This Spring will be 10yrs for us with chickens. I had always wanted them & finally convinced DH that it would be a great homeschool project. We did all of our research, built a incubator out of repurposed items from around the house & ordered the eggs.
I wont lie, it was an exhilarating experience hatching them, but they were both cockerels & we aren't zoned for roosters. We kept them for as long as we could while we added hens to the flock. Our first pullets were Red Sex Links because we were traumatized over rehoming our beloved boys & we needed to be 100% positive the next batch would be hens. RSL were a great beginner flock, but a little boring to look at (no offense ladies.) We've branched out a bit since then.
We added ducks & quail 5yrs ago & that was the catalyst for me to finally stop stalking the pages of BYC & actually become a member.
We have only hatched one other time & that was an experiment to see if we could broody hatch a carton of eggs that we had bought. Only one hatched. Again, it was an exhilarating experience & again, it was a cockerel.
The difference in a chick hatched/raised in an incubator/brooder vs a chick broody hatched & raised is as different as night and day. If I could broody hatch a million chicks I would, but unfortunately my luck with hatching pullets is exactly zero.
Woops! This got a little picture heavy.... The End.
I wont lie, it was an exhilarating experience hatching them, but they were both cockerels & we aren't zoned for roosters. We kept them for as long as we could while we added hens to the flock. Our first pullets were Red Sex Links because we were traumatized over rehoming our beloved boys & we needed to be 100% positive the next batch would be hens. RSL were a great beginner flock, but a little boring to look at (no offense ladies.) We've branched out a bit since then.
We added ducks & quail 5yrs ago & that was the catalyst for me to finally stop stalking the pages of BYC & actually become a member.
We have only hatched one other time & that was an experiment to see if we could broody hatch a carton of eggs that we had bought. Only one hatched. Again, it was an exhilarating experience & again, it was a cockerel.
The difference in a chick hatched/raised in an incubator/brooder vs a chick broody hatched & raised is as different as night and day. If I could broody hatch a million chicks I would, but unfortunately my luck with hatching pullets is exactly zero.
Woops! This got a little picture heavy.... The End.