HI, I've been away from the BYC site for a while...my Dorkings are now seven months old (tomorrow). the pullets have been laying, lovely creamy eggs, still small but getting bigger. The fourteen extra roosters are in the freezer several weeks ago. The one I kept (thank you all for your advice, when I posted oodles of pics of the boys!) is very sweet so far, gentle with the ladies, calls them when I toss out treats and lets them eat first, and is properly civil to me. Of course, he isn't mature yet, either!
Anyway, I will be posting pics of them soon, but I hope to hatch out my first eggs next spring, via broody hen. At what age do they go seriously broody? I have a couple who like to sit on the eggs in the nest box for an hour or so at a time, are they likely to be the best broodies?
I recently read in a book that if you are going to use a broody hen, you should build her nest right on the ground (thick layer of bedding and in secure shelter, but the nest right on the ground), because that will keep the humidity proper. Is this so? I never heard this anywhere else, kind of makes sense; certainly wild birds would build right on the ground, but seems a bit dangerous in terms of rainy days... what do you all think?
Anyway, I will be posting pics of them soon, but I hope to hatch out my first eggs next spring, via broody hen. At what age do they go seriously broody? I have a couple who like to sit on the eggs in the nest box for an hour or so at a time, are they likely to be the best broodies?
I recently read in a book that if you are going to use a broody hen, you should build her nest right on the ground (thick layer of bedding and in secure shelter, but the nest right on the ground), because that will keep the humidity proper. Is this so? I never heard this anywhere else, kind of makes sense; certainly wild birds would build right on the ground, but seems a bit dangerous in terms of rainy days... what do you all think?
