Fill in some gaps for me about the breeding cycle.

[bocephus]

I've got Buckeye chickens and Narraganset turkeys. I plan on collecting eggs and breeding both for meat. I would prefer to let the moms incubate and raise the chicks for me. I've been doing a lot of reading about it and have a few more questions.

So my birds will be laying eggs, with a male around will the eggs be fertilized most of the time?

They'll be laying fertilized eggs most of the year but when they go broody they want to hatch some. I understand the female will sit on her nest and continue to lay eggs while she is broody. Will these eggs continue to come out fertilized if she isn't getting more male interaction at this point? Do you check her eggs that she's sitting on at any point to see if there's a chick inside or wait to see what's leftover after they hatch?

I think most things I've read said that the female chicken should be moved to a private facility when she goes broody? Could I have a room of broody females sitting on eggs or is it better to have individual space? Is it the same for turkeys?

What's a good rooster to hen ratio and is it the same for turkeys?

 

[Judy]

For chickens, if there is a roo around you will probably have all fertile eggs, unless there is some sort of problem. Easy enough to look for a bullseye when eating one. They don't lay eggs when broody -- though they will steal others' eggs or others will climb in the nest (with them if necessary) and lay on top of hers. So a small broody pen where she can be separated while setting is handy. (Once the chicks hatch and are up and running around, I let the mama raise them in with the flock.) Some people candle a broody's eggs, some don't. It's not a bad idea, if only to get a dead one out of there before it rots and bursts. A hen stores sperm for about 3-4 weeks, so she will keep laying fertilized eggs for that long -- if she hasn't gone broody. Probably single setting pens are safest, but plenty of people keep 2 or 3 setting hens in one space. No one should be laying and it really doesn't matter if they switch nests.

I have a 5'x6' pen inside my coop where I put a broody with eggs, and where I would put two if I had them. At 2 or 3 days of age both the mama and chicks want to get out so I let them out. I've also let a broody set in the coop with the rest -- but you are more likely to get broken eggs this way, and the broody might get up (they should get up daily for a little exercise , food, etc.) and return to a nest where others have laid a couple of new eggs; it can be a bit messy.

Sorry, don't know much of anything about turkeys. I do know some (or many) breeds can't reproduce naturally and must be artificially inseminated. Actually there are a few breeds of chicken where this works best, some of the huge, fluffy bottom types. We do have a separate turkey forum, though!

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree with the above poster, most ways. I have left my broodies where they are, as I have small nest boxes, and other hens cannot get in on top of her, and because when I have moved them, the broodie went back to 'her' nest, and I lost the clutch.

I find it easier, to lock out the layers for about 24 hours, while the chicks are hatching, and let nature do the rest. I just put out a nest in the run, and as I do not add artificial light, my hens do not go broody until early summer, it is plenty warm enough for my layers to stay out all night. I do have roosts in the run too.

My biggest mistake, is that I want to get started as soon as I find a broody hen, give her the eggs and start the count down. I swear it is one of the longest 21 days ever! But I have often lost a clutch that way. It often takes a couple of days for the hen to get so that she TRULY is stuck on the nest. If you go down 3 days in a row, and she is always there, then lift her out of the nest, remove whatever she is setting on, give her the clutch of eggs that you want her to hatch, and watch to see that she goes back there.

The reason, that you need to start with a fresh clutch is usually numbers. A hen can hatch 12-15 eggs pretty easily. Often she is setting on 2-3 eggs! If you wait the 3 days, and then go to add eggs to her, well the other eggs will be ahead, and she will quit the nest after the first ones hatch and you don't get many chicks. So of course, the temptation is to add eggs right away... and then she is not quite ready and quits the nest. It really does work best, if you wait a few days, and add egg all at once, and I promise I will do it this way next year. This year, I put the eggs I wanted to hatch under her, she left them, I gave her a second batch, she left them, and finally I just left her alone, and she stuck tighter than a tick and hatched 2 eggs!

MrsK

 

[bocephus]

By time I find out she's broody I'd probably have already taken all of her eggs? So I would want to collect other eggs all in the same day and place them under her. My nest box has multiple boxes all put together made from plywood. Is there any danger to the young chicks if they hatch in a box that's higher off the ground?

My coop is a 16x8', shed style. Right now they all live in a 8x8 section with run access and the other room is for storage. If I could or should move them I thought the storage room would do nicely.

 

[Mrs. K]

About mid May, I start keeping my eggs that I would like to hatch in a bowl on the counter. I pencil on them the date collected, and I use the older ones up first in cooking. This keeps a nice set of eggs fresh ready in case I get a broody hen. Do not worry about storing eggs on the counter, USA is the oddity in keeping them in the fridge. They will keep for a long time at room temperature.

Fertilized eggs do not begin to turn into chicks right away. The are in a state of suspended growth. It takes about 24 hours at about 100 degrees to begin the process. So storing them on the counter is just fine, you will not dump an partial chick into the fry pan.

Often times, most times, multiple hens will lay in the same nest. They seem to think, hmmmm she thought this was a good spot, so it must be. That is why, if you want hens to lay in a specific spot, you leave a fake egg there. So when your hen starts to go broody, and if you have been routinely collecting eggs, there will probably only be a few under her, if any.

Now, many a time, I have had a hen hide a nest. Sometimes other hens will follow her and lay in the hidden nest too. Then one day, she looks at it, says this is enough eggs, and will set. You think you have lost her, and about 3 weeks later she will come in with chicks, a pretty fine day

The storage area of you hut does sound fine....(. and visions of chicken math dance in my head)
There is no danger to hatching off the ground. My nests are 2.5 feet off the ground, and they have no problems getting down. And I have a neighbor who had them hatch in the hayloft, which was 14 feet above, and they got down just fine without injury. They are mostly fluff.

I have found that my broody hen waits between 12- 24 hours after the first hatching, then leaves that nest and any unhatched eggs, and creates a new one on the floor. When she is getting close to hatching, I make sure that the floor has fresh hay on it. She will pick the spot she likes best.
MrsK