Incubator, Broody, or Already Hatched?

[Revelle]

Hello! I'm curious on a couple things, and I hope this is the right section! I was going to put into Incubating/Hatching, but it has slightly more to that so I placed it here. Sorry if it's wrong!

With your first chicks, did you buy fertilized eggs then incubate them? Or just bought as chicks?

And if you ended up breeding for baby eggs, did you keep them under a broody mama, or take them and put them in an incubator? And if anyone has bought a fertilized eggs and put it under a broody mama so she'd take care of it? (I wonder if she'd just take it out of her nest?)

Thank you for your time!

 

[Keri78]

Here's my answers:
I bought my first batch of chicks as day old babies from ideal-hatchery.com ...here were my reasons:
#1-I could choose what sexes & what breeds I wanted
#2-I could order just a few chicks

I just bought fetilized eggs and I have them in a bator b/c my girls have not been consistant enough in their broodiness to hatch eggs yet(they just may be too young? not sure) They tend to go broody for like half a day and then get distracted so I didn't want to chance it with my eggs! The risk with hatching eggs is that I'm assuming that best case 50% will hatch(I don't want to get my hopes up on my first attempt) and out of that who knows how many will be roos!!! So it's risky to say the least! But a fun experiment for me!(at this point...I have plenty of eggs already so I have time to play around)

And finally, in theory, YES...if you put fert. eggs under a broody hen(there are some breeds like silkies that are just awesome broodies!) the Mama hen WILL hatch the eggs and raise them just like her own! If you look around on here you'll find pics of Mama hens raising baby ducks!!! It happens!(LOL)

Well, good luck! Have Fun! And

Keri

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I have mostly hatchery stock, but some farm stock araucanas. Those I got as chicks.
I have 69 eggs incubating from the hatchery stock, but I prefer to have a broody (past experiences). They seem to do better than us. But for now, I am incubating for meat purposes, because in about 4 weeks or less, I will need to get my poultry at the grocery.
I have, in the past, cranked up my incubator and gone out and bought fertile eggs, even though I didn't have chickens at the time. If you have an incubator, that is the most economical way to get your chicken flock started, short of having someone giving you a few old hens and roo, that they don't feel like killing.
I like to keep chickens from a dual purpose breed so I can have meat and eggs and also from a breed known to brood, because I prefer for a hen to incubate for me, but you need to manage that well also. It is best for me, to have her in a place that I can cage her in, but give her enough room to take care of all her personal business. Otherwise I am looking at other hens pushing her off the nest to lay their eggs with hers and eventually one of the eggs will crack and I'll have blood everywhere. Not pretty. I have done it that way and it can work, but you have to pick her up every afternoon and get all the new eggs out from under her and she won't like it.
Anyway, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Good luck.