Official BYC Poll: How Do You Expand Your Egg Laying Flock?

[Sally PB]

Years ago, a wise old farmer told me that saving money is making money. I feel that's true.

That wise old farmer was right!

 

[birdlady11]

I live in central Florida. First I wait until March or April (when the temps hit the 70s and 80s) when one or more of my hens goes broody then I would gather eggs for incubating by both hens and my incubator. When my Big Daddy rooster was alive I would gather fertile eggs from whatever hens I wanted chicks from. After Big Daddy passed away I would swap my infertile eggs for fertile eggs from chicken friends who had the types of chickens I was interested in.

The broody hen would get six eggs to sit on. Taking into account infertility, mom's accidently breaking an egg, egg stealing snakes, death of an embryo, and death during hatching, I just need one chick to actually make it through hatching (all six is a smiley bonus!). At the same time I set six eggs under the hen I place up to 40 eggs in my incubator. Again, taking into account infertility, embryo death, and hatching death, I usually get a minimum of 30 chicks to healthy live hatch (40 healthy hatchers is a happy-feet rainbow dance!).

As each incubator chick hatches, gets its footing sure, and starts to fluff dry I slip them under the hen in the coop. All my hens are mixed large breed and I use a medium-size igloo style doghouse for brooding and chick raising as it is big enough and holds the heat generated by so many chicken bodies extremely well. Thus it is no trouble for my supermoms to keep that many chicks warm and happy on the balmy Florida nights. As the nights get warmer and the chicks bigger I open the airhole vents I have in the top of the igloo to let out any excess heat to keep everyone comfortable at night. My chicken mom has a 4' wide x 20' long by 12' high, fully roofed pen with lots of logs, ramps, perches from near floor to ceiling, etc. so there's plenty of room for running, playing, exploring, and learning to perch at night.

When the chicks have enough feathering to enable me to figure out who is male and female and who has the personality I'm looking for, I select the chicks I want to keep and sell the rest to either responsible chicken people who will give them a good home or close chicken friends who are looking to expand their own flocks.

And that's how I increase my flock (even when I know I really don't need more) and everyone else's flock (even when they know they don't either!) Everybody knows how hard it is to say no to a chick, right!

 

[turkey girl 0964]

I let my roosters mate the hens them when they become broody I give them their fertile eggs and let them hatch them. I don't have to intigrate them because they already know each other and have lived with the chicks.

 

[MichiganFreedom]

Is it harmful to egg production to let the chickens hatch their own eggs once in a while?

 

[aart]

Is it harmful to egg production to let the chickens hatch their own eggs once in a while?

Well, when a bird is setting on eggs to hatch, she won't be laying.
Sometimes a broody will disrupt the flock dynamics,
depending on how you manage it,
and that can stress the others into not laying.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Is it harmful to egg production to let the chickens hatch their own eggs once in a while?

Yes.
Chickens when they are setting on eggs (broody) don't lay eggs.
They usually don't lay eggs while raising chicks.
Some breeds are more broody than others and some may go broody 2 or 3 times yearly.

Myself I got chickens for eggs, so I seek out Non-broody types/breeds.
So far in 5 years I've not had a chicken go broody. GC

 

[Loveshorsesandglee]

Buying chicks got 6 this spring.

 

[PopoMyers]

Yes.
Chickens when they are setting on eggs (broody) don't lay eggs.
They usually don't lay eggs while raising chicks.
Some breeds are more broody than others and some may go broody 2 or 3 times yearly.

Myself I got chickens for eggs, so I seek out Non-broody types/breeds.
So far in 5 years I've not had a chicken go broody. GC

Lucky you. My 12 girls are 10 months old, and so far have had 2 get broody. They did not get to go for even a couple days before I intervened. Just won the battle with a barnyard mix and a Welsummer. What breeds do you have?

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have like 30 birds I have incubators 2 or buy chicks some breeder some from our local feed store recently bought a couple young pullets point of lay

 

[GC-Raptor]

Lucky you. My 12 girls are 10 months old, and so far have had 2 get broody. They did not get to go for even a couple days before I intervened. Just won the battle with a barnyard mix and a Welsummer. What breeds do you have?

I just saw your post.
I have two coops and keep two Flocks. I get new chicks every 2 years on average or sooner if needed.
I've had 5 Golden Comets, first flock, then I got a second coop and 7 Barred Rocks.
My third batch of chicks, I got 5 ISA Browns.
My newest pullets are 4 Rhode Island Reds and 4 Barred Rocks.
The Golden Comets and ISA Browns are Red sex-links and lay excellent, but can have egg laying problems. I wouldn't recommend if you get attached to chickens.
The Barred Rocks lay daily their first year and my 2 oldest at 33 months laid 9 eggs weekly between them on average.
That's why I got 4 more.
The Rhode Island Reds haven't laid yet, but are known to be a Non-Broody breed and excellent layers.
They are the least people friendly breed I've had so far. The Barred Rocks are the friendliest I've ever had.

My newest flock will be 12 weeks old tomorrow. GC