question,

[Beour3rd]

new to this...

ive settled on the breed im getting.

and ive designed my coop to be suitable i believe.


my one big remaining question is.

i am doing both eggs and meat, if i leave the hens some eggs will they automatically take care of them? and if so. will any of the other hens attack their young? or will it mostly just happen naturally?

 

[Joshua G]

Do you mean, automatically take care of the eggs or the chicks?

 

[appps]

What breed have you chosen?

To hatch eggs naturally it requires a hen to go broody first. Nothing you do can make them go broody and some breeds are constantly broody and others almost never. Choose the wrong breed and you can forget about hatching your own eggs. To get around this some people include a couple of silkies in their flock to do the hatching of their other hens eggs as they are very prone to going broody.

When you have a broody hen (she won't seem to leave the nest for days though they will come out and eat and drink then go back)
You can then give her some eggs to hatch. No point leaving eggs in there until you have a broody hen though.

For tips on hatching with a broody do a search. There are lots of threads with great information.

 

[Beour3rd]

and will other hens or roosters attack the young once hatched?


and i am leaning towards partridge chantecler

 

[appps]

I've not heard of that breed will have to go google

I don't know a lot about broodies raising their chicks but there is one in particular really big thread about using broodies so you should find some answers there.

 

[Beour3rd]

I've not heard of that breed will have to go google

I don't know a lot about broodies raising their chicks but there is one in particular really big thread about using broodies so you should find some answers there.

from what ive heard of all 3 kinds of chantecler, they all go broody on and off so i think i wont have a problem.




will any of them attack the young? is this a possibility ? im very much intersted in letting nature do it's course and let the mothers raise the young.. but if it comes to them killing each other im less interested.