- Apr 1, 2012
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So we now have 4 hens and one cockerel. They are nearly 7 months old now. We hatched them out and raised them in a brooder. To our surprise, they started laying a week or so ago.
As one of our hens is slightly disabled (we took her out her shell) she is smaller than the rest and the cockerel seems to prefer to, em, 'show is love' to her more than the others.
I therefore want to get more hens to spread his love out a bit. Rather than buying chicks, or point of lay hens, we are thinking about letting hens raise the chicks from their own eggs.
So, some questions...
1) just now, our hens lay, and then walk away. What happens when they get broody and sit on the eggs? Will they become aggressive if we take the eggs? If so, how do we get the eggs if we want to eat them?
2) if we want the hen to hatch and raise her own, is there a way to get her broody? Or encourage her to do this herself?
3) if she sits on eggs, is she ok to stay in the same coop with the others?
4) can she raise the chicks all by herself in the coop with the others, or is there a stage we need to separate them? i.e. once they hatch?
Thanks
As one of our hens is slightly disabled (we took her out her shell) she is smaller than the rest and the cockerel seems to prefer to, em, 'show is love' to her more than the others.
I therefore want to get more hens to spread his love out a bit. Rather than buying chicks, or point of lay hens, we are thinking about letting hens raise the chicks from their own eggs.
So, some questions...
1) just now, our hens lay, and then walk away. What happens when they get broody and sit on the eggs? Will they become aggressive if we take the eggs? If so, how do we get the eggs if we want to eat them?
2) if we want the hen to hatch and raise her own, is there a way to get her broody? Or encourage her to do this herself?
3) if she sits on eggs, is she ok to stay in the same coop with the others?
4) can she raise the chicks all by herself in the coop with the others, or is there a stage we need to separate them? i.e. once they hatch?
Thanks
