Instructions
Purchase one or more Old English Game, Kraienkoppes, Malays, Shamos, Asils, Madagascar Games, Silkies or Dorking hens. The amount of these chickens you purchase determines how many broody hens you have in your flock.
Set up a nesting box in a safe area, away from predators. Although brooding hens are protective of their clutch, the hens can become more sickly, making it harder to protect the eggs during incubation. This is because the hen only leaves the eggs once or twice a day to eat, drink and defecate.
Place plastic eggs into a nesting area to get the hens into the broody mood. Once you see the chickens laying on the eggs and protecting them, you know they are broody.
Replace the plastic eggs with fertilized eggs for incubation. In about 21 days, you have one or more furry chicks running around with a mother hen closely watching over them.
How to Start a Broody Hen
Most hens have broodiness, or mothering, bred out of them. This is because broody hens are less productive for egg laying. If you want to naturally raise a new clutch of chickens, you are presented with a problem once you have fertilized eggs. The most common egg layers simply show no interest in brooding the eggs. To find a mother hen, you may need to look outside your flock of chickens for a hen more suitable to the purpose.