Can you breed diffrent breeds of chickens and still be ok??

Yes! Your chickens will just be mixed breed or "barnyard mix".

I believe your EE roo will help throw offspring with interesting colored eggs? Some of them might still be considered Easter Eggers although I'm sure someone here can give you a more complete answer on that, but Easter Eggers themselves are a mixed breed.

I have Rhode island red/buff orpington chicks right now that are gorgeous!
 
There is a thread on here on how to tell a fertilized egg....they have kind of a bulleye but there are threads that describe it really well......

Do you have a broody hen or incubator? Space for the chicks to live apart from your big hens?

We waited a year to start hatching eggs so that we could gain experience and create more chicken enclosures.
 
well I am going to build a brooder if need be! I have a hen that wants to sit I think she hisses at me when I take her eggs everyday!
barnie.gif
but i also have a incubator! which is better!
 
There really is no 'better'. Both broody hens and 'bators are good and bad for different reasons.

Hens will take care of the raising and mothering for you, with less human error. But on the downside, I think it's best that Mommy is separated with her eggs, from the other birds. Some people have kept setting brooding hens in with their flock but there's alot that can go wrong. Most of the time, if the hens gets up to eat or drink, another hen will take her nest to lay an egg and Mommy will either a.) not want to mess with the other hen or b.) get confused and sit on another nest. That means that when the other hen gets up from laying her egg, Mommy will just stay on the nest she took. Broody hens just want to sit on a nest, any nest will do. They don't understand that their partially-brooded eggs will die without their heat, and that once they pick one, they have to stick with it or else never see a single chick.

So broodies need a nice, quiet, preferably darker place to brood with best results. Of course they need their own food, water, protection, and they love to dust bathe. You also would have to make sure the enclosure is safe from predators or other chickens who may want to harm the babies. I know some of our birds will pick on chicks if they haven't been brooding them.

Incubators require humans to regulate and operate them. I've never used one, but just from glimsing in the 'Incubating and Hatching Eggs' section, one can tell that there's alot that is able to go wrong. All sorts of things can happen. However, if a hatch is successful, babies are best kept in a brooder you prepare and of course you raise them, etc.

There is an option that has been done, but it's risky. You can use the incubator to hatch the chicks then, at night, slip them under the broody hen. With hope, she will accept them. But sometimes, things go wrong and the Mom is not fooled. That's a risk I know I wouldn't take, but others have and it has worked out a number of times. It all depends on the hen. You even run the risk of having the Mommy who hatches the chicks 'wig out' and try to hurt them/kill them, or even abandon them. Doesn't happen often, but there are good and bad broodies out there. It's nature.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom