page_title: Broodiness
section_title: In commercial egg-laying
hierarchical_section_title: Broodiness / In domestic poultry / In commercial egg-laying
caption_attribution_description: English: Egg incubator Español: Incubador de huevos
context_page_description: Broodiness is the action or behavioral tendency to sit on a clutch of eggs to incubate them, often requiring the non-expression of many other behaviors including feeding and drinking. Being broody has been defined as "Being in a state of readiness to brood eggs that is characterized by cessation of laying and by marked changes in behavior and physiology". Broody birds often pluck feathers from their chest and abdomen, using them to cover the eggs. As a consequence of this, they develop one or several patches of bare skin on the ventral surface. These reddish, well-vascularized areas of skin are usually called brood patches, and improve heat transfer to the eggs. Broodiness is usually associated with female birds, although males of some bird species become broody and some non-avian animals also show broodiness.
context_section_description: Because hens stop laying when they become broody, commercial poultry breeders perceive broodiness not as a normal physiological process, but as an impediment to egg and poultry meat production.  With domestication, it has become more profitable to incubate eggs artificially, while keeping hens in full egg production. To help achieve this, there has been intense artificial selection for non-broodiness in commercial egg laying chickens and parent stock of poultry.  As a result of this artificial selection, broodiness has been reduced to very low levels in present-day breeds of commercial fowl, both among egg-laying and meat-producing breeds.
caption: An egg incubator.
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