1) I want to know what breed of chickens make mean, lean, fighting machine broodies. When I was a little kid in old country, you could not get anywhere near chicks that our neighbors had, because the mother would attack you. I mean ATTACK you. And so would the other hens that had chick. 6 months ago when my RIR hen was a broody, I could take the chick right in front of her or even under her and she would not mind it. Some other hens would peck on chicks and she would not react. Don't get me wrong, she was a wonderful nurturing mother but was it because she knew me that she did not mind my interactions with chicks? Somehow i doubt it.
2) I was thinking that if you do enough of mixing of different breeds together, then you can mess up genes so much that these protective characterisitcs would start showing up again. Is that a reasonable assumption?

Ok, in my VERY limited experience I'm going to say "it depends" and also that "yes" I do think it can make a difference with *some* hens whether she knows you or not in how she reacts.

My current broody, who has week old chicks right now, is totally fine with me but not my husband. I do most of the chicken chores and during her broody starvation phase, I hand fed her every day. I can pick up her chicks or take them out from under her and she fusses about it and even pecks at me but it feels more like she just barely taps me. If my husband even enters her pen area, she clucks and flares up her feathers. She won't eat even a tomato or carrot from his hand - her favorite treats. Yet I can feed her plain ole crumble from my hand and not only will she eat it but she'll call her babies over to do the same.

I have also observed my girl fussing about particular chickens in the flock when they come around to the fence. She fusses at ALL the roosters, but only certain hens! And I see it over and over with the same ones so it seems she literally has decided who is okay and who to be wary of as individuals.

So I guess it depends on the individual hen and also how she is raised and kept and how much contact she has with you. That's my expert opinion from ONE broody! LOL! But I'm finding it all so fascinating and fun that I think I have logged a few hundred "observation hours" already. ;-)

Susie

Thank you Susie, that helps. Next time she goes broody, I'll ask my girlfriend to try and handle it. We'll see if chickens give breaks to pretty people :))