Broodiness

In contrast, egg-producing white leghorn chickens have had the broodiness bred out of them.

Bohmes Liebeslied, for flute and piano, is arresting in its low-key broodiness; Bittersweet Music I, its piccolo a lonely bird in its nervous twitters, continued the despairing mood.

When a hen shows signs of broodiness remove her to the sitting-room.