Pros and Cons of letting hen hatch own chicks?

[Moonkit]

Eggs can get accidentally squished if the hen is a large breed (like an 8 lb brahma) and has too many under her without enough bedding to cushion things. Since some of my urban flock have proven to be stubborn broodies (namely my bantam wyandotte and cochin/d'uccle mix), I also enjoy watching them hatch out eggs the natural way. It was extremely cute one day when I caught the Wyandotte 'talking' to her eggs (sticking her head under herself and clucking) when it was getting near hatch day.

a hen can really squish the eggs? I had one broody hen lay on them all the way.. it's not like we should prevent her from having a "stretch-leggy" i let mine do that and she comes back and warms them up... if she didn't come back in half hour to an hour i'd go out and see what happened to her.
Wait, how are incubator chicks happier? I would think a chick is happy when they can peak out of their momma's wing. with incubation they don't have their real momma around, it's sad.
True that with natural way, there's less eggs she can handle to hatch than an incubator. But with an incubator, esp a turner machine, you need many eggs to hatch to get this benefit.. then you get so many birds to feed at a time.

 

[Madam Hens]

Used and incubator and a broody and by far the broody was the best. The thing to remember is that chicks imprint. If you get them from the Post Office and open the box...guess what your their mother. With a broody they imprint on her thus the extra socialization is needed to get the 'humans' in or near the realm of their mothers. It's amazing no matter what the choice you make and it is exciting to see more and more folks going back to raising chickens.

 

[Moonkit]

Used and incubator and a broody and by far the broody was the best. The thing to remember is that chicks imprint. If you get them from the Post Office and open the box...guess what your their mother. With a broody they imprint on her thus the extra socialization is needed to get the 'humans' in or near the realm of their mothers. It's amazing no matter what the choice you make and it is exciting to see more and more folks going back to raising chickens.

If the mother herself is handled a lot and used to humans, she usually won't mind a human coming to handle her chicks. I made sure to spend time every day handling each of the chicks my broody hatched. The lady I sold them too said she'd never had such friendly, active, inquisitive babies. Apparently, they even picked up some of my parrots' vocalizations because she said they had a 'unique' call that they lost after a few days (they were brooded in the house because of winter temps outside).

 

[idaduck]

I have a rooster and a hen that I want to breed. I have another hen that is broody. Do I take the eggs from the breeding hen and give them to the broody one each day, or do I save up the number of eggs I want to hatch and give them to the broody all at once?

 

[Moonkit]

I have a rooster and a hen that I want to breed. I have another hen that is broody. Do I take the eggs from the breeding hen and give them to the broody one each day, or do I save up the number of eggs I want to hatch and give them to the broody all at once?

It would be better to save up.. but as I understand it, fertility in a laid egg goes way down after 5-7 days.

 

[janelle18]

can my hens go broody without a rooster around?

 

[hokankai]

The chicks I had my hen raise for me are my least friendly of all the chicks I've raised. They spend 24 hours with mama don't feel any need to socialize with us. One time our chicks escaped from the run and couldn't get back in and it took an hour and a half to catch one of the chicks because it kept running under the coop and wouldn't let us grab it. They ones that are left are hens now and are definitely the least friendly of all of them. They won't let me catch them and I have to herd them back. I spent hours with them but they still prefer their own kind.

You're right, it is less work, but I actually like the work and the payoff of having chickens that love me

Oh, and don't forget that while you have less to worry about, the environmental and predator factors are increased by a lot. I'm in the Pacific NW so I was always worried one of the chicks would get outside and not be able to get in, freeze to death, get sickness from wild birds, get eaten by something when I wasn't there to watch them....yeah.

One of the reasons I did it was to experience it and I was handed a broody hen. I also thought that having her raise them with the other birds would make introductions easy. That back-fired! They made those girls' lives a living h*** and still do! haha

In the end, I wouldn't mind having a hen hatch for me again but I'd definitely still raise them myself!

 

[hokankai]

Yup

can my hens go broody without a rooster around?

 

[stephensc7146]

If the hen hatches them, is it okay to take the chicks inside and put them in a brooding box, or would I have to bring the hen inside with them?

 

[hokankai]

Collect them right after they hatch/dry off and bring them inside. You don't want to separate the hen because then she can get booted from the flock and be difficult to reintroduce.