Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[3riverschick]

Hi,

Well I am so going to let the hens sit, hatch and raise chicks next year! That last hen who was sitting eggs in the old dog house hatched a chick. Unfortunately when the 1st chick of 6 hatched, she abandoned the other 5 at what must have been day 20 or so. So that is 3 of my hens who have sat , hatched and are raising chicks this year. They are proving to be wise, attentive mothers.
So...next Spring we put in 4 'Hatching and Raising" coops. Raised like rabbit hutches with 3 sides of the bottom covered so the wind won't howl under the house.
I think 4x5 will be ok. That's 20 sq. ft. Take 2 sq. ft. for waterers and feeders. 4 sq. ft. for the hen. That leaves 14 sq. ft. for the chicks. At 2 sq. ft. per chick , that's enough for 7chicks. I think 7 is enough chicks for one hen to raise.
Then when the chicks and are old enough ( fully feathered ), , I will turn the 4 families out together into the big run for the hens to finish raising them in a flock style setting. Yup, I think this will work.
Best,
Karen

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

@3riverschick ... we do something similar here. We have the broodies set on eggs on the floor of our big coops in broody cages (formerly brooder cages, for hand-raising chicks). The cages are about 6' long and just wide enough to set a double divided nesting box across the short end (about 2'). Feed and water at the other end. We can start two broodies at once in these cages. We give the hens a night or so to get settled before we add the hatching eggs.

We remove the nest divider when chicks start to hatch, and when most are hatched we carefully combine the clutch so one hen can sit on late hatchers and one can feed the chicks. This is also a good time to slip in any "foster" chicks, if you want. When the chicks are listening to the hens (maybe after a week or so, sometimes sooner, sometimes later), we remove the cage (just roll it to the side, let the everyone out) and then we can start another set of broodies.

With two hens started on eggs on the same day, they seem to co-parent really well. One hen will usually stick with the chicks for longer, but the other is nearby. Occasionally we do have to confine a "family" if the hen gets lazy, so we have a spacious cage for that. Otherwise, they free-range with the rest of the flock.

We also have a special feeding area for the chicks.

I love having the broody hens raise the chicks. Then there are no integration issues, no issues with cocci, and the chicks are so active. For me, the only issue is waiting on birds from the laying flock to go broody so I can hatch. I keep wondering if I should get a team of silkies or something.

 

[3riverschick]

@3riverschick ... we do something similar here. We have the broodies set on eggs on the floor of our big coops in broody cages (formerly brooder cages, for hand-raising chicks). The cages are about 6' long and just wide enough to set a double divided nesting box across the short end (about 2'). Feed and water at the other end. We can start two broodies at once in these cages. We give the hens a night or so to get settled before we add the hatching eggs.

We remove the nest divider when chicks start to hatch, and when most are hatched we carefully combine the clutch so one hen can sit on late hatchers and one can feed the chicks. This is also a good time to slip in any "foster" chicks, if you want. When the chicks are listening to the hens (maybe after a week or so, sometimes sooner, sometimes later), we remove the cage (just roll it to the side, let the everyone out) and then we can start another set of broodies.

With two hens started on eggs on the same day, they seem to co-parent really well. One hen will usually stick with the chicks for longer, but the other is nearby. Occasionally we do have to confine a "family" if the hen gets lazy, so we have a spacious cage for that. Otherwise, they free-range with the rest of the flock.

We also have a special feeding area for the chicks.

I love having the broody hens raise the chicks. Then there are no integration issues, no issues with cocci, and the chicks are so active. For me, the only issue is waiting on birds from the laying flock to go broody so I can hatch. I keep wondering if I should get a team of silkies or something.

Hi Leslie!,
Oh I am really liking this! I am gonna sit down and make a similar plan for us.
Thanks!
karen

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Well I am excited. This last one chick that hen hatched is very light. Almost white. This is such a good thing. As you all know, I have been concerned about the darker color of my chicks last season A "hue" on the nape of the neck which foretold scattered grey feathers on the top of the back ( an unwanted extension of the hackle). So I am excited about the lightness in this chick. Light Sussex chicks should be light yellow, this chick is even lighter than that. If I am right this chick should show a very correct hackle.
Whew,
Karen

 

[MagicChicken]

Hi,
Well I am excited. This last one chick that hen hatched is very light. Almost white. This is such a good thing. As you all know, I have been concerned about the darker color of my chicks last season A "hue" on the nape of the neck which foretold scattered grey feathers on the top of the back ( an unwanted extension of the hackle). So I am excited about the lightness in this chick. Light Sussex chicks should be light yellow, this chick is even lighter than that. If I am right this chick should show a very correct hackle.
Whew,
Karen

Congratulations! That is good news indeed.

 

[MagicChicken]

This past weekend I took the two remaining cockerels from this year's hatch to a small local show, since I hadn't gotten around to eating them yet. There were three Black Java cockerels in the show. My two and one from another breeder. The other breeder has had some stunning birds in the past that have done well, and I bought some birds from him last year. One of my birds was pure Urch line and the other was a line cross between an Urch bird and a bird I got from the competing breeder last year.

Once the judging was over I was surprised to find my birds were ranked 1 and 2 of the three. The Urch line bird was 1. Maybe I should hold off a little longer before I eat him

 

[NanaKat]

@3riverschick and @MagicChicken congratulations to both of you!

 

[bnjrob]

This past weekend I took the two remaining cockerels from this year's hatch to a small local show, since I hadn't gotten around to eating them yet. There were three Black Java cockerels in the show. My two and one from another breeder. The other breeder has had some stunning birds in the past that have done well, and I bought some birds from him last year. One of my birds was pure Urch line and the other was a line cross between an Urch bird and a bird I got from the competing breeder last year.

Once the judging was over I was surprised to find my birds were ranked 1 and 2 of the three. The Urch line bird was 1. Maybe I should hold off a little longer before I eat him

Woohoo! Great news! Go Javas!!!!!!!!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Hi,
 Well I am excited. This last one chick that hen hatched is very light. Almost white. This is such a good thing. As you all know, I have been concerned about the darker color of my chicks last season A "hue" on the nape of the neck which foretold scattered grey feathers on the top of the back ( an unwanted extension of the hackle). So I am excited about the lightness in this chick. Light Sussex chicks should be light yellow, this chick is even lighter than that.  If I am right this chick should show a very correct hackle.
 Whew,
 Karen

Great news! The base color of the Light Sussex is similar to Delawares that I breed, and both with the Columbian restrictor. I have the same problem of the black leaking into the cape of the chicks, and then the females start to turn red during adult molt. Tragic.

I've been wondering if the way forward is to only breed 2yr olds that aren't red. But we've got so many things to work on it also makes sense to keep breeding cockerels & pullets until we're closer to where we should be.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,

Oh well nuts! The white chick is gone. The other night I went out to put the birds to bed and make sure the chick made it into the low coop. Mama hen was in there all feathered out like she did when she was warming the chick. I didn't want to disturb the chick so I closed the door and Hubby Bob and I put up a hardwarecloth barrier across the front of the door so they couldn't get out, as it was going to rain. Next morning I went out to see how they did and lifted up Mama hen and ...no chick. Oh nuts and rats! Apparently the little chick wasn't able to make the jump into the coop and Mama hen went in anyway. I didn't think she would do that as she had been taking very good care of the chick. So I had inadvertently locked it out of the coop. We looked for it, it is dead by now. I am mad at myself. This is a great reason to have a broody coop where Mama hen can raise their chicks and there are no obstacles the chicks can't negotiate, sigh. Well at least I know which breeding created that chick, altho I have since given away the sire. But I know the genetics behind it and can come close to duplicating it next year with hens in broody coops. I figure we will build 4 of the each at 4x4x4. That gives the hen enough room to raise 7 chicks each and raise them to big enough so I can later release them into the large yard ( ala Leslie Joyce) and they can't get thru the 2x4 welded wire.
Nuts,
Karen