessary to “break her broodiness” by doing things like removing her from the nest and blocking access to it, which is what I did with our first broody hen years ago. Grok also suggested getting fertilized eggs to put under the hen. I don’t know where to get fertilized eggs though.

I decided I should be brave and face the wrath of the hen so I paused writing this post and went out to the coop, nervously removed an egg from under the hen, and tried to shine a flashlight through it. I couldn’t tell if there was a developing chick inside or not. The hen was not happy when I took the egg and even more unimpressed when I tried to put it back under her. I held a glove in front of her face and let her attack it while I replaced the egg. Then I came in and watched a YouTube video about candling eggs. I think I’ll have to do it when it’s darker outside. Maybe I’ll get EJ to help me. Or perhaps I’ll just let the hen be for a while longer. She does have access to nearby food and water so she can eat and drink.

Honestly, I don’t know why she just couldn’t get broody when Edward was still around.

Life is never dull.