Tips for keeping chick population down

[happyfrenchman]

https://www.amazon.com/Brown-Cerami...8&qid=1510278370&sr=8-8&keywords=ceramic+eggs

Ceramic eggs. The hens can set, and you can still have breakfast and not have more chickens. I am impressed how your chickens reproduce like that. I wish mine would. I have to use an incubator. You could also shake the eggs up and they will not hatch. I would just take them away and not stress over it myself. But c'est la vie.

 

[junebuggena]

Collect eggs daily, and break the hens from brooding if you don't want more chicks. They may not like it, but you've got to do what you've got to do to keep your population under control. Overcrowding stress can lead to serious behavioral problems and too large a flock can be very expensive to feed.

 

[Mylied]

You can't just sell the chicks that hatch? Leave the moms with one to mother and sell the rest? I have a hen that if she sees an egg, is broody. There's no breaking her. She's either sitting on eggs or raising chicks. That's what her life is about. I only let her hatch one or two when I don't need chicks, but I've had no problem selling the chicks, especially if I let her mother them first and sell them when they feather out.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Let’s clear up some of this stuff. Before a hen even starts to lay eggs she stores up excess fat. That excess fat is what a hen mostly lives on while she is broody. A hen will lose weight while broody but that’s just fat put there for that purpose. That’s why she can spend most of her time incubating the eggs instead of out looking for food. Losing weight will not cause her any harm until that fat runs out. But eventually that fat runs out. Then if they stay broody after that they can suffer deterioration. A lot will stay broody even after they have exhausted that excess fat. If I’m not going to let a hen hatch eggs I break her from being broody, I considerate it more humane.

Hens do not need eggs to go broody, they will go broody and sit on their imagination. Even if you switch to rollaway nests you will still have some hens go broody. You will still be dealing with broody hens. The best way I’ve found to break a broody is an elevated wire-bottomed cage with food and water but nothing that remotely looks like a nest. Usually keeping her in this for three full days does the trick but some take longer. Some will again go broody after they build that excess fat back up. I have some that go broody four or five times a year, and that’s even after I let them raise a brood. Will they be upset? Of course. But as the person responsible you need to manage them for their benefit. A correlation would be do you let a toddler play in traffic because they want to or do you take steps to protect them since they can’t protect themselves?

The way I see it you have three options. 1) You can let the numbers get so large you have an unhealthy flock. Once those pullets grow up they will start going broody too. 2) You can sell or give away all excess chicks, realizing you have no control over what happens to those chicks once they are gone. There is a fair chance they will be eaten or the cockerels may be used for cockfighting. 3) Break any broody hen that you don’t want to hatch eggs.

 

[lazy gardener]

Excellent post by RR. It is the flock owner's responsibility to manage flock reproduction. Allowing a broody to set when you have no exit plan for the resultant chicks is not good flock management. I find that I can break a broody in 4 days. I use a chicken tractor. In the morning, I scoop her up and put her in the tractor, often with a "non laying" buddy. Towards dusk, I block off all the nest boxes, and let Miss Broody Butt out of the tractor. She sleeps on the perch with the rest of the flock b/c her nest box is not available. I check after they've all gone to perch to be sure she is not hunkered down in the bedding beside a nest box! If she is, i put her on the perch. This rarely happens. In the morning, I open nest boxes, scoop up Broody... rinse and repeat.

To OP: you might consider choosing a breed that is not prone to broodiness.

 

[Talithahorse]

As the others have said, collecting eggs daily helps reduce the broodiness but it is in their nature. When it is not conducive to chicks (like winter, or when I am going to be gone, etc) I remove eggs (like they said, only angry for a moment), I do this at night so even though they fuss it is like a dream to them. If the weather is conducive, and I want a few chicks to satisfy the chick craving, I will reduce the number of eggs to two or three. It keeps the population from growing too quickly. They get to be moms but instead of 7-8 babies, I only have a couple. With a 50% chance of a rooster, my numbers stay fairly consistent. (The roosters come to dinner)

 

[alessadry]

Excellent post by RR. It is the flock owner's responsibility to manage flock reproduction. Allowing a broody to set when you have no exit plan for the resultant chicks is not good flock management.

To OP: you might consider choosing a breed that is not prone to broodiness.

OK, before pointing fingers and labeling me as irresponsible and engaging in poor flock management, please note that I have screened carefully the person who has brought several of my hens and the extra rooster my hatchery gave by mistake, and I have made sure they are free range and as close as possible re-homed to a setting as close as similar to how I have raised mine. Yes, I have had several people interested in them and I handpicked the best. I have no interest in selling hens and chicks because I hate going through the process of catching them and putting them in cages because it's highly stressful. So hence, why I am here seeking a solution to reducing numbers.

I don't think I am being bad in flock management, I am working on trying to reduce numbers. I started with 16 chickens and in the last 3 months, one hen had 4, another one has 1 and last had 4. Honestly, they never really lost weight or looked skinny, but I guess if they got broody again they might so I am trying to avoid that.

Now, I am down to 13 and there's a lot of harmony and would like to keep it this way,. It is my main concern their well being that has prone me to give away several to reduce numbers and trying to find a way to reduce broodiness.

I was just not aware that it can cause great stress to hens giving life to their chicks (I haven't personally witnessed it, I guess cause I have always left food and water near broody hens, but since many mention it here, I will consider it as another extra reason to reduce numbers). I live in the country and everybody seems to have chicks in their farms and I though it was just a normal fact of life.

I have Jersey giants and the hatching company told me they are NOT prone to being broody, but on the other hand, I have roosters (2, now down to 1) and therefore wouldn't it be highly maladaptive if they didn't have maternal instinct?

 

[Mylied]

OK, before pointing fingers and labeling me as irresponsible and engaging in poor flock management, please note that I have screened carefully the person who has brought several of my hens and the extra rooster my hatchery gave by mistake, and I have made sure they are free range and as close as possible re-homed to a setting as close as similar to how I have raised mine. Yes, I have had several people interested in them and I handpicked the best. I have no interest in selling hens and chicks because I hate going through the process of catching them and putting them in cages because it's highly stressful. So hence, why I am here seeking a solution to reducing numbers.

I don't think I am being bad in flock management, I am working on trying to reduce numbers. I started with 16 chickens and in the last 3 months, one hen had 4, another one has 1 and last had 4. Honestly, they never really lost weight or looked skinny, but I guess if they got broody again they might so I am trying to avoid that.

Now, I am down to 13 and there's a lot of harmony and would like to keep it this way,. It is my main concern their well being that has prone me to give away several to reduce numbers and trying to find a way to reduce broodiness.

I was just not aware that it can cause great stress to hens giving life to their chicks (I haven't personally witnessed it, I guess cause I have always left food and water near broody hens, but since many mention it here, I will consider it as another extra reason to reduce numbers). I live in the country and everybody seems to have chicks in their farms and I though it was just a normal fact of life.

I have Jersey giants and the hatching company told me they are NOT prone to being broody, but on the other hand, I have roosters and therefore wouldn't it be highly maladaptive if they didn't have maternal instinct?

I think you're doing just fine. Like I said, I let my one girl hatch to her heart's content and she seems perfectly healthy to me. I doubt I could stop her even if I wanted to. Also, I don't think it's a bad thing if people eat home grown chickens, so if someone wants to eat what I produce, more power to them. I process excess roosters myself. Everyone's going to have opinions on how you should do everything. No biggie, just do what you think is right. Hopefully you got an idea you can use from what people posted.

 

[junebuggena]

OK, before pointing fingers and labeling me as irresponsible and engaging in poor flock management, please note that I have screened carefully the person who has brought several of my hens and the extra rooster my hatchery gave by mistake, and I have made sure they are free range and as close as possible re-homed to a setting as close as similar to how I have raised mine. Yes, I have had several people interested in them and I handpicked the best. I have no interest in selling hens and chicks because I hate going through the process of catching them and putting them in cages because it's highly stressful. So hence, why I am here seeking a solution to reducing numbers.

I don't think I am being bad in flock management, I am working on trying to reduce numbers. I started with 16 chickens and in the last 3 months, one hen had 4, another one has 1 and last had 4. Honestly, they never really lost weight or looked skinny, but I guess if they got broody again they might so I am trying to avoid that.

Now, I am down to 13 and there's a lot of harmony and would like to keep it this way,. It is my main concern their well being that has prone me to give away several to reduce numbers and trying to find a way to reduce broodiness.

I was just not aware that it can cause great stress to hens giving life to their chicks (I haven't personally witnessed it, I guess cause I have always left food and water near broody hens, but since many mention it here, I will consider it as another extra reason to reduce numbers). I live in the country and everybody seems to have chicks in their farms and I though it was just a normal fact of life.

I have Jersey giants and the hatching company told me they are NOT prone to being broody, but on the other hand, I have roosters and therefore wouldn't it be highly maladaptive if they didn't have maternal instinct?

Having a rooster around has no impact on whether a hen is broody or not. Some hens will brood, and some won't. You can't stop a broody-prone hen from brooding, anymore than you can force a hen into going broody. Jersey Giants do tend more toward brooding, regardless of what the hatchery told you.
Since there is no way to prevent a hen from going broody, and you don't want or need anymore birds, the only practical option is to snap any further broody hens out of it. The most effective method to do this, is to put her in an elevated wire cage with food and water, but no bedding, till she is no longer exhibiting broody behavior. Usually, it only takes about three days to stop the broodiness.

 

[alessadry]

Having a rooster around has no impact on whether a hen is broody or not. Some hens will brood, and some won't. You can't stop a broody-prone hen from brooding, anymore than you can force a hen into going broody. Jersey Giants do tend more toward brooding, regardless of what the hatchery told you.

Since there is no way to prevent a hen from going broody, and you don't want or need anymore birds, the only practical option is to snap any further broody hens out of it. The most effective method to do this, is to put her in an elevated wire cage with food and water, but no bedding, till she is no longer exhibiting broody behavior. Usually, it only takes about three days to stop the broodiness.

Thanks, it's so confusing that many hatcheries and websites say that Jersey's are not prone to being broody. It always seems like these days you can never rely on anything anymore.
https://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/Jersey-Giant-B57.aspx