I am hatching eggs and have a few questions!

[5chickenluver7]

Okay so I have decided to give my broody hen hatch some fertile eggs. Today i went to see a family friend who has TONS of chickens. She told me that instead of giving the hen a few chicks, that I should use some Americana hatching eggs. I will be receiving the eggs on 2/9/2010. But I have a few questions.

1. Should I put my hen and the eggs in a separate pen or leave them in the regular coop?
2. Should I incubate the eggs for some of the time, or just let her have them for the full 21 days?
3. How should I introduce them to the rest of my flock once they are old enough?
4. Once they hatch should I use my heat lamp to keep them warm or will my hen take care of it?

PS: I am receiving 6-8 americana eggs but will only keep 2 or 3 or the hens.

 

[turtleshell]

You sound just like me. I am doing the same thing and asked all the same questions over the last week. My eggs arrive tomorrow. one thing I was told was to remove her to a separate place right away, which I have done and glad so as she is taking a bit to get used to a new nest.

I'm probably not the best to give advise seen as I am a learner too, but here is a website another user gave me which I found very helpful. http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

 

[Nyrial]

Oh I'm subscribing to this.. mostly because I'm lazy and I don't want to weed through all the other threads, but also because I too have my first broody. I removed her last night from the coop since she was sitting in the "favorite" nest box and they had already cracked one infertile egg from trying to lay on her head. I picked up some eggs from a friend, but so far she hasn't sat back down on them. Not sure how long to give her.. They were just laid yesterday so I think they keep for awhile?

 

[Ridgerunner]

1. Should I put my hen and the eggs in a separate pen or leave them in the regular coop?

People successfully do this many different ways, either isolating the hen and eggs totally, keeping her in the coop but keeping other hens out of her nest, or just giving her some eggs and leaving her in one of the nests in the coop. There is no one way that is absolutely right for everybody. Which is right for you depends some on your set-up, some on your management style, some on what you perceive to be the risks, and a whole lot on your individual personality. I think the link Turtleshell gave you is an excellent source of information, but remember that the lady that wrote that probably has a totally different set-up and goals than you do. You can get my thoughts on this along with several others in this thread.

Isolate a Broody? Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=213218

2. Should I incubate the eggs for some of the time, or just let her have them for the full 21 days?

I personally don't know of any advantage to your incubating the eggs for a while then giving them to the hen. Chickens have been incubating and hatching eggs for thousands of years without any help from us.

3. How should I introduce them to the rest of my flock once they are old enough?

Again, people successfully handle this in different ways. I think the most important criteria for deciding whether or not to allow the hen to raise the chicks with the flock is how much room you have. If you have a good broody and she has enough room to work with to protect her chicks, I think the best way is to let Mama raise them with the flock and let Mama take care of the integration concerns. But the right answer will be different for different people. I'll give you a couple of links on this one. You don't have to worry about quarantine that Buff talks about in your situation, but her integration comments can be very helpful.

Buff Hooligan’s Adding to your flock
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-adding-to-your-flock


Raise with flock? thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=215937&p=1

4. Once they hatch should I use my heat lamp to keep them warm or will my hen take care of it?

Again, different people do different things depending on set-up and climate but mostly on personal opinion. You will see comments from people on here who provide a heat lamp to grown chickens if the weather gets a little chilly,then you get people like me who do not provide heat in single digit Fahrenheit conditions. You can find comments on this forum where people let Mama raise the chicks with snow on the ground with no supplemental heat. You can see some photos of chicks that play outside in freezing temperatures then run under Mama to warm up when they get cold. Mama's heater is not affected by the electricity going out. The risks of something going wrong are obviously higher the more severe the weather is, but I personally would let Mama provide all the heat the chicks need. How successful Mama is will depend a whole lot on how good a broody she is, but that is also true in perfect weather.

I know I have not given you hard and fast rules that cover all situations, but we all have different set-ups and situations, our chickens have different personalities, we have different goals and management styles. I don't think there is one right answer for all of us. I'd suggest you pick what feels right for you and go for it. Chickens and chicks are pretty tough. Pay attention to what is going on and be willing to be flexible if you see a problem and you will probably be successful.

Good luck whichever way you decide.


Nyrial, let me give you a link that might help on storing eggs for incubation.

Texas A&M Incubation site
http://gallus.tamu.edu/library/extpublications/b6092.pdf