Breeding chickens - Daft questions!!!

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Trev62
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Breeding chickens - Daft questions!!!

Post by Trev62 »

Okay Ladies and Gentlemen, it is daft question time again...................

We are still making our plans for next year concerning poultry keeping etc. Today we were discussing raising our own chicks from our current chickens, firstly because it is something we have never done before, secondly it saves us buying in any.

Now the daft questions.............

How do you go about this?

Do you segregate a chicken and cockerel to mate then remove the cockerel to allow the hen to hatch and raise her chicks in peace?

With several chickens laying can you just put the eggs together and let one hen hatch them?

I do not wish to buy an incubator but am happy to raise them inside as we did our original chicks this year.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.
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kitla
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Re: Breeding chickens - Daft questions!!!

Post by kitla »

your cockerel will happily look after your flock all year round, he will work his way round the hens so most of the eggs will hopefully be fertile. Then you'll need to wait till one of the girls goes broody (if you have a choice pick the one thats easiest to handle)Put her in a nestbox & run that's safe for tiny chickies & give her the hatching eggs one by one - she will roll them under her, whoevers they are. I always put food & water within their reach, and take them off the nest once a day for a short walk poop & dustbath with the others. I've always kept them within sight of the others & once the chicks are a week or so old let them start to mingle with the flock (with mum of course), the cockerels have always been ok with them.
These are diaries of my last 2 hatching adventures, maybe you'll find something useful there.
viewtopic.php?f=88&t=46252&hilit=hatching&start=30" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
viewtopic.php?f=88&t=50908&hilit=misspiggies+dennis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Trev62
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Re: Breeding chickens - Daft questions!!!

Post by Trev62 »

Thanks Kitla for the links and advice, they made for some good reading.

We are planning on giving it a go and raising some of our own just to see if we can achieve it, should be an interesting experience. First we have to complete our new chicken area which will then utilize for this task hopefully around Spring once the warm weather begins to arrive again.
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Minxy
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Re: Breeding chickens - Daft questions!!!

Post by Minxy »

Trev62 wrote:Okay Ladies and Gentlemen, it is daft question time again...................

We are still making our plans for next year concerning poultry keeping etc. Today we were discussing raising our own chicks from our current chickens, firstly because it is something we have never done before, secondly it saves us buying in any.

Now the daft questions.............

How do you go about this?

Do you segregate a chicken and cockerel to mate then remove the cockerel to allow the hen to hatch and raise her chicks in peace?

With several chickens laying can you just put the eggs together and let one hen hatch them?

I do not wish to buy an incubator but am happy to raise them inside as we did our original chicks this year.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.


Your cockerel ought to be doing his job anyway. ;) This is very straightforward - but you do need one of your hens to go broody first. Yes, she'll need her own space for getting on with this, away from the others. The adult hens will peck her chicks so she must be segregated. If you have certain breeds and don't want to end up with hybrids, then yes, you'd need to set up some sort of isolated breeding pen (unless you can tell the eggs apart). You don't keep the cockerel in with her once he's done his job and she's sitting. She is quite capable of getting on with it herself. :)

Wait until you've got a broody hen before putting any eggs under her. Or you can cheat, by just getting some fertilised eggs in and placing them underneath her. An option worth considering if you fancied some different breeds. She'll hatch out whatever you put under her, provided she has some of her own in there. Do make sure she has a nearby source of feed and water just for her. She'll rarely leave the eggs but can do so for up to fifteen minutes, so don't panic!

Alternatively, go for the incubator method.
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Trev62
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Re: Breeding chickens - Daft questions!!!

Post by Trev62 »

Thanks for the reply.........

Minxy wrote:Your cockerel ought to be doing his job anyway.


The glint in his eye, the smile on his beak and the squeals and squawks from his girls say he is having a great time :oops: :-D

We are in the process off completing a second and secure chicken area and have a plan of sorts for when the snow disappears and spring arrives with some warmer temperatures. One hen is still broody as she was injured and kept with our broilers until late last year to recover, she has never been normal since (but then again we are all mad here!).

No specific breeds here though just your standard Bulgarian backyard chickens with attitude!!
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Minxy
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Re: Breeding chickens - Daft questions!!!

Post by Minxy »

Trev62 wrote:Thanks for the reply.........

Minxy wrote:Your cockerel ought to be doing his job anyway.


The glint in his eye, the smile on his beak....


Careful, the ladies 'perked' up at that. 'Fifty Shades of Plumage' material right there!
https://www.flickr.com/gp/148378394@N08/NNk103 {rofwl}

On a serious note, that all sounds very productive. Looking forward to seeing all the photos. :)
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manda
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Re: Breeding chickens - Daft questions!!!

Post by manda »

Minxy wrote:Wait until you've got a broody hen before putting any eggs under her. Or you can cheat, by just getting some fertilised eggs in and placing them underneath her. An option worth considering if you fancied some different breeds. She'll hatch out whatever you put under her, provided she has some of her own in there.....


In fact you don't have to have her own with her...these two chooks were broody as and I only just got new roosters so they hadn't had time to be sitting on fertile eggs....we had a turkey abandoned two eggs...so we popped one under each of them (no other eggs)...so they now have a turkey poult each...so if you want turkeys at some point stick them under a broody but not with any hens eggs (or wait a week) because they take a week longer :-D

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