do any of y'all have hens that you set to hatch chicks? most people I know here use an incubator even if they have hens. my neighbors say their hens won't set.

I feel blessed because i have 5 hens that have hatched 52 chicks and one BB Red setting on 11 eggs


I'm thinkimg possibly some breeds set better than others.?


do any of y'all who have chickens have any possible explantons?

We have bantams and if you leave an egg for more than a few hours they will be sitting on it and the others will add to it daily, which really does mess things up, Then first thing you know there will be 2 or 3 sitting on them. When they start hatching they seem to divide them up. They are very good mothers. They are small and can't cover a lot of eggs but with multi mothers we did have one bunch of 18. Actually the setting thing is quite aggravating.
They are our first line defence against ticks and bugs around the house. Those little chicks are down a eye level with the bugs and really clean up.

Cathryn yes you are blessed to have hens that will sit and hatch chicks. we have some ira browns and one went broody and would sit on eggs,we also had a barred rock rooster. wife marked two eggs and let her sit on them and she hatch them and took care of them wish we still had her she was killed by a hawk or owl not sure which. that was two years ago and we haven't had any of the other hens wanting to sit.we keep about 12 hens and by the way the chicks came out looking like barred rocks one hen and one rooster wife calls them pretty girl and pretty boy. hes our rooster now.

We have 15 hens, a rooster and 5 chicks. We always let one or two set and hatch some eggs to keep some younger birds on hand. This is a Buff Orpington with the last batch we let one hatch. They are just in the coupe in a cage. The chicks can go in and out through the mesh. It was early spring so we had a heat lamp over them. If you look up about any of the hatchery's the often list which breeds sit the best.

some hens dont - some breeds are more likely than others.

we have two ameraucana hens that are sitters. We are letting one run a brood right now. The other I have to take off the nest everyday to get the eggs.

none of my other birds have ever sat - not the silkies, RIR, leghorns, or the crosses

Generally the more the breed has been developed for egg production the less likely to go broody. But not an absolute by any means.

Silkies are supposed to broody according to most sources. But again there are no absolutes.