Ok so I know there are some of you who will completely disagree so I'll say ahead of time that I'm only speaking from my own experience. Having said that here goes ......
Over the last 12 years I've had many different breeds of chickens and I've hatched using broody hens and incubators. Right now I have a trio of first time moms all sharing 15 eggs 8 of which have hatched and are doing fantastic and 7 more to go. In the past I've had Silkies, Turkens, and Brahmas to name a few hatch their own eggs all with very few that didn't hatch and never lost a chick all during the time they were being raised. In the past I've also incubated with dismal hatch rates and bought day old chicks that didn't survive as well with me raising them. I decided a while back that I would only ever hatch chicks with the hens. I also decided that I wouldn't do anything special. I would feed them like I always do and not fuss. My chickens seem to thrive more on less intervention so to speak. I give them DE for parasites and dust bath and that's it. In the summer I let them mostly forage and supplement in the winter when the snow gets deep or its to cold to leave the coop. The only other thing I do is love them and spend time with them and give them treats here and there. That's it. Way back when when I used antibiotic feeds and wormed with different wormers and added this and that to their feed and basically micro managed them they didn't thrive as well and weren't as healthy for all the things I Did to make them healthier lol. So bottom line how many out there have had the same experience ?
Over the last 12 years I've had many different breeds of chickens and I've hatched using broody hens and incubators. Right now I have a trio of first time moms all sharing 15 eggs 8 of which have hatched and are doing fantastic and 7 more to go. In the past I've had Silkies, Turkens, and Brahmas to name a few hatch their own eggs all with very few that didn't hatch and never lost a chick all during the time they were being raised. In the past I've also incubated with dismal hatch rates and bought day old chicks that didn't survive as well with me raising them. I decided a while back that I would only ever hatch chicks with the hens. I also decided that I wouldn't do anything special. I would feed them like I always do and not fuss. My chickens seem to thrive more on less intervention so to speak. I give them DE for parasites and dust bath and that's it. In the summer I let them mostly forage and supplement in the winter when the snow gets deep or its to cold to leave the coop. The only other thing I do is love them and spend time with them and give them treats here and there. That's it. Way back when when I used antibiotic feeds and wormed with different wormers and added this and that to their feed and basically micro managed them they didn't thrive as well and weren't as healthy for all the things I Did to make them healthier lol. So bottom line how many out there have had the same experience ?
