Egg incubation techniques

[cute bantams]

Hello everyone I'm sure this is an obvious question but does anyone have any experience with hatching oeg bantam eggs any help would be appreciated thanks - cute bantams

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Yes. What knowledge do you seek, grasshopper?

 

[cute bantams]

I have a flock of small standard hens and every year at least one of them goes broody do you think that I should let a broody hen do all the work or should I artificially incubate the eggs a main concern of letting a hen do it is that she might accidentally crush the eggs/chicks

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Unless the hen sets in a community nest where there are other hens jumping in & out all day to do their business it wouldn't be a big concern. Be advised though, that stuff happens and hens do break a few eggs and crush a few chicks between the eggs from time to time.
Some people move the nest to a safe place so the hen can incubate in private, like into a dog carrier in the garage, but I never had any luck moving chicken nests because my hens kept returning to their original nest.
Some block off and dedicate a nest box for the broody hen, unblocking the nest to let her out to poop & eat.
If she makes her own secret nest somewhere I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Personally I perfer the electric hen for hatching eggs because I can control where and when the hatch happens, hatch a larger number of eggs, and avoid all the drama associated with a broody hen. But it is cool watch an old hen and her chicks scratching around in the yard.

 

[lazy gardener]

Broody hens can and sometimes do return to the wrong nest after their trip to the break room. And, it's not at all uncommon for several hens to crowd into the same nest box to lay an egg, even in a small nest box. More often, hens will wait until your broody gets up for a break, then they'll go into her nest and add their eggs to her already developing clutch. That's why it's recommended that the broody be kept with the flock, but her nest be inaccessible to the rest of the layers. A dog crate would be an ideal situation if you have the room.

Do you have access to an incubator? Any experience hatching with an incubator? If I were you, I'd locate an incubator. Just as soon as I had a broody, I'd start saving eggs to hatch from my own flock. I'd fire up the incubator, and order those eggs. Then, I'd split the OEG eggs between the broody and the bator, so that there was a mixture of OEG and eggs from the flock to set in the bator and under the hen at the same time. You'll need to be sure she doesn't have eggs under her that have already started to develop when you set the new eggs. Then, when the eggs hatch, depending on the hatch rate, you can slip the chicks from the bator into the nest with the broody, and let her raise them all.

 

[cute bantams]

Ok I already am prepared for the drama

this spring they love to hoard the eggs for themselves so it may be better to incubate the clutch my mom hatched geese and duck eggs in a classroom so I'm sure I can do it at our house

 

[cute bantams]

I'll take chicken drama over teenager drama any day

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Yeah no doubt!! Good thing chickens don't have cell phones & facebook huh?
I'm old & burnt out and try to avoid any kind of drama.

 

[cute bantams]

I know right it's constant teen drama for me LOL I don't know if I will be getting OEG bantam eggs chicks or adults yet but I though I would ask about egg incubation now in case that is the route we go

 

[Ridgerunner]

Broody hens have been successfully hatching eggs with the flock for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians were incubating eggs thousands of years ago. I don’t know how long people have been separating a broody from the flock so she can hatch in peace, but I’d guess thousands of years.

All methods work. There is no one right way where all other ways are wrong. Each method has its benefits, each method has its problems or potential problems. There are techniques with each method that give you a better chance of success. With our different experiences and different set-ups different ones of us prefer a certain method. That’s normal and natural.

Personally I let a broody hatch with the flock and raise the chicks with the flock. With my experience and set-up that is normally successful, but yes I occasionally have problems. Some of those problems come from the other hens in the flock, but most of them would occur whether the hen was isolated or not. I don’t have to go through the drama of re-integrating a broody hen or integrating her chicks. It’s all a trade-off. As I said, benefits and potential problems any way you go about it.