Buying hatching eggs if using a broody hen?

[Godiva]

Ok, thanks for the responses folks. I keep my chicks with the hen after they have hatched. I have a separate area for them where they can be safe from interference and predators. Now I just need to find someone who will provide the eggs I need at a moments notice! GUess here goes with a new topic.

 

[fallenweeble]

"Letting them sit on their own eggs would just get pretty stinky"

ha ha! see, i warned ya'll it was a stupid question ahead!!!! there are just SO MANY things that i just don't think of yet because i haven't been doing this long.
i'm a dork, what can i say? but at least i know i'm a dork . . .

thanks for the quick responses, i'm trying to learn as fast as i can but there's ALOT of details to chickens - who knew?!
ya'll rock,
f. weeble

 

[tink]

Thanks Jenn....Now I have to wait!!
Tink

 

[possumized]

I had one of my Ameraucana/ Easter Egg hens go broody. By the time I realized that she was broody, she had quit laying eggs (in my flock of blue and green egg layers, she was the only one who laid pink eggs.) After researching how to "break up" a broody hen, I decided the least cruel thing was to let her hatch a few. She stayed in the nest box in the henhouse until the eggs hatched, (the other hens were around her at night and when the weather was bad) and I left the chicks with her to join the flock.
My boyfriend was worried that it wouldn't be safe to let the chicks out with the flock, and considered separating them from the momma hen to raise inside. But I think it would have been worse, to try to introduce them to the flock later.
As it was, the other hens soon learned that if they tried to peck a chick, they would have a furious momma hen in their faces.
I'm not sure how long it was after they hatched that she resumed laying eggs. At least a month. But I think it was worth it for those chicks to have a real "mom".

If anyone with a broody hen wants some Easter Egg eggs, I would be willing to send them on short notice, but it takes an average of three days for USPS Priority, and I only want to ship on Monday or Tuesday to avoid getting caught on the weekend. I don't know how long a broody hen would be willing to sit.

Vicki (in Ketchikan, Alaska)

 

[gardener]

" But I think it was worth it for those chicks to have a real "mom".

I saw somewhere that chicks raised by moma hens are generally smarter and more alert. Any others have any experience with that?

 

[ole-crone]

We have two chicks that hatched a few days before some we bought from the hatchery. The ones from the hatchery just don't seem as hardy and those raised by mama. They are just now going to be investigating the big outside world and the others have been running behind mama since the start - no matter what the weather.

 

[Godiva]

I only have experience with two batches of chicks. One lot was from teh hatchery and they were all healthy but the 6 hatched under our bantie are definitely much more alert, stronger and more feisty. THey are also MUCH better at foraging than the hatchery chicks were. We were astounded at the huge difference between the two lots of chicks, plus it was so much easier leaving momma to raise them. We had a heat lamp for them all 'cos it was cold but momma did a great job of keeping them all warm. We had them in a small chicken tractor that is for the broody ladies and their little ones. What we will do if we have more than one broody I don't know but this worked great.