Once Upon a Farm - November Newsletter

🌱 The Backyard Farm Update

Welcome back to another month at Once Upon a Farm! November has arrived with that peculiar spring energy where everything seems to be happening at once. Things are growing like crazy here—I'm chasing my tail trying to keep the grass tamed and the garden edges somewhat civilized, though I'm learning to make peace with a certain amount of wildness. 

The garlic is heading into the home stretch before harvest, and I'm excited to see what has grown this year. From an above-ground perspective, it looks massive, which always makes me hopeful about what's happening beneath the soil. There's something almost ritualistic about garlic for me—planting those cloves in the depths of winter felt like an act of faith, and now as we approach the longest day, I get to see what that faith has produced. Once the garlic is out, more tomatoes can move into the space. They're patiently growing-on in pots right now, waiting for their turn in the soil.

The chickens are keeping up a steady stream of both eggs and broody hens. The flock seems very settled at the moment—there's a calmness to them that tells me the social dynamics have found their equilibrium. They're less than amused about all the garden beds being locked up, of course. I can see them eyeing those protected spaces with clear opinions about my priorities, but that's the dance we do. They have their territories, I have mine, and the garden netting draws the boundary between us.

🌍 What's in Season?

🔬 Science Spotlight

The Biology of Broodiness

Since we're in broody hen season around here, I thought it would be fascinating to look at what's actually happening inside a hen's body when she decides to go broody. Understanding the biology helps us work with our flocks more effectively—and reminds us that these behaviors aren't random quirks but deeply rooted evolutionary strategies.

The Hormonal Cascade: Broodiness is triggered by a hormonal shift, primarily involving prolactin—the same hormone involved in milk production in mammals. When prolactin levels rise in a hen, several things happen: her body temperature increases (perfect for incubating eggs), her metabolism changes, her feeding behavior shifts, and most notably, her behavior transforms completely. A normally social hen becomes defensive. A hen who loved free-ranging now refuses to leave the nest. This isn't stubbornness—it's biology.

What's fascinating is that this hormonal shift is influenced by environmental cues: day length, temperature, the presence of eggs in the nest, and even the flock's social dynamics. This is why you'll often see multiple hens go broody around the same time—they're responding to similar environmental signals and potentially to each other's hormonal changes through pheromones.

Why Location Fixation Matters: The intense location fixation we see in broody hens makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective. In the wild, a hen needs to remember exactly where her nest is. She'll leave it only briefly each day to eat, drink, and defecate, then return. If she couldn't remember the precise location, she'd waste precious time searching, potentially allowing her eggs to cool too much or exposing them to predators. So evolution has given hens this powerful location-specific memory that kicks in once broodiness begins.

This is why trying to move a broody hen is often unsuccessful. It's not that she's being difficult—her brain is literally wired to return to that specific spot. Some hens can successfully be moved, particularly if they're moved very early in the broodiness cycle before the location fixation becomes fully established. But once a hen has been broody for several days, that spot is chemically locked into her brain.

The Cost of Broodiness: Going broody is metabolically expensive. That raised body temperature requires energy. The hen will typically lose body weight during the 21-day incubation period. She'll also stop laying eggs, of course, which from a flock production standpoint can feel frustrating—but from the hen's perspective, she's made a biological calculation. Better to invest energy in raising one successful clutch of chicks than to keep producing eggs that may or may not hatch.

This is also why breaking a broody hen requires removing her from her chosen location and often placing her in a well-lit, airy space. You're essentially interrupting the environmental cues that maintain those prolactin levels. It usually takes 3-5 days for the hormone levels to drop enough for her to return to normal behavior.

Working With Biology, Not Against It: Understanding that broodiness is a hormonal, location-specific process helps us make better decisions about our flocks. If you want a hen to hatch eggs, work with her biology: provide a safe, dark, quiet spot in a location where she's already showing interest. If you need to break a broody hen, understand that you're working against powerful hormones and instincts—it's not about willpower, it's about changing environmental cues.

For me, having multiple hens who like to go broody (thank you, Orpington genetics) means I've learned to see broodiness as a resource rather than a problem. Need a garden bed cleared? A broody hen in a tractor coop will scratch down weeds while thinking about motherhood. Want to hatch eggs? I've got willing mothers. It's all about working with what your flock naturally wants to do, rather than fighting against their biology.

Did You Know?

Chickens have an incredible ability to count and track individual eggs. Research has shown that broody hens can distinguish between their own eggs and others added to the nest, and they can even count up to at least five with remarkable accuracy. This is why broody hens will sometimes roll eggs out of the nest—they're managing their clutch size based on what they can successfully incubate. If you slip extra eggs under a broody hen, she may very well audit her collection and toss out the ones that don't feel like they belong. Never underestimate the mathematics of a determined broody hen!

That's it for this month at Once Upon a Farm. As spring surges forward here and autumn settles in for those of you in the north, I hope your flocks are thriving, your gardens are growing, and you're finding moments to simply stand and observe the beautiful complexity of the systems you're tending.
- Sam