Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[chickadoodles]

Bee I love your broody boxes! Is that top one made of plastic?

My broody had 4 chicks hatch and she abandoned two as they had spraddle legs which I think probably came from the plastic 1/4 barrel we used for the nest. I have their legs taped together hoping for the best.
If it works and the rest of her eggs hatch we will put them under the hen at night like Bee suggested. (Thanks Bee)

 

[Beekissed]

You're welcome! These are plastic totes, turned on their sides. I have big gals, so they need big space for laying and brooding. I tried 5 gal. buckets once and they were WAY too squeezy for my fat gals. Don't know how folks use those.

Hope you have a great outcome for your chicks! Expecting some of mine to hatch today, those from my breeding project.

 

[chickadoodles]

You're welcome! These are plastic totes, turned on their sides. I have big gals, so they need big space for laying and brooding. I tried 5 gal. buckets once and they were WAY too squeezy for my fat gals. Don't know how folks use those.

Hope you have a great outcome for your chicks! Expecting some of mine to hatch today, those from my breeding project.

I have totes but I use them to brood chicks in. I may get a couple for broody hens. Most of mine are pretty fat to. lol
Thank you.

I hope all goes great with your project hatch today.

 

[DesertChic]

You're welcome! These are plastic totes, turned on their sides. I have big gals, so they need big space for laying and brooding. I tried 5 gal. buckets once and they were WAY too squeezy for my fat gals. Don't know how folks use those.

Hope you have a great outcome for your chicks! Expecting some of mine to hatch today, those from my breeding project.

I second the kudos on your broody boxes. I'm totally stealing this idea from you to create most if not all of my nesting boxes.

 

[gjensen]

I use the plastic totes in my breeding pens. If my birds are going to go broody, this is when and where they will. I find them faster and more likely to go having a deep dark hole like this rather than in a traditional nest box. They do afford them more room to brood the chicks. I leave mine upright and cut a large whole in the front. I can lift the top to check, or remove eggs.

If a bird goes broody here, I remove the box, eggs, and mother at the same time to a mobile pen on grass. I like to separate her from the flock to raise her chicks.

I hope to build a row of individual small yards for the brooding mothers, and her young.

I have come to appreciate enjoying her mother and her young. About 20% of my Catalanas go broody. I like this ratio. They are not excessively broody, loosing a lot concerning production, but enough hens to replace the flock if necessary. The hens have been more likely to set than pullets. Those that have committed have all made excellent mothers.

As much as I enjoy the mother with her young, there are other things I like about it. One is a lack of dependence on electricity etc. On the other hand, I have failed to realize better hatch rates etc. I saw 95%+ hatched of fertile eggs this year with a pretty big mistake artificially incubating eggs. The incubator gives me control of when, how many, etc. I cannot see myself, while getting my flock established in good quality, relying solely on broody hens. Brooding hens are not without pitfalls of their own. I can get more hatched reliably, and manage the process more effectively while using the incubator.

For those with 8-10 hens and have some go broody, I say use them. If all you intend to hatch is 24 , 36 eggs etc., you are probably better off with broody hens. Hatching 120 in a breed like I did this spring is a lot to manage with broody hens. Too much misc. integrating the misc. ages staggered along the way. There is a reason that we, unfortunately, have largely bred this out from any strains/breeds.

Some of the old breeders like Thompson bred exclusively from brooding hens in a day when incubators were not as reliable. I have old pictures of large fields with small houses for brooding hens along the borders spaced about 80 -100' apart. Some of these guys would have a hundred or more of them. I imagine that they spaced them in that manner to avoid competitive hens etc. They were large operations that operated solely on brooding hens.

I hope to get better at managing brooding hens, and could even imagine converting completely in the future. Not yet. In the mean time, I will get good at managing the process.

 

[chickadoodles]

The pens I posted pics of were for breeding trio's. So when I had some hens go broody we did the best we could. My DH had surgery on his neck a couple years ago and we both have leg problems so throwing up new pens is not an option for us. Our post auger nearly killed us both the last time we used it. lol I told DH to get rid of it!
Right now I have two Bourbon Red turkey hens sharing a nest and I will have to get some more chicken wire to put around their pen. I won't move them since this is their fist time going broody and turkey raise their young as a family anyway.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I have had such a frustrating experience using incubators that I could see myself using a lot more broodies in the future. My broodies get WAY better hatch rates than I do. I'm just about ready to chuck the whole thing in the trash!

However, putting impulsiveness aside, I will keep trying. I think the incubator is the only way I will be able to get early hatches as the broodies wait til almost summer (in most cases) to start brooding. By the time it's almost summer here, we have about a week or two of spring left and then its hotter than blazes. This year though, is very odd! Rain... at least once a week. Not complaining... except for the MUD! Ugh!

I think I figured out my broody set up as I lay in bed this morning when I should have been up already. That seems to be one of the places I do my best thinking. Usually though, its at night when I'm trying to go to sleep I lay there instead, thinking of all kinds of things and building all manner of structures in my head.

 

[ronott1]

I have had such a frustrating experience using incubators that I could see myself using a lot more broodies in the future. My broodies get WAY better hatch rates than I do. I'm just about ready to chuck the whole thing in the trash!

However, putting impulsiveness aside, I will keep trying. I think the incubator is the only way I will be able to get early hatches as the broodies wait til almost summer (in most cases) to start brooding. By the time it's almost summer here, we have about a week or two of spring left and then its hotter than blazes. This year though, is very odd! Rain... at least once a week. Not complaining... except for the MUD! Ugh!

I think I figured out my broody set up as I lay in bed this morning when I should have been up already. That seems to be one of the places I do my best thinking. Usually though, its at night when I'm trying to go to sleep I lay there instead, thinking of all kinds of things and building all manner of structures in my head.

Broodies can be very frustrating though. In order to hatch the numbers needed to improve a breed, you will need to incubate. Invest in a very good cabinet incubator.

I am not knocking broodies--just from past observations and personal experience working with a local dorking breeder.

 

[gjensen]

I have had such a frustrating experience using incubators that I could see myself using a lot more broodies in the future. My broodies get WAY better hatch rates than I do. I'm just about ready to chuck the whole thing in the trash!

However, putting impulsiveness aside, I will keep trying. I think the incubator is the only way I will be able to get early hatches as the broodies wait til almost summer (in most cases) to start brooding. By the time it's almost summer here, we have about a week or two of spring left and then its hotter than blazes. This year though, is very odd! Rain... at least once a week. Not complaining... except for the MUD! Ugh!

I think I figured out my broody set up as I lay in bed this morning when I should have been up already. That seems to be one of the places I do my best thinking. Usually though, its at night when I'm trying to go to sleep I lay there instead, thinking of all kinds of things and building all manner of structures in my head.

Use both. Get the best of both worlds. Get a good incubator, and hatch a batch and use brooding hens to wrap up the misc. Then you are not absolutely depending on either.

I do not know how many you hatch per year, but improving a breed and the quantities it requires is more effective with a good incubator. It does require a good incubator though, or it can be frustrating.

A brooding hen is better than a poor incubator. That would be hard to dispute, but brooding hens are not without their own challenges.

There is a reason everyone got away from them once the more reliable incubators were being produced. I think that is unfortunate, and I am a bit nostalgic for the more "natural processes".

I tend to take the middle ground on this one, realizing that there are pros and cons to each.

 

[gjensen]

Broodies can be very frustrating though. In order to hatch the numbers needed to improve a breed, you will need to incubate. Invest in a very good cabinet incubator.

I am not knocking broodies--just from past observations and personal experience working with a local dorking breeder.

It would be hard to beat a good cabinet incubator with electronic controls when needing to hatch quantities of birds. They are worth the money. They pay for themselves. I would not breed birds without one.

This Dicky's incubator that I have is great, and they are not as pricey as some are. I turn it on, load it, and fill the water reservoir. Candle once, maybe twice, and put them in the hatching tray when it is time. That is it. They hatch like popcorn.