Hatch the eggs or not?????

[Leomome]

Okay Everyone I want EVERYONES opinion on this….. My husband brought up the idea and I need opinion’s , suggestions and advice…… Please feel free to tell me what a dumb idea this is or not! My feelings don’t get hurt so please be brutally honest!!!!!

Last Year (2023) my husband and I built a coop and bought 4 chickens and two ducks. They were “supposed” to be all females. I have since learned don’t trust Tractor Supply for hen only stock. We ended up with 3 hens, a rooster, a drake and a female duck. We lost a chicken to the fox, we had to get rid of the ducks because the drake kept trying to f@*§ my hens and was causing stress in the chickens. So now I have 2 egg laying hens and a stunningly handsome grey/brown rooster.(Picture attached)

I want to add more chickens this year to my flock and I am trying to decide which is the best way to go about it. Should I let the hens sit on the eggs or should I just buy more?? I think it would be cool to breed my rooster and hen but I don’t know much about it. If you know of a book ( or have written a book) about this please let me know.

So what do you think?????

Let nature do it or incubate them myself or just buy????

Thank you in advance for your opinion…..

PS: Does anyone know what breed my rooster is?

Teri
aka Leomome


[email protected]

 

[nuthatched]

Looks like a blue laced red wyandotte with a straight comb. You can let your hens sit if you want. You don't need a book, you have byc.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/learning-center.11/

 

[Leomome]

Looks like a blue laced red wyandotte with a straight comb. You can let your hens sit if you want. You don't need a book, you have byc.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/learning-center.11/

Thank you

 

[Huntmaster]

Let nature do it or incubate them myself or just buy????

Just know that you can't make a hen go broody and sit. You can increase your odds by leaving eggs gather in a nest but not all hens will go broody, so if you plan on that you might want to have an incubator ready.

 

[NatJ]

Should I let the hens sit on the eggs or should I just buy more??

I was going to say, the disadvantage of hatching your own eggs (incubator or broody hen) is that about half the chicks will be males, but if you buy chicks you can get sexed females.

But considering what happened last time you bought chicks, it may not make much difference:

...bought 4 chickens and two ducks. They were “supposed” to be all females. I have since learned don’t trust Tractor Supply for hen only stock. We ended up with 3 hens, a rooster, a drake and a female duck.

I would suggest having a plan for any males you get, no matter which way you are getting the chicks. (Personally, I like fried chicken or chicken soup as solutions for extra cockerels.)

Let nature do it or incubate them myself or just buy????

If you want to "let nature do it," you can just leave the eggs in the nest, and see if a hen goes broody and hatches any.

If you want a little more control of the situation, collect the eggs each day, write the date on each one (pencil is fine), and store them safely (an egg carton or bowl on a shelf in your house or basement.) Leave a few fake eggs in the nest to encourage a hen to sit.

If a hen goes broody, give her the right number of eggs (using the freshest ones: that's why you date them). By giving her all the eggs on the same day, the chicks will all start developing at the same time, and will all hatch at about the same time. By storing the eggs and keeping track of how old they are, you avoid having a nestful of rotten eggs that will not hatch anyway.

Eggs that have been stored at room temperature are safe to eat until they are several weeks old. They are best for hatching if they are 1 week old or less, although eggs up to about 2 weeks have some chance of hatching. So I would suggest eating any eggs that get to be 10 days old or older, so you only have the freshest ones saved to hatch.

If a hen does not go broody, or if you get tired of waiting, you can buy an incubator. Then instead of putting eggs under a hen, you put them in the incubator instead.

 

[Huntmaster]

I want to add more chickens this year to my flock and I am trying to decide which is the best way to go about it.

So, if this is your goal plan A. I would try to let hens sit and do it themselves as that is the easiest and very rewarding watching mamma and littles. Plan B have the incubator ready to put your eggs in. Plan C go get TSC chicks if A. B. fails. One other thing to note is how long has your hens been laying? First eggs laid from new hens can have difficulties with hatching.

 

[2ndTink]

Incubating eggs is a great experience, here is a great article on chick development:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/development-of-a-chicken-embryo-day-by-day.72537/

As far as should you get chicks or hatch eggs, it's going to depend on what your goal is. Are there any specific breeds you want, traits you desire? Egg color, breeds? Do you want your chicks vaccinated?

As others have mentioned, if you want just females (or at least try ) just pick up some chicks of whatever breeds you want from the store. Hatching is super interesting, but does leave you with extra boys that you either need to sell / give away, make a bachelor coop, or invite to dinner.

 

[fluffycrow]

What the others said. If you don't know how, or what to do with the extra males that will come from breeding your birds, get sexed chicks. If you do know or want to deal with the extra males, then go ahead and hatch your own eggs. If you want to go with a broody or an incubator is up to you. The incubator gives you more control. The broody will be an amazing experience, and will raise more aware, resilient birds. Your male is a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte with a straight comb, as nuthatched said

 

[fuzzi]

Okay Everyone I want EVERYONES opinion on this….. My husband brought up the idea and I need opinion’s , suggestions and advice…… Please feel free to tell me what a dumb idea this is or not! My feelings don’t get hurt so please be brutally honest!!!!!

Last Year (2023) my husband and I built a coop and bought 4 chickens and two ducks. They were “supposed” to be all females. I have since learned don’t trust Tractor Supply for hen only stock. We ended up with 3 hens, a rooster, a drake and a female duck. We lost a chicken to the fox, we had to get rid of the ducks because the drake kept trying to f@*§ my hens and was causing stress in the chickens. So now I have 2 egg laying hens and a stunningly handsome grey/brown rooster.(Picture attached)

I want to add more chickens this year to my flock and I am trying to decide which is the best way to go about it. Should I let the hens sit on the eggs or should I just buy more?? I think it would be cool to breed my rooster and hen but I don’t know much about it. If you know of a book ( or have written a book) about this please let me know.

So what do you think?????

Let nature do it or incubate them myself or just buy????

Thank you in advance for your opinion…..

PS: Does anyone know what breed my rooster is?

Teri
aka Leomome


[email protected]View attachment 3739299View attachment 3739300View attachment 3739301

If you want just females you can buy sexed chicks online. I purchased straight run chicks locally, wound up with 7 males, 3 females. So I ordered 5 sexed/female chicks from Cackle. They sent 6 chicks, 4 were females. I got a refund for the male, sold both of them at a local auction. I'd buy sexed chicks again.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Hatching eggs is fun, as long as you can deal with death. The hard part of hatching is the loss, not every egg will hatch every time.