As anyone ever tried incubating and hatching their own chicks??
It's an idea i've toyed with recently, but apart from incubators being expensive, is it something that someone who only wants 1 or 2 hens should do??
Pro's
Little babies to nurture See it all from beginning to end Takes me back to childhood when I found a chicken in the road, which imprinted on me and followed me everywhere until my parents gave him/her to a farm because he was pooing too much in the shed after s/he'd found out how to gain height!
Con's
What if I had boys???? What if I tried 4 eggs and got 4 babies?? (don't have enough room, as I already have 3)
Is it a lot of work, as I work full time, and does anyone know where I can get a cheap 2nd hand small incubator from if I did have a go??
When we had Oscar (the chicken I found in the road). I kept him/her in the airing cupboard, then he used to sit on my knee and sleep, follow me everywhere, and then sleep in the shed. It was all so simple then, without posh devices to keep a check on him/her!
you could get 4 boys
the only way to garantee girls is to go and buy them
if you can only have 1-2 more birds then buy them
if you have a local farm maybe you could arrange for him to take any cockerel birds but arrange this first
i would love to hacth some myself but somethings are just not practical
"The trouble with quotes over the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine." -- Abraham Lincoln
I would like to hatch for the same reasons as you but wouldn't go there simply because of the very high chance of getting boys. Some breeds/colours apparently have some say in the percentage but even 'show quality' boys are going for free.
I'm saving the hatching idea for when I have my dream land and can be confident that I can keep whatever hatches...something to look forward to...
There are incubators around turn the eggs for you so you don't need to do anything but check temperature 'n stuff. I like the idea of a natural incubation under a lovely, warm, broody hen though...
good luck.
Wendy
Thanks everyone for your advice!!
Looks like I won't be hatching my own then :(
What about getting a little chick which has been sexed at a few days or a week or so old? Is this possible?
As much as I love my ex-batts, I want to be able to look after a fluffy little chick, until they're old enough to go outside with my others.....it's the Oscar thing!!!
My grandma bought day-olds (war-time dig for victory). she had a mini-arc, with the run glassed over to keep them in, on the lawn.
I remember various alarms and poorly chicks. Easier if mother nature and mother broody hen do it for you.
I could never have hatching eggs - its bad enough now if one of the girls are a bit off colour - imagine me with babies - no.
The thing to look at is if they are boys there are only so many that can stay, I think a good number is 12 girls to 1 boy.
My friend hatched 7 eggs, just 'cos she wanted the experience. Ended up with 5 cockerels and all the pain and heartache we have been through getting them homes. Which, thank goodness, we now have.
Wendy
Last summer I bought 6 French Copper Maran eggs because the colour of them is such a rich chocolate brown. I liked the idea of hens laying eggs that colour. I put them under a broody hen and let nature takes it's course. One chick hatched and you can see a photo of it in the Forum Members Pictures section. It was great to see it hatch and to have a little chick. The other hens were very protective of it and there was no problems being accepted as part of the flock. It grew into a beautiful looking bird. Then at about 26 weeks old it suddenly discovered it could go "cock-a-doodle-doo", and this confirmed it was a cockerel (we were still not sure). It would not stop after this and alas, it had to go....
I did not get round to it this year but next summer I will do it again. I won't bother with incubators etc. I will put them under a broody hen again and let them get on with it.
in the wild a hen will continue to lay until she has between
6-15 eggs
at this point she will stop laying and go broody,her temp will raise by a couple of degrees and she will sit the eggs
To stop this in the coup make sure you pick up all eggs before you
get a box full
if when you go to collect the eggs there is a hen in a box make a mental note of the bird if when you go down latter in the day the same bird is in the box
PANIC PANIC
not realy just take her out and se if she goes back after a while
if she does all you need to do is cool her down
put her on her own for a couple of days in an area with no box
that way she can't sit and she will cool down
"The trouble with quotes over the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine." -- Abraham Lincoln
That's it, never a broody hen there when you want one, only when you want eggs, eggs, and more eggs.
The modern breeds of hens are selected not to go broody, I've had 16 hens at different times and only one ever went broody. I'd only had them a month when she went off lay - no eggs for 11 weeks - after letting her get on with it for a bit I stared throwing her off, and shutting the pop hole when the others had laid. The last 2 eggless weeks she was staying out but moulting. The next year I was careful to collect eggs as soon as laid, and threw her out at the first sign, she was only broody 5 weeks. But over her lifetime she laid more eggs than any other hen, so it did no harm longterm.
