I am wondering about how good of a RIR mom can be. I only have RIRs and I want to let her hatch some eggs in the spring some time. Are they good moms? when is a good time to hatch some? And a little more advise from you would be helpful? Let me know, Larra
I will say this each hen is different. You may have 1 hen out of 6 from the same breed that are great mothers. If she goes broody in the spring see what happens.
When? Depends on when the hen goes brody. You can hope it is when the weather starts to warm. Chicken moms usually try to wean chicks at 4 weeks. So if it is too cold, you may end up having to keep them in a brooder anyway.
I have raised RIR and production reds for over 10 years now and have never had one go broody for me. I bought a set of austrolorp eggs and hatched them last year. By the time one of the austrolorp hens was 6-7 months old, she was insisting on sitting on all the other girls eggs, even though she had just started laying herself. I finally gave up trying to get her off the nest and gave her her own nest box and a dozen frsh eggs and 22 days later she was a new mom to 8 baby chicks. She isn't even a year old and she is a great momma to her babies and she has been givien the official title of "momma of the coop", SHe is now my only hen I will let go broody and hatch eggs for me. IMHO after raising chicks myself for 10 plus years, having a momma hen do the job is so much easier. I can still go in and play with the chicks, take mom and babies to school for show tell, all the fun play things with baby chciks and in the end let momma do the hard job of protecting, feeding and keeping them warm. If you want to hatch RIR eggs you will either need an incubator or get a hen who is known to be good moms like barred rocks, austrolorp, delawares, orpingtons or those evil silkie thingies that will try and hatch golf balls if given a chance. Cory
