Ah! I put the adolescent boys in the bachelor pad this week, and one of the hens disappeared the next day. I haven't found her nest yet. She may have been waiting for the boys to be gone.
One thing I have noticed--may be a coincidence--is that since one of the hens went broody the roo is loud and obnoxious about warning of predators. A couple days ago it was a bunny. :) But I hear this screaming racket at the far side of the yard from where the broody is sitting. Almost like he's...
Did it indicate whether the mutation came from a single bird? I can't see the same mutation popping up in hundreds of carefully maintained heirloom breeds simultaneously.
I think I may have figured out the problem. She and her Speckled Sussex sister. The temperatures get high, they stop eating and just hunch miserably in the shade. I bring them into an air conditioned house, they start eating and drinking. No treatment works once they get put outside again.
No...
Interesting. So that should be another question--does the keeper remove all eggs, or leave some in the nest? And how does that affect broodiness?
I remove all eggs, so the only broodies I would get are "broken" in this sense.
Ok. From my records, which are anything but complete and cover only 4 hens that go broody.
1-BA. From first lay to first broody was 70+ eggs. All her eggs were taken by a snake. From broody 1 to broody 2, 18 eggs. Broody 3, 94 eggs. Broody 4, 78 eggs. Currently raising chicks.
2-JG. To first...
No, you said "The whole genetics completely determines behaviour is just plain wrong. It's not that genes don't play their role but there is a balance in there somewhere between environment and genes."
Therefore, both genes and environment need to be taken into consideration.
And yet, many of those congenital diseases are recessives, reinforced by the extreme genetic bottlenecks in our racial history.
Chickens have a similar genetic bottleneck, or several, and we have far more flexibility with chickens.
But again, it seems to be a graduated scale rather than an absolute, because some will go broody on four fake eggs while others amass 20 or more before they stop laying. This suggests that even in this tiny piece of the brooding process multiple genes and multiple triggers are involved.
Each item is sepatate. The yes-no piece would slways be "yes" since you do have broody birds. If you buy them from a feed store they were definitely incubated. The free range question would be "yes, I don't free range." The rooster question be "Yes, I don't have a rooster," and so on.