A committed broody and a non committed broody

Last night after the bedtime corn, Butterscotch went to her usual roosting spot on the top rung of the ladder and stayed there this time.

This morning when I went out to the girls she was already in the little coop nest box. I lifted her out and sat her on the patio then threw out the morning hand full of corn. She ran to the corn then returned to the nest box.

Butterscotch is a committed broody unlike Topaz. The good thing is that she will probably lay well between bouts of being broody unlike Topaz who doesn’t lay beyond her first clutch of the year.

Butterscotch has already laid more eggs in three weeks than Topaz has laid in two years.

Anyone who keeps chickens will know all about hens going broody. Jackie recently sent me a link that someone had sent her about broody hens. He called it ” Broody hens, the ultimate guide with sixty one common questions answered” and described it as detailed information in six thousand words! Phew!

I read it all … Heavy!! It didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know and it didn’t touch on the conundrum that is Topaz.

But I am just going to answer the question my mum asked me yesterday for other non chicken keepers like her. She asked me why a broody sits when there is no egg to sit on.

It is a surge of hormones that causes a hen to go broody. To be successful in hatching eggs the hen must be committed (unlike Topaz) and the instinct must be strong.

There is no thought process to this. Butterscotch doesn’t wonder where her eggs are. If she was capable of thinking the process through she would know that even if there were any eggs, after a night roosting on the top rung of the ladder, her non existent eggs would now be cold and therefore could not hatch. She would also be able to suss out that yesterday when I closed the coops and she couldn’t get back in, there was no point in sitting next to the coop instead because the non existent eggs were not outside the coop.

There is no such logic from a hen she is just programmed to sit and sit to give any potential eggs the best chance of hatching.

I can’t believe that this summer I briefly considered giving Topaz away. My reasoning behind this was that she often seems angry while being perpetually broody and she may be more fulfilled if she had the chance to sit on some eggs. But unlike Butterscotch (who would probably make a great mum) Topaz doesn’t commit. She will sit on any of the girls eggs until I remove them then she will give up. She will sit in the nest box until she hears me come through the gate at lunch time. She knows I bring some fruit at this time so she leaves the nest box to peck at the treats and forgets about being broody.

Topaz would probably be a terrible mum. Like people some hens are really good mums, some manage it okay and some are not so good at it. I realised that Topaz is my unique girl and belongs here with her flock and it wouldn’t be the right thing for her to go somewhere else. I just needed to figure it out.

I am stuck with, I mean that in the nicest possible way, a hen that doesn’t lay eggs despite being in the peak of health but she is probably as happy a hen as she can be. This is the way life is for Topaz.

So there you have it, two different type of broodies. Many chicken keepers have broody hens like Butterscotch but I still have yet to come across anyone else who has a girl like Topaz. If any one does have a “Topaz” I would be interested to hear from you.