To incubate or use broody hen?

[Crazy_Beautiful]

Late hatch I know.

I have a dozen orpington (black / blue/ lavender) coming in a few days.

I have 2 coops ... 1 with a lavender roo and 1 with no roo. Broody hen is in the coop without the roo. Purpose of these eggs is to set myself up to breed orpingtons next season. Mixing in blacks to help with the fluffy feathering.

Do I use this first time broody hen (would help with cooler weather coming ... maybe moving her in with the rooster coop once the chicks hatch? Or leave her be and move the chicks over after they've grown a bit.

My concern with this is this coop has 14 chickens and 3 ducks... maxed out for winter.
The other coop has 16 chickens but I'm ok with rehoming some of the mixed breeds to make room for the Orpingtons. I do have a way to keep her away from the flock ... look don't see just can't move her right now as I have 3 4 week old lavender chicks in that space right now but I could give her that space in 3 to 4 weeks.

Or do I incubate? But with cooler weather coming that I think would mean they will be longer in the house as I don't have heat for the coop nor want heat in my coop.

 

[Red Mangrove]

I would always trust nature over a machine

 

[NatJ]

My concern with this is this coop has 14 chickens and 3 ducks... maxed out for winter.
The other coop has 16 chickens but I'm ok with rehoming some of the mixed breeds to make room for the Orpingtons. I do have a way to keep her away from the flock ... look don't see just can't move her right now as I have 3 4 week old lavender chicks in that space right now but I could give her that space in 3 to 4 weeks.

Or do I incubate? But with cooler weather coming that I think would mean they will be longer in the house as I don't have heat for the coop nor want heat in my coop.

Considering how many chickens you have in the coops, I would not try to have the broody hatch your eggs in either of them.

I would probably put the eggs in the incubator, but let the broody hen sit on fake eggs. Then when the real eggs hatch, and your separation space is available, see if the broody hen is willing to be moved into it and adopt the chicks. If she will not adopt the chicks, I would try to brood the chicks in that space (with a heat lamp or heating pad or whatever heat source usually works for you, probably connnected to an extension cord.)

I can't say whether that is actually the best way to handle it, just that is what I would try if it was me in a situation like that.

 

[Ponypoor]

Late hatch I know.

I have a dozen orpington (black / blue/ lavender) coming in a few days.

I have 2 coops ... 1 with a lavender roo and 1 with no roo. Broody hen is in the coop without the roo. Purpose of these eggs is to set myself up to breed orpingtons next season. Mixing in blacks to help with the fluffy feathering.

Do I use this first time broody hen (would help with cooler weather coming ... maybe moving her in with the rooster coop once the chicks hatch? Or leave her be and move the chicks over after they've grown a bit.

My concern with this is this coop has 14 chickens and 3 ducks... maxed out for winter.
The other coop has 16 chickens but I'm ok with rehoming some of the mixed breeds to make room for the Orpingtons. I do have a way to keep her away from the flock ... look don't see just can't move her right now as I have 3 4 week old lavender chicks in that space right now but I could give her that space in 3 to 4 weeks.

Or do I incubate? But with cooler weather coming that I think would mean they will be longer in the house as I don't have heat for the coop nor want heat in my coop.

I am hoping that we still have some nice weather for another couple months at least (as I scowl at the 17C dreary damp weather out there right now), also having had a few hand raised and broody raised batches this year I can say I had less trouble fighting wise (between hens) with the hand raised kids.

My broodies kept picking fights! But by three weeks of age my hand raised kiddos where fully integrated into the herd.

Can you incubate the eggs, then pop the chicks under your broody when they hatch? I did that a couple times this year, popping day olds under stubborn broodies that wouldn’t stop being broody.

This way you have some time to have a place for mama and babies gosh I hope you post baby photos

 

[Crazy_Beautiful]

Each of my coops is set up similarly. 1 coop with 2 covered runs (that are slerate from each other and a large uncovered portion. Right now I have the broody hen in a seperate run in a dog house sitting on fake eggs. She is away from all of the birds.

This is her 2nd time going broody this summer and she's determined.

I struggled with all my summer incubator hatches ... think my AC was messing up the humidity. But maybe with fall in won't have that problem.

I'm just don't want to lose any potential chicks and wondering if a hen would do a better job at hatching out

 

[Yardmom]

I would use the hen for hatching the eggs. It sounds like your personal hatch rates have been better with hens.

 

[Ponypoor]

H

Each of my coops is set up similarly. 1 coop with 2 covered runs (that are slerate from each other and a large uncovered portion. Right now I have the broody hen in a seperate run in a dog house sitting on fake eggs. She is away from all of the birds.

This is her 2nd time going broody this summer and she's determined.

I struggled with all my summer incubator hatches ... think my AC was messing up the humidity. But maybe with fall in won't have that problem.

I'm just don't want to lose any potential chicks and wondering if a hen would do a better job at hatching out

How big is your hen? How many eggs do you want to set? A hen will always do a better job I think ( though I had an 11 out of 12 hatch this spring!), and by the time she hatches I imagine you will have the youngsters you wish to move, relocated.

If you do the incubator can you turn off your AC - not sure where you are in ON but here it’s been farting miserable and damp all summer. I had the AC on twice… last Friday we almost put the furnace on! It was only 13c brrrr!

I don’t see getting any more really hot weather so maybe the AC can be turned off if you want to try incubating. Regardless I can’t wait to see baby photos in a few weeks

 

[Crazy_Beautiful]

H

How big is your hen? How many eggs do you want to set? A hen will always do a better job I think ( though I had an 11 out of 12 hatch this spring!), and by the time she hatches I imagine you will have the youngsters you wish to move, relocated.

If you do the incubator can you turn off your AC - not sure where you are in ON but here it’s been farting miserable and damp all summer. I had the AC on twice… last Friday we almost put the furnace on! It was only 13c brrrr!

I don’t see getting any more really hot weather so maybe the AC can be turned off if you want to try incubating. Regardless I can’t wait to see baby photos in a few weeks

She's a smaller standard sized cochin. I have 12 eggs coming.
I haven't used the AC too much but do put it on for rainy days.. which we've had a few of.
My last hatch I incubated which I struggled keeping humidity high enough. I set 14 eggs. 4 weren't fertile. 1 quit early and 1 didn't hatch.

 

[Ponypoor]

She's a smaller standard sized cochin. I have 12 eggs coming.
I haven't used the AC too much but do put it on for rainy days.. which we've had a few of.
My last hatch I incubated which I struggled keeping humidity high enough. I set 14 eggs. 4 weren't fertile. 1 quit early and 1 didn't hatch.

So count out the 4 not fertile, leaves 10, and 8 hatched. I think that’s pretty good odds.

Has this hen hatched eggs before? 12 eggs is a lot even for a fluffy Cochin. And guess at the end of the day you need to do whatever feels right for you. I stilll can’t wait for baby pics though

 

[NatJ]

Each of my coops is set up similarly. 1 coop with 2 covered runs (that are slerate from each other and a large uncovered portion. Right now I have the broody hen in a seperate run in a dog house sitting on fake eggs. She is away from all of the birds.

This is her 2nd time going broody this summer and she's determined.

I struggled with all my summer incubator hatches ... think my AC was messing up the humidity. But maybe with fall in won't have that problem.

I'm just don't want to lose any potential chicks and wondering if a hen would do a better job at hatching out

Since you do have the hen separate and sitting on fake eggs, and have had trouble with the incubator, then giving the eggs to the hen might be the better idea. (I had previously thought she was in one of the coops with other hens, where they could jostle her and add eggs to her nest.)

Or you could split the difference, and give half the eggs to the hen while putting half in the incubator. If eggs hatch both places, you could combine the chicks under the broody, or combine them into a brooder without her, depending on how she does with them.