Broody or incubate?

[candycar]

I'm down to 2 little bantam hens and want to build my flock. I'm debating on weather to have my “always broody” hen hatch out eggs or incubate them. My chicken house is a prefab, with nestbox, roosting area w/ tray, and ramp to outside. If the hen hatches them, I worry that the little chicks will fall off the ramp, or not be able to find their way in & outside. I do have a ground level house I can put in the run, but don't know if she will nest there.

I really want her to raise them. Has anyone ever used the prefab houses to raise their chicks? I have all winter to plan, and still have to decide where to get fertile eggs.

 

[Jraba1315]

I'm down to 2 little bantam hens and want to build my flock. I'm debating on weather to have my “always broody” hen hatch out eggs or incubate them. My chicken house is a prefab, with nestbox, roosting area w/ tray, and ramp to outside. If the hen hatches them, I worry that the little chicks will fall off the ramp, or not be able to find their way in & outside. I do have a ground level house I can put in the run, but don't know if she will nest there.

I really want her to raise them. Has anyone ever used the prefab houses to raise their chicks? I have all winter to plan, and still have to decide where to get fertile eggs.

I think you could do a combination of both incubating and broody, I case the broody doesn’t hatch any. I had a broody that had no eggs hatch so we just put day old chicks under her and took out the eggs and she raised them. As for them falling off the ramp I just put dog beds under the ramp to cushion a possible fall (I don’t even know if that would work) but I don’t know if that’s necessary.

 

[chickens really]

I've raised Call Ducklings in my prefab Coop and only had to change the ramp. Made it wider so the babies wouldn't fall off. Babies quickly learned to follow Momma.

 

[nchls school]

My coop is not newly hatched friendly. I move mom and chicks to safe quarters once the hatch is complete. At the moment I have a serama hen and 4 new chicks in a big tub here in the house. Once the chicks reach the point where they get around well (about a week) I move them back to the coop.

I prefer not to use the incubator. While a hen can not brood the amount of eggs an incubator does, overall, the percentage of hatch is higher with the broody hens. Also, incubators, at least mine, are not as reliable; temp and humidity fluctuations, power outages, etc.

 

[2000096904]

I would try the broody hen first and if she doesn't want to be broody anymore or can't hatch the eggs then put them in the incubator.