Time of year for incubating

[CrystalAnon]

I’ve been waiting & waiting for one of my hens to go broody. They turned 2 years old in mid-February, so I’m thinking this year is the best year to hatch chicks, due to the optimum health of our hens & their age.
I’ve been diligently saving & marking eggs with the hen that laid them & the date laid. Been doing it for about two months now. I’m feeling like if I incubate now, it will be the worst time to integrate, because of the temps in our area & summer storms (Florida) at the time the chicks would be ready to go out to the coop. Also, we don’t have a garage or other semi-temp-regulated area to keep the chicks once they out-grow a large brooder in our home.
Does anyone have experience in timing for incubating eggs in southern states, that get gnarly weather in the summer? Should I wait until next year to incubate in early spring, if my ladies don’t want to be mammas?
I’ve been arguing with myself for two months & eyeing the incubator I bought!

 

[DobieLover]

This is confusing. If you are waiting for a broody, why are you collecting so many eggs? 2 month old eggs are quite old for hatching. If you get a broody, she will set in the coop with the flock and you don't need to brood them for her or put her in a temperature regulated area. She can handle everything on her own.

IF a hen goes broody, you have time to collect fresh eggs as you will want to spend a few days grafting her to a proper maternity nest. The grafting process should be done with fake eggs in case she panics and starts running all over the eggs trying to get back to where she starting expressing her broodiness in the first place. Once she's reliably locked onto her new maternity nest, THEN you mark the hatching eggs and give them to her all at once. And inspect her nest daily to remove eggs deposited by other hens when the mother leaves the nest for her daily breaks.

If YOU want to incubate the eggs and raise the brood, do it whenever you want.

 

[BDutch]

This is confusing. If you are waiting for a broody, why are you collecting so many eggs? 2 month old eggs are quite old for hatching. If you get a broody, she will set in the coop with the flock and you don't need to brood them for her or put her in a temperature regulated area. She can handle everything on her own.

IF a hen goes broody, you have time to collect fresh eggs as you will want to spend a few days grafting her to a proper maternity nest. The grafting process should be done with fake eggs in case she panics and starts running all over the eggs trying to get back to where she starting expressing her broodiness in the first place. Once she's reliably locked onto her new maternity nest, THEN you mark the hatching eggs and give them to her all at once. And inspect her nest daily to remove eggs deposited by other hens when the mother leaves the nest for her daily breaks.

If YOU want to incubate the eggs and raise the brood, do it whenever you want.

I agree about the eggs for a broody.
Fresh eggs (3-14 days old) are the best to change fake eggs with real eggs.

Maybe its too late now anyway to try with a broody this year, but I wonder what breed you have. Some breeds are well known to become broody very often. And hens from some breeds rarely become broody.

With my bantams it always works to lay 4-5 fake eggs in a good nest-box in spring. Within a week one or two of my hens become broody when they are triggered like this.

I cant advice you for the right moment but its good you consider what the weather will be like in a couple of weeks/months before you start incubating. It’s important to provide the chicks a good start.

 

[NatJ]

This is confusing. If you are waiting for a broody, why are you collecting so many eggs? 2 month old eggs are quite old for hatching.

I agree about the eggs for a broody.
Fresh eggs (3-14 days old) are the best to change fake eggs with real eggs.

I assumed it was two months of dating the eggs and cycling them so there are always enough fresh ones for a clutch, with the less-fresh ones getting eaten.

 

[DobieLover]

Maybe its too late now anyway to try with a broody this year, but I wonder what breed you have. Some breeds are well known to become broody very often. And hens from some breeds rarely become broody.

Maybe, maybe not. Most of my broodies seem to kick off when the temps really rise. My largest broody kicks off the first time anywhere from mid-May to early July.

 

[BDutch]

Over here May is a great month to hatch chicks. Many wild birds hatch in May too. The hatching season is from March - July for most wild birds. Nice weather. Not too hot, not too cold. We rarely have temps that rise over 35°C in summer and storms are not as devastating as they can be in Florida.

If you want to know if the time to hatch is right, look around and see what the wild birds do. Helping with food does make a difference, but best follow the seasons and what wild birds do for the best start.

 

[CrystalAnon]

I’ve been waiting & waiting for one of my hens to go broody. They turned 2 years old in mid-February, so I’m thinking this year is the best year to hatch chicks, due to the optimum health of our hens & their age.
I’ve been diligently saving & marking eggs with the hen that laid them & the date laid. Been doing it for about two months now. I’m feeling like if I incubate now, it will be the worst time to integrate, because of the temps in our area & summer storms (Florida) at the time the chicks would be ready to go out to the coop. Also, we don’t have a garage or other semi-temp-regulated area to keep the chicks once they out-grow a large brooder in our home.
Does anyone have experience in timing for incubating eggs in southern states, that get gnarly weather in the summer? Should I wait until next year to incubate in early spring, if my ladies don’t want to be mammas?
I’ve been arguing with myself for two months & eyeing the incubator I bought!

By the way, I bought the incubator just in case we have a broody hen that decides to bail out on the eggs a week or two in. I never planned on incubating eggs. But with how abstinent our hens have been, I might have to use it for hatching.

I assumed it was two months of dating the eggs and cycling them so there are always enough fresh ones for a clutch, with the less-fresh ones getting eaten.

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

 

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

We are in Florida and just had a broody hatch 6 eggs. We have them on a brooder box I. Our screened porch. We have 4 additional brood hens but only one we are giving eggs too. She has 4 (she is a small hen) and as of yesterday 3 of the four are definitely developing. One has developed but we think it may have stopped. We are giving it another few days. Storms are an issue here but you would be surprised how hardy chickens are. We dealt with last years hurricane season without a loss. My concern with incubators in storm season is loss of electricity which is not uncommon. Broodies are consistant.

 

[BDutch]

We have them on a brooder box I. Our screened porch.

A brooder box is for incubated chicks. The broody must have the possibility to get out to poop and eat. And after a 3-5 days the chicks need to follow mama.

 

[CrystalAnon]

This is confusing. If you are waiting for a broody, why are you collecting so many eggs? 2 month old eggs are quite old for hatching. If you get a broody, she will set in the coop with the flock and you don't need to brood them for her or put her in a temperature regulated area. She can handle everything on her own.

IF a hen goes broody, you have time to collect fresh eggs as you will want to spend a few days grafting her to a proper maternity nest. The grafting process should be done with fake eggs in case she panics and starts running all over the eggs trying to get back to where she starting expressing her broodiness in the first place. Once she's reliably locked onto her new maternity nest, THEN you mark the hatching eggs and give them to her all at once. And inspect her nest daily to remove eggs deposited by other hens when the mother leaves the nest for her daily breaks.

If YOU want to incubate the eggs and raise the brood, do it whenever you want.

I’m cycling the eggs. I want one chick from each hen plus two from the hens that do the best with our climate. What is grafting? I put a dog crate in the coop as the nest to give a broody hen a place to sit, with food & water in it. But all the hens now prefer laying in there over the regular nests, just because it’s so private. They seem to like it. I also have golf balls in the nests to try and get them to go broody.
Sorry for the confusion. My main question is the timing for incubation with our weather in the summer being what it is. By the time incubated chicks would be ready to put out in the coop, it would be the hottest & wettest time of the year. Not sure the dog crate would be big enough to be where I could keep the young chicks to be introduced to the older hens & roo during the introduction phase. To make sure they are kept safe & dry as well. I might be able to put two dog crates next to each other, to double the space.
I would prefer a broody hen do it, so the young chicks have an advocate & invested protector in the coop with them.
I just feel like I waited too long.