Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[fowlman01]

So have you compared successful hatches/chick raising between your hens and incubator hatching?

We had several go broody on us the past couple of months. Let one finish some eggs that had been in the incubator - one out of 3 eggs that I gave her hatched but several days later I found the chick squished flat underneath her.

I'd really like to go more natural - wanting to get back to old fashioned homestead birds including having them hatch and raise the chicks. Just a little leery of letting any more broody hens go ahead and hatch when the breeding flock is still small and losing just one is frustrating. Hardly anyone these days seems to do the natural hatch thing to give information on their experiences, so I don't know if it is even worth it to have "natural" hatching/raising as a goal.

For the last ten years I had used hens only for hatching all my birds including waterfowl. Last year I had a friend use her incubator to hatch my chicks out. The hens do a better job, but I couldn't get as many birds out as I needed last year...so I went artificial.

w.

 

[catdaddyfro]

I think of a kangaroo when I see roo posted too. People seem to have a problem using words like cock and ***** when refering to chickens or dogs...it's just one of those words that some folks are not comfortable using. In my circle cock, cockerel, hen and pullet are used often as ***** is used often in my wife's world of dogs. It will be interesting to see if ***** makes it through the naughty words filter here on BYC.

Rooster is a very acceptable term with the people I know...it just does not give you a sense of age.


ahahahaha the female dog term is forbidden here..........LOL

Walt

LOL I think of Winnie the Pooh every time I read or hear "roo", but that's just me an' how my little brain works LOL I got into my cartoons as a young lad.

Jeff

Ps Oh I do still use it on occasion as I often refer to my place as the "Red Roo Inn" there's lots of them here, LOL

 

[bnjrob]

bnjrob, I'm sorry your first broody hatch didn't go so well. My experience has been the opposite so I would encourage you to try again. I incubated first (always wanted a broody but had to wait 3 years to get one - now I've got several). My first hatch yielded 4 chicks starting with 11 eggs. The second incubation of shipped eggs yielded just one chick. Then my first hen went broody and I gave her a dozen eggs, out of which she hatched 7 chicks. The next broody was a bantam and I gave her 3 eggs and wound up with 2 chicks. I later opened the unhatched egg and it was clear so nothing she did would have made a difference there. Both times the hens were excellent mothers. The first raised all 7 without losing one, and kept them with her until they were 15 weeks old. The second raised them until 5 weeks, at which point they ditched her and she finally gave up trying to keep them with her and went back to laying.

I do run my incubator as it allows me to pick and choose when I have chicks, and brooder raised chicks are always more handleable as adults, but I also give any hen who goes broody a few eggs to sit on as I love watching them mother their young. Plus, the best way I know to break a broody is to allow her to hatch chicks.

Good to know that you are having a decent experience! That gives me some hope that perhaps we can get these hens doing what comes naturally without too many hatching/raising casualties. If they were easily replaced, it probably wouldn't frustrate me as much to lose one. But Mottled Javas don't grow on trees.

 

[bnjrob]

For the last ten years I had used hens only for hatching all my birds including waterfowl. Last year I had a friend use her incubator to hatch my chicks out. The hens do a better job, but I couldn't get as many birds out as I needed last year...so I went artificial.

w.

Wow! 10 yrs!? OK, I'm impressed, thrilled, and even more encouraged that this is do-able.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
45 years ago, the term "online" didn't exist.

Neither, for that matter, did Ameraucanas.

Right or wrong, like it or not, language evolves and changes - and dictionaries are republished.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Some hens do a brilliant job. Others, not quite so brilliant. But I will say this, if somebody around here goes broody, I will definitely give her eggs. Chicks raised by broodies are SO much easier.

 

[bnjrob]

Some hens do a brilliant job. Others, not quite so brilliant. But I will say this, if somebody around here goes broody, I will definitely give her eggs. Chicks raised by broodies are SO much easier.

Maybe I just need to pick a different hen then!

 

[catdaddyfro]

45 years ago, the term "online" didn't exist.

Neither, for that matter, did Ameraucanas.

Right or wrong, like it or not, language evolves and changes - and dictionaries are republished.

OMG does it ever esp since rap music hit the scene and then tweeters and txtrs.

Regis once proclaimed rap music was going to be the end of society as we know it, this was before the tweets and texts came about. I wonder how he feels now?


Back on tract, I too use broodies as often as possible I get better hatches less problems rearing them and I have such wonderful hens that my biddies are often easier to handle/get along with than coop reared young, too me that is.

Jeff

 

[fowlman01]

45 years ago, the term "online" didn't exist.

Neither, for that matter, did Ameraucanas.

Right or wrong, like it or not, language evolves and changes - and dictionaries are republished.

Well maybe you didn't exist either, but lockdown is not more than ten years old...probably more like 6 years old and just because it is used on two places on the internet does not make it the correct usage of a word.... nor an indication of a language trend.
It is a good description....just sounds more important than it really is. Again .....I believe diet is far more important than a half click on the thermostat or humidity controls.

Chicks that are hatched and brooded under a hen always seem a cut above the incubated chicks. In both disease resistance and breed type. I have no idea why type would be affected, but I have seen it enough times to believe it is so.

I'm still waiting for you to post the pic of you with static hair.

w.

 

[3riverschick]

So have you compared successful hatches/chick raising between your hens and incubator hatching?

We had several go broody on us the past couple of months. Let one finish some eggs that had been in the incubator - one out of 3 eggs that I gave her hatched but several days later I found the chick squished flat underneath her.

I'd really like to go more natural - wanting to get back to old fashioned homestead birds including having them hatch and raise the chicks. Just a little leery of letting any more broody hens go ahead and hatch when the breeding flock is still small and losing just one is frustrating. Hardly anyone these days seems to do the natural hatch thing to give information on their experiences, so I don't know if it is even worth it to have "natural" hatching/raising as a goal.

==========================================================
Well, I am becoming a real convert with letting the hens do the hatching. March is doing a wonderful of raising her 3 chicks. The tail tells the tale, 2 pullets and a cockerel.
March sat 6 eggs, accompanied by her 1/2 sister, May, who sat in the nest next to her. March kicked one egg out of the nest. One egg failed to hatch and I took it out of the nest after the other 4 chicks hatched.
I made one mistake. The sire of the chicks, their 1/2 brother, Junior, was gallant with his ladies and didn't bother the (viable or non-viable) eggs or the chicks.
So, after asking around, I decided to leave him in the coop with March, May and the chicks. Mistake. I forgot that even tho he was no threat, the hens might not recognize that. The next day, I found March had dug a deep nest in the shavings where she was "hiding" the chicks from Junior. I the process, she sat on and killed, one of the 4 newly hatched chicks.
So, I moved May and Junior to the empty bachelor quarters and left March and the chicks in the big 4x6 coop. No more problems. May has started laying again and I am
setting her eggs in the Brinsea Mini Advances.
Hubby Bob and I have been discussing hatching. By next year, we should have 6 hens. We are considering getting 6 Silkies and making 6 brooding coops. Then each day for 6 days, taking the eggs from the Sussex girls (presuming we get 5 eggs a day from 6 Sussex hens) and putting them under each Silkie in turn. (this would be flock mating).
***or*** taking and setting eggs from each Sussex hen ( marked with paint on hen vent) on turners and them putting eggs from each Sussex hen under a different Silkie hen. (pedigree mating) The Silkies can hatch out 5 Sussex eggs each and raise them to 6 weeks in separate coops. Either way all the chicks would only be a week apart and could all be raised in one grow-out pen.
Pros: no messing with man-made brooders, dust in the house, special brooder rooms, brooder temp hassles; hens teach chicks.
Cons: extra to build coops and run electricity to them; obtain and feed Silkies (cost off-set by avoiding extra cost of incubators).
Best,
Karen
P.S. Regardless of breeding system used, all my chicks get Poultry Nutri-Drench in their water from hatch , on.
I mention this because this particular product is very forgiving of novice management mistakes. I've used
Bovidr "Nutri" products for years on my collie puppies and poultry of all ages. Proven by breeders who raise
100's K of poultry a year. http://www.bovidr.com/poultry.html It is way more than just vitamins and electrolytes.
Goes straight into the bloodstream, does not need to be digested. Great for chilled neonates.1 drop per chick
by mouth for travel stress. 4cc per gallon in water for stressed chicks. 2cc per gallon in water for chick maintenance.