The natural way

[crealbilly]

Hatched just today - 4 lil Mcnuggets. Momma is sitting on least 8 more unhatched eggs, I suspect will hatch pretty soon. If they haven't already started.


Cute Lil things - aren't they?

 

[DeYoungs]

That is great! We have only done the incubator and that was a blast!

 

[crealbilly]

That is great!  We have only done the incubator and that was a blast!

A incubator crossed my mind more than once. But honestly a momma hen does a much better job than a Crealbilly playing momma hen ever could -:lol

 

[crealbilly]

Up to 7 now

 

[crealbilly]

10 1/2 now - one zipped but not completely out of the shell yet.

 

[crealbilly]

I'm moving them into the nursery yard tomorrow. Then I can get a good look and count of them.

 

[crealbilly]

My wife and I moved the chicks and their momma into the nursery yard. Momma hen sat on 16 eggs, hatched out 14, 3 didn't make it so we have 11 chicks.

I only have 1 nursery yard so we had to move our first brood of 9 plus their momma hen into the layer yard. The layer yard looks pretty happy now with 9 young chickens running all over the place.

We also tagged the older hens with loose fitting zip ties on their left leg - so we can easily identify the older hens from the newer hens later in the year.

I think I'll let one more hen brood out another batch of chicks - so we'll have enough hens come fall for eggs and to rejuvenate the layers. We'll process and eat the older hens once the new hens come into lay.

I think I've just about got the kinks worked out of my little self sufficient protein factory

 

[crealbilly]

One more hen started brooding yesterday. She's sitting tight on 12 eggs. I think this is the last hen I'll allow to brood. I don't need but about 16 hens to carry us though the winter for fresh eggs.

The cage I built to fit over top of the community nest works beautifully. I add to the eggs that are already there to make a dozen. A broody hen finds the eggs and goes to sitting. I then slip the cage over the community nest box, fasten it down with two screws and give the hen her own food and water. Shes confined but the rest of the flock can still see her. When the chicks hatch and I'm ready to move momma and chicks to the nursery yard. It's just a matter of unscrewing to screws, picking up momma and the chicks and moving them. Easy...

 

[NCcitychicken]

Good job looks great

 

[crealbilly]

Just hatched a few hours ago. She's sitting several more eggs. I was amazed too exactly 21 days. My other two hens sat a little over 4 weeks before the first chicks hatched - but it was colder then too.