I have heard many people say letting a hen raise her chicks is best, they will do a better job then we can. Yet many many people incubate and seem to have great success... so I am wondering how similar these two methods are to bottle raising baby goats or letting them be dam raised? Are 'bator' chicks friendlier, less skittish? or does wild behavior have to do with the birds breed more then anything? We bought 24 5 day old barred rock chicks from a feed store as a kid and most of those hens were SO friendly, they'd come running when we called them and everynight I sat in the coop and sang them to sleep... one in particular who never grew big, she was about 1/4th the size of the others (is that a banty of some sort?) was the absolute friendliest, looked identical to everyone else but loved ot be held. I'd sing to them all and they'd hum and cackle quietly... they were so sweet... so was that due to the breed or us hand raising them or what? I want my chickens, when I get them, to be as friendly as my last bunch was...
If I had the time, I could post this ten times a day............ http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html
