Breeding chickens

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dpotter

dpotter

Hatching
Jun 23, 2015
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I have been raising chickens for 1 year. I love it. I have 4 wyandotte hens. We have been enjoying the eggs, but I want chicks.

I want the hens to hatch the eggs. I sell want to continue getting eggs to eat. How can I keep the separate?
 
No need to keep them separate, add a rooster so the eggs are fertile and you can incubate any you want and then eat the rest. I have some breeds where every egg I collect is put into the incubator because I want all of those chicks I can get, other breeds are mostly eaten unless I get a request from someone for hatching eggs or chicks.
 
I want the hens to hatch their own eggs. I am going to borrow a rooster. Get them fertile and let nature do the rest. I figured I would need some way of telling which were fertile. And maybe a brooding box and a laying box. Will that work?
 
dpotter said:
I want the hens to hatch their own eggs. I am going to borrow a rooster. Get them fertile and let nature do the rest. I figured I would need some way of telling which were fertile. And maybe a brooding box and a laying box. Will that work?
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This brings a whole new issue to the table - that of bio-security. Particularly at this point in time, the co-mingling of birds from different flocks is not a good idea. If you follow best practices with regards to this situation, you are looking at a rather long process for the *hopes* of having a positive outcome - first there is the quarantine period of at least 30 days before you begin integration (ANY illness during the quarantine resets that clock to start again after the first day of recovery from the treated illness), then you have the matter of integrating the "borrowed" bird into your flock - a process which, done properly, can take weeks, after the integration period is over you have the matter of the stress of the process having caused your hens to stop laying for a period, once the hens DO start to lay again you have a matter of time before the eggs collected are likely to have a consistent fertility rate --- so, here you are more than two months into this whole process and you finally have eggs that are most likely fertile.....and that brings you to the next issue, you want your hens to do the hatching. A hen has to be in the "broody state of mind" to set and hatch eggs - this is not something you can control and there is no guarantee your birds will ever go broody in their entire lives. You could be waiting for month for the hens to go broody - all this time having to keep the 'borrowed' rooster there so that you have a consistent supply of fertile eggs ready if/when you get lucky and one does go broody for you. The person who loaned you the rooster will have to go through the same drawn out quarantine and integration process to move the rooster back into their flock.
So, lets say that months go by, you finally have a broody hen on fertile eggs -- then what? What are your plans for the cockerels that hatch?
The simpler solution - IF you get a broody hen, purchase fertile hatching eggs (you can source them locally or through the mail), and give them to her *or* invest in an incubator and you won't have to be at the mercy of your hens' hormones as to whether or not you ever have the opportunity to set a clutch of eggs under one.
 
Alright
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great to have you joining the BYC flock
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Looks like you already received some good advice
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Ole gray mare- this seems extreme. My neighbor have a nice healthy flock just over the fence. They talk to each other frequently but don't inter mingle. What would be the harm in just chucking a rooster over the fence?
 
dpotter said:
Ole gray mare- this seems extreme. My neighbor have a nice healthy flock just over the fence. They talk to each other frequently but don't inter mingle. What would be the harm in just chucking a rooster over the fence?
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Extreme is worth it when it concerns the health and well being of your birds - regardless of proximity, there is currently no co-mingling (meaning quarantine still applies) and integration is not as simple as "chucking a rooster over the fence", period. None of what I posted above is changed by your clarification of the location of the rooster at this time. It also does not change the fact that you do not currently have a broody hen, nor can you predict when you will - so even if you do just toss the rooster in with your hens you still have no way to hatch the eggs that are fertilized.
As Enola has suggested - get some fertile eggs from your neighbor if/when one of your hens goes broody *or* get an incubator and then get the eggs from your neighbor.
 

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