Starting my resilience flock.

[Cammo77]

I have raised them both ways, the sooner they are in the coop/run and have space to run and jump, they will quickly be as healthy as chicken raised birds. I put mine in the coop at 3-4?weeks.

Do you have a preference to which way you raise chicks?

 

[Mrs. K]

Do you have a preference to which way you raise chicks?

I generally do broody hens, however my great broody hen, Gramma Feathers died this year. She raised chicks for me for years.

I have hatched eggs or slipped chicks under a hen. But sometimes you can get chicks and no one is broody.

Mrs K

 

[Perris]

I should of mentioned in the original post but there are a few more things I'm doing to breed more resilient chooks. I can't fully free range so if I can't take them fully to nature I bring nature to them. I let them out mid morning after I think they've laid so I don't have to go looking everywhere for eggs and the swamp hens (native water fowl that live next to them) don't steal their eggs. Some of the other things I'm doing are:
- Spending a lot of time learning how to feed them to best suit their natural gut biome and get them healthy from the inside out.
- Choosing breeds known for their hardiness and also best suited to our sub tropical climate.
- Culling for health reasons rather then aesthetics. Also culling birds that dont do well.
- Using breeds that aren't highly feathered so staying clear of overly fluffy butts and feathered legs.
- Not overstocking to reduce viral/pest loads in the coop and also flock harmony. I plan on running 12 hens + 1 main rooster (and possibly a cockeral until he challenges the main rooster) and selecting/culling stock to keep to that number.

With most of this I would concur. But I would leave the culling to nature, it makes a *much* better job of it than people do.

Breeding for resilience / disease resistance includes giving sick birds the opportunity to get better, to develop antibodies - some of which they can even pass on to the next generation via their eggs. Received wisdom on culling seems to recognize only innate immunity, perhaps because it's always so focussed on the short-term = short-sighted. You cannot tell which birds are resilient before they have been tested, or if you kill them before they have chance to show they can pass that test. (What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and all that.)