Welcome to BYC. I'll bet broody hens are worth gold there.
Yes! Most definitely!!!
When I was there in June, there was only one. I thought it was a grand idea to allow staff members and even children to learn how to raise chickens. I’m hearing they are having great luck with that. There are now 6 brooder hens and counting.
I learned last night, there is a hawk that is killing the baby chicks. There are 3 pieces of shade cloth there covering the chicken run I helped them build. (In case you are wondering, I had to do the stretching, because the guys were pulling so hard, the fence posts made from harvested saplings, were breaking in two!)
For now, the chicken run isn’t being used. Today, the shade cloth is being moved to the area where the hawk has set up shop!
A flock of African chickens were not laying eggs after doing everything I knew to do to make the chickens happy.
That flock has been sold or slaughtered and made into meals for the people who live at the mission. New flocks are being raised from baby chicks, as well as from hatched eggs.
In 4 months, we will try for more fertile eggs. Once they hatch, and reach maturity, the American hens would have reached their egg laying prime.
For some reason, the prime egg laying season is not 5 - 7 years, or even 3 years. It is 1 year there, I imagine from the living conditions!
I know nothing about hybrid chicken breeds, but learning.
When I arrived, the chickens were being forced to stay indoors, and not allowed outside. Their coops had not been cleaned out, so living conditions were deplorable. If the farmers weren’t happy living in such conditions, the chickens surely wouldn’t be happy, either.
With my help, we cleaned up the coops, released the chickens at sunrise, and shut them back in at sunset. We got the nesting boxes up off the floor, built two roosts in each coop, and made nests with cut grass for the boxes.
I had a fright the next morning after we cleaned up the coops. The farmers ran up the hill calling me to “come see”, “come see” down at the coops.
Eggs!!! Lots of eggs had been laid since the day before! They were very excited. The chickens were dying from lack of clean water and clean feed, and a clean coop. They were not laying eggs, either.
Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions!!!
I know how to raise chickens in the States! This is a completely different ball game, I’m working with to learn all I can, then travel for 30 hours one way, to share with other eager learners!!!
