It’s kind of hard to say how much animals connect mating and having offspring. With a lot of birds, nesting seems pretty instinctive, triggered by light changes…convincing captive parrots not to lay eggs for health and behavior reasons can be an issue. Domestic hens, of course, have been selectively bred for a long time to lay lots of eggs safely. There are some individuals, though, and even some breeds which lack the instinct to brood eggs even if they are fertile. (to get chicks from these you need to incubate the eggs artificially or stick them under a different broody hen). Typical hens go broody at random…they just decide, from the weather or hormones or other reasons, to start sittin’ on those eggs, dammit.
Of course, it’s best if you try and stop her…move the nests around and toss her off whenever you see her sitting, and don’t leave any eggs. The hen is warming eggs you don’t want warm, she will quickly stop laying, and brooding eggs is physically quite a lot of effort…their whole metabolism changes. You don’t want a bird to do that for no reason.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-06-06 05:24 pm (UTC)Of course, it’s best if you try and stop her…move the nests around and toss her off whenever you see her sitting, and don’t leave any eggs. The hen is warming eggs you don’t want warm, she will quickly stop laying, and brooding eggs is physically quite a lot of effort…their whole metabolism changes. You don’t want a bird to do that for no reason.