Questions about broodiness

[Marigold]

Poor Marigold, my Sussex, has spent another breezy night in the sin bin, having gone broody for the fourth time this year. She was hatched in Feb. 2011 and didnt go broody at all last summer. She would obviously love to hatch some chicks and would probably make a good mother. My Cream Legbar, Nutmeg, is exactly the same age and has grown up with Marigold, and she has never gone broody. So I have two questions-
First, what is it that makes hybrid hens more resistant to going broody than purebreds? Obviously breeds which have been developed for commercial egg production will have been selected from hens showing no signs of doing so, and any that did go broody would be for the chop. But when people create their own hybrids by mating their cockerel with whatever hens they have in the back garden, do they get offspring which are less likely to go broody as part of the random hybridisation process?
Second, although my Cream Legbar is a purebred bird from a reputable source, I think the breed was originally created by hybridising from other sources. Does this mean that Cream Legbars are usually less likely to go broody, or am I just lucky enough to have one with no aspirations to maternity?

 

[Sue]

Marigold, can't answer any of your questions really, just wanted to say that my cream legbar (who lives with broody Potty Dotty) does go broody when Dotty does! But the big difference is that she stops after a couple of days of being turfed out of the nest boxes and the house door being shut! Potty Dotty is a Silver Laced Wyandotte by the way.

 

[darkbrowneggs]

If you look in the Poultry Club standards it will normally say whether the breed is a brooding one.

I think in general the Mediterranean breeds, which are normally the better layers, tend not to brood, whereas the oriental breeds, normally the heavier meatier birds want to brood, so the propensity to set depends on what was in the breeding.

Obviously most of the modern laying hybrids will come mainly from the high laying Mediterranean types.

 

[Chuck]

The inclination to go broody is a peculiar thing as even birds from some breeds which are said not to be prone to broodiness do so. My Leghorns sometimes appear broody but it's a pseudo broody and I would never risk trying eggs under them. They can sit for a week appearing to be completely broody then just get off the nest and go back to laying. Most of the Mediterranean breeds are seldom broody but this has no influence on modern hybrids as only the Leghorn types are of Mediterranean origin. The rest are all American, RIR & RI Whites, Plymouth Rocks both Barred and White, and the Sussex which of course is British. Marans are said to be used to produce the Blues but as far as I know, are not classed as Mediterranean, which mainly lay white eggs. There is always a tendency to revert and in the natural state, broodiness is the norm.
In the past when I have crossed my White Leghorns with mixed race males (bred from Warren type hybrids and Black Rocks), the next generation has always produced reliable broodies, even though the male side was also non broody.
Broodiness can ruin a laying year and so parent stock is rigidly cleansed of any that are inclined to it. The Warren type hybrids are not inclined to broody, even when in free range situations but when they do they can be very reliable sitters and parents.
If crossing between a broody breed and a non broody one, the tendency is for the offspring to revert to broody.
In the old days, many farmers/gamekeepers kept their own strains of hens just for broodiness to hatch and/or rear pheasants and partridge. Most of these would have 1/4 or 1/3rd Silkie.

 

[Marigold]

Thank you for the interesting and informative replies. It makes you realise how far chickens have come from living in the wild, when presumably they laid one or two clutches a year and hatched them themselves. Along the way, the Mediterranean breeds, especially the Leghorn, seem to have really diverged from this into producing lots more eggs and largely giving up brooding their own, though remaining less domesticated in their flighty behaviour. It must have been difficult in some areas to obtain new kinds of chicken, since travel was so slow and information so scarce, so the breeders and farmers in the olden days must have learned a lot about breeding by experience and handed-down wisdom. New breeds must have been greeted with much interest - I love the legend that Marco Polo returned from China with the first Silkies, which many people thought must be a cross between a chicken and a rabbit! I know the ancient Chinese had worked out how to incubate large numbers of quails, which seldom go broody, using the heat from dung and other artificial methods, so I expect they did this for chickens when there weren't enough Silkies to go round.
I wonder what the future is for the broody hen, now breeders large and small have reliable and accurate incubators? Will natural hatching steadily go the way of ploughing with horses rather than tractors, confined to a few enthusiasts? (Are we already there?) As Chuck says, going broody is a great nuisance, both in loss of eggs and the inconvenience of dealing with the condition as best you can. Marigold's four goes at broodiness have suspended her lay for 8-10 weeks this summer, even though I've treated her as soon as the first signs appear, so she has speedily recovered.
One more question - if you allow a persistant broody to sit and hatch, does this confirm her in her tendency to brood in the future?

 

[Chuck]

The one last question - I don't know but I'd be inclined to think it would encourage broodiness another year. On the other hand, being shut up for months with chicks that get in your way, fight you for food, jump on your back, attract all kinds of predators might just put her off for life !
I will certainly be encouraging broodies to set my Muscovey eggs next year as they didn't do well in an incubator. I had a broody Marsh Daisy steal a nest and hatched 14 chicks just a fortnight ago. There were no eggs left in the nest so 100% hatch & you don't get many of those in an incubator !
Interesting indeed that much of the development work on improving poultry and forming them into breeds was done before the genetics of poultry breeding had reached most poultry breeders and was achieved by practical experience. Much of the development work on production in the 1800's and early 1900's was carried out by State funded institutions, particularly in the USA where the White Leghorn was changed from a farm/backyard chicken in Italy to one of the most highly productive breeds on record. The UK had also a good track record of Government interest and support until about 30 years ago.