[LittleRedHen]

I've come to the conclusion that our Maran is going to be our problem 'child'.  She was last to come into lay, put out soft eggs off and on for three weeks, had two good weeks of laying AND THEN, went broody!     I thought she was working into this because we were finding downy feathers everywhere and especially in the nest boxes.  Now she is stretched flat in there, her hackles go up when we lift the lid, and she growls at us.  I lifted her out today and closed off the hen house slidy door.  She spent the next hour frantically going back and forth trying to get back in.  She even explored the other hen house but still deemed it unsuitable.  I'm going to put the rest of the hens into the run now so I let her back into the house.  Yep!  Broody!   

[Kate and her Ducks]

Certainly sounds like it!

[joyfull]

same symptoms as my cuckoo maran so yes she is definately broody 

[nzdunn]

oh gee i have cuckoo marans is it typical of the breed or are all breeds prone to going broody.   What do you do if your hen goes broody, is it important to get the eggs away as soon as possible.  nickyx

[joyfull]

I waited 4 days just to ensure she was broody - I kept removing her from the nesting box which she didn't like and kept growling at me (never heard a chicken growl before  ), but each time she just kept going back. As I have several nesting areas and the one she was in was seperate I left her in that and put fertile eggs under her after removing the others. Most people do not have this so have to get a broody ark, which if doing so place her in that with the old eggs and if she stays settled then get fertile eggs. Marans as with other pure breed do tend to get broody but having said that my hybrid blackrock is sitting on 11 fertile (I hope) eggs  , joyxx

[LittleRedHen]

Oh I'd love to hatch out some eggs!  I pulled her off her nest first thing this morning so she could free range with the others, have some porridge and feel that cool breeze on her bottom.  She growled when I picked her up, but went straight over to the porridge and had a good circuit of our back garden.  Then the pacing started and I let her back into the nest box.  I had read that Marans have a tendency of being broody.  I have a Black Rock too!  I don't even know where to get fertilised eggs.

[joyfull]

Hi lrh, I got my first lot by advertising on my local freecycle - and so my maran has hatched 6 out of 8 bantams  , she is proving to be a really good mum, very protective and has taught them to scratch up the earth, how to eat sweetcorn and such like. My other eggs came from a place near Boston who has rare breeds - Holme farm poultry, Gaz the owner sells fertile eggs on ebay but I didn't wish to risk the post so collected them myself. If you look on ebay you may find a person selling fertile eggs closer to you - contact them and ask if you could collect. Then you just have to decide what breed and what to do with any resulting cockerels.