If my Rhode Island Red hen won brood, what will make her set? Do they need a special laying feed to make them go broody?
A. If a hen doesn’t have the instinct to sit on her eggs, there’s nothing you can do. She doesn’t have the mothering instinct. Special foods won’t help, nor will keeping her confined with her eggs or bringing in a rooster. You might be thinking of “layer pellets,” which is simply food fed to hens that have started to lay eggs and hence need extra calcium and other nutrients to make strong shells. So leaving the eggs in the nest in hopes she’ll sit on them is kind of wasting good eating eggs.
