I was going to ask a question but found it here you might like this

[Churkenduse]

I was thinking this morning, why does everyone take such pains to hatch out chicks. What happened to the mamas doing it the natural way. Then I found this site

ZuniBee Farms Blog (you might have to track down Zunibee to connecct to her blog)

I hope you do not mind since you posted it. Just take a look and see the beauty of the mother hen and her chicks interacting, in the short film clip. It is just breathtaking.

Thank you Zunibee for this.`

So please tell me, why don't you do it the old fashioned way? I can understand trying it for the excitiment and the learning experience.
But aren't you robbing your hens of the natural way of things? Please I am not critcizing I am just curious. We complain about cruelty but isn't this in itself a litte cruel?
Could it be that some of our flocks are aggressive because they were not nurtured when young by mama?

 

[DuckLady]

Those are good points, however if I wanted chicks hatched naturally here, I would have to wait for a broody hen and hope it coincides with eggs being laid. My silkie for example goes broody at the most inappropriate times, like when the rest of the hens are molting. LOL

The best way is of course letting a hen hatch. It is certainly less stressful on the chicken owner who otherwise would sit in front of an incubator for 21 days biting their nails to the quick wondering if they were doing it right.

Hens don't have the emotional part of mothering, so if they don't have chicks, they are not deprived and don't have their biological clock telling them they need to hatch some chicks.

I don't think it is cruel not to let a hen set her eggs. But my hens are not aggressive because I interacted with them a lot as chicks and now adults. A chick raised by a hen is more likely to be aggressive because it is being taught by its mother to be a survivor as opposed to a chick hand raised by a human as a pet.

 

[MissPrissy]

Zuni also hatches in an incubator. The hen hatch was going on at the same time as his bator hatch.

 

[1acrefarm]

One of the main reasons I think people incubate is because broodiness has been bred out of most types of hens in favor of egg production over time. Some people just do not have a broody hen. The chicks are also in a safer environment in a bator/brooder than with all the adult fowl. I wish I had a broody hen.

 

[Churkenduse]

AAAHHHHHHHH! Thank you, that all makes allot of sense to me.

I am new to all this and have soooo many questions.
Thanks for your patience.



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[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

One more reason for you, Churkenduse, that i recently discovered. i had several silkie hens go broody last month, so thought it would be sweet to give them fertile hatching eggs. But the minute the first baby hatched yesterday morning, they both started pecking at it, trying to kill it. Thank goodness i was able to quickly set up a brooder and incubator and save that chick (and the two more who have hatched so far).

i won't be trusting another broody with eggs anytime soon!

 

[verthandi]

The only time I have had a broody hen try to hatch eggs, she killed the chick. Also Polish do not normally go broody, so I use an incubator....I can't image being left out of all the fun of waiting and watching them hatch.