Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[U_Stormcrow]

I incubate - but if one of my hens goes broody, I allow her to set the clutch. My results from that have been near 0%. Poor hatch rates, and usually lose all of the hatchlings w/i days. Host of reasons - my clay soils are highly acidic, very hard on egg shells. My hens have been "stupid", at times attacking or simply crushing hatchlings.

and since I intend, eventually, to sell my birds, I'd have a completely different response to Mareks in my flock. I wish you every fortune with that.

 

[Appalachickens]

Is there anyone here who doesn't manage which hen goes broody when, and just lets them all take care of their own reproduction?

My game hen is collecting a clutch between the a/c compressor and the house. The boss rooster stood by her & others circled some distance away, squawking & cackling while she fussed with the nest and laid her egg today. When she was done, she carefully hid all the eggs under leaves and everyone left.

She has already raised two clutches this year, and I would generally discourage her since we are going into winter (Alabama, but still...). However, I am hesitant to impose my own assumptions since I've only been doing this one year. Perhaps she knows what she's doing?

Also, I think there is Marek's among the flock and I'm afraid I'm going to lose my second laying hen to paralysis within the next week. I almost want to risk a winter hatch just to increase the odds of someone surviving the disease.

This is how I'm planning to do it with my forest chickens. I really want to try to be as hands-off as possible. I've got enough managing to do with the coop chickens!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Just had to post this here cause it was funny I caught the action. Cockerel is probably a little smaller than either of the hens but doesn’t seem to care

 

[Appalachickens]

Just had to post this here cause it was funny I caught the action. Cockerel is probably a little smaller than either of the hens but doesn’t seem to care
View attachment 4270869

Wait, is the black one (with a regular neck) a cockerel?

 

[Perris]

Is there anyone here who doesn't manage which hen goes broody when, and just lets them all take care of their own reproduction?

Generally I decide whether or not to support a broody, and if so, choose which eggs she gets to sit on. But following a successful secret nest in 2023, last year and this I have let those who made secret nests carry on. In most cases (viz 4) the nests were predated before hatching, though the broodies (2 different hens) survived. In 1 case the eggs made it to hatch, in the same open outdoor nest location that the first successful one used, though that was a different broody.

Perhaps she knows what she's doing?

Some better than others, in my experience. And they learn by doing and watching each other. One that had secret nests in 2 different locations last year and this, both predated, now lays in a nest box in a coop. It remains to be seen if she'll go broody in a coop this year.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Wait, is the black one (with a regular neck) a cockerel?

No that’s a black copper maran. The only cockerel I have right now is nekkid.

 

[kattabelly]

I have a pullet raising chicks in the winter here. I've intervened a bit more because my chickens survive more due to lack of danger than actually being good at survival but I would've let a more feral hen crack on and do her own thing if she seemed half sensible.

(Mine sat in a coop nest box and I moved her and the chicks into the greenhouse at first and didn't let them roam around outside completely unsupervised for the first couple of weeks, for several reasons. There's a lot of huge rats here, so I set up a cage for them to sleep in overnight. It had been raining so much over the previous month that a lot of the ground was covered in mud and standing water easily deep enough to drown a small chick. Also, she really isn't very protective of them and there's a lot of places a small, scared chick could easily get trapped and quickly die of exposure if the rats didn't get to it first.)

I'd prefer to let a hen sit and hatch when she chooses to, when I can. That won't always be possible though and even when it is, I'll sometimes want to control what eggs she's hatching.

 

[Wild Iris]

...But it sounds like yours is a pullet laying through her first winter. She has not yet gone broody on this clutch. She might, she might not.

... And they learn by doing and watching each other. One that had secret nests in 2 different locations last year and this, both predated, now lays in a nest box in a coop. ...

Yeah, I was wondering about this. She is a rescue, so I don't know her age, but I suspect she is fairly young. Even if it fails, it might be a good learning experience.

 

[Appalachickens]

No that’s a black copper maran. The only cockerel I have right now is nekkid.

Ah okay, I was confused by the picture.

 

[Backroadlogic]

Is there anyone here who doesn't manage which hen goes broody when, and just lets them all take care of their own reproduction?

My game hen is collecting a clutch between the a/c compressor and the house. The boss rooster stood by her & others circled some distance away, squawking & cackling while she fussed with the nest and laid her egg today. When she was done, she carefully hid all the eggs under leaves and everyone left.

She has already raised two clutches this year, and I would generally discourage her since we are going into winter (Alabama, but still...). However, I am hesitant to impose my own assumptions since I've only been doing this one year. Perhaps she knows what she's doing?

Also, I think there is Marek's among the flock and I'm afraid I'm going to lose my second laying hen to paralysis within the next week. I almost want to risk a winter hatch just to increase the odds of someone surviving the disease.

I don't interfere with my hens at all. I don't switch out eggs etc. I do candle eggs and take some out if they aren't developing. None of mine go broody this late in the year, it's been nice enough.