Quote: Made me laugh, yeah, some of them are incorrigible...
@smedly9921:
Quote: I think you like some others may be misunderstanding what I'm saying, or maybe what the topic is; it's about a hen who won't stop brooding. That is not a great chicken. If you want chickens that go broody every three months, get pekin silkie mixes or similar. Those are my most reliable mother hens. If they try to brood when I don't want them to, I can easily break them off the brood, because they're smart enough to know their clutch needs the best chance it can get to survive, and any delays are potentially a fatal waste of time.
On the other hand I have other mongrel birds I often culled for going broody to the point of killing themselves, but whenever tested with eggs or chicks, didn't have the instinct to tend either. That is an incomplete mother --- broods only, and not a good brooder at that.
Some people keep referring to broody hens as if every hen who broods is thereby proven and guaranteed to be a reliable mother. That's not the case.
Broody hens who are capable of being mothers are great. But there is no proof she can do that until she's done it, and if she's not taking care of herself on the nest or stopping brooding when run down physically from overlong brooding, then she is showing a lack of the instincts that a truly good mother would have. An unproven broody who is requiring special care before she's even raised one clutch is a bad sign, but of course there's a chance she'll make it as a mother.
Quote: The point varies depending on what you have them for. If only for show and eggs then it's almost guaranteed you have non feed efficient, badly fleshed birds, that's endemic among show-bred birds and high production layer breeds. No problems with having to send them away if you butcher your own.
I keep mongrel chooks and can eat them at a few weeks old because they're tender and well-fleshing birds no matter the age --- mix bantams with large fowl and mongrelize them for a few generations and you can get great, extremely feed efficient dual purpose birds.
Since we keep them for our health we don't buy or consume from hatcheries; the money they save leads to sub par animals, which leads to sub par health in us when we live off their eggs or flesh, so we are happier to spend a little more ensuring our birds are the very best they can be. It doesn't take much at all, compared to a layer flock, because I've been breeding for feed effective dual purpose birds for a good few generations and they free range. Keeping them in cages gets expensive.
I don't show my fowl either, have no interest in that, so I guess that's another differing area of criteria we have...
Quote: Great way to put it. I've eaten coconut-hatchers before and I won't be as tolerant in future as I was with that sort in past.
One hen went through over six months of being broken off the brood nonstop and re-setting nonstop until I realized she was killing herself, she'd run down to the point of showing physical and mental deterioration; she was actually going nuts. She'd had chances with babies and failed abysmally. Would just abandon them and go straight back onto the next clutch. She was driving other hens off all nests she found. She got some special treatment, feeds at the nest, being removed to eat and drink etc, when I let her try to mother against my better instincts --- she failed. I culled her, despite the protests of my family, because she'd been a pet. I couldn't break her from the brood no matter what I did and she was killing herself; she just could not stop no matter what.
Great broody! Her name was Gravy, and that's what she became. Her daughters (hatched by other hens of course) were scarcely better and I eradicated her line from the flock. Useless! She'd have been fine if she'd stuck to laying or would stay broken off the brood for more than thirty minutes.
@smedly9921:
Quote: I think you like some others may be misunderstanding what I'm saying, or maybe what the topic is; it's about a hen who won't stop brooding. That is not a great chicken. If you want chickens that go broody every three months, get pekin silkie mixes or similar. Those are my most reliable mother hens. If they try to brood when I don't want them to, I can easily break them off the brood, because they're smart enough to know their clutch needs the best chance it can get to survive, and any delays are potentially a fatal waste of time.
On the other hand I have other mongrel birds I often culled for going broody to the point of killing themselves, but whenever tested with eggs or chicks, didn't have the instinct to tend either. That is an incomplete mother --- broods only, and not a good brooder at that.
Some people keep referring to broody hens as if every hen who broods is thereby proven and guaranteed to be a reliable mother. That's not the case.
Broody hens who are capable of being mothers are great. But there is no proof she can do that until she's done it, and if she's not taking care of herself on the nest or stopping brooding when run down physically from overlong brooding, then she is showing a lack of the instincts that a truly good mother would have. An unproven broody who is requiring special care before she's even raised one clutch is a bad sign, but of course there's a chance she'll make it as a mother.
Quote: The point varies depending on what you have them for. If only for show and eggs then it's almost guaranteed you have non feed efficient, badly fleshed birds, that's endemic among show-bred birds and high production layer breeds. No problems with having to send them away if you butcher your own.
I keep mongrel chooks and can eat them at a few weeks old because they're tender and well-fleshing birds no matter the age --- mix bantams with large fowl and mongrelize them for a few generations and you can get great, extremely feed efficient dual purpose birds.
Since we keep them for our health we don't buy or consume from hatcheries; the money they save leads to sub par animals, which leads to sub par health in us when we live off their eggs or flesh, so we are happier to spend a little more ensuring our birds are the very best they can be. It doesn't take much at all, compared to a layer flock, because I've been breeding for feed effective dual purpose birds for a good few generations and they free range. Keeping them in cages gets expensive.
I don't show my fowl either, have no interest in that, so I guess that's another differing area of criteria we have...
Quote: Great way to put it. I've eaten coconut-hatchers before and I won't be as tolerant in future as I was with that sort in past.
One hen went through over six months of being broken off the brood nonstop and re-setting nonstop until I realized she was killing herself, she'd run down to the point of showing physical and mental deterioration; she was actually going nuts. She'd had chances with babies and failed abysmally. Would just abandon them and go straight back onto the next clutch. She was driving other hens off all nests she found. She got some special treatment, feeds at the nest, being removed to eat and drink etc, when I let her try to mother against my better instincts --- she failed. I culled her, despite the protests of my family, because she'd been a pet. I couldn't break her from the brood no matter what I did and she was killing herself; she just could not stop no matter what.
Great broody! Her name was Gravy, and that's what she became. Her daughters (hatched by other hens of course) were scarcely better and I eradicated her line from the flock. Useless! She'd have been fine if she'd stuck to laying or would stay broken off the brood for more than thirty minutes.
