Spring also means baby chicks! Soon the feed stores will have loads of baby chicks chirping away. This will be the start of my third year raising backyard chickens. Right now I have 9 hens. 5 of them will be 2 years old in May and the other 4 will be 1 in March. I will be adding a few more to the clan in the next couple months.
I am trying to make the decision as to whether to get some fertilized eggs and let one of my hens hatch out the chicks or purchase baby chicks from the store. Here are the pros. I have a broody hen. She has been sitting on her nest most of the winter. I have to go out every day and move her off, so she would be great at sitting on eggs. The thought of waiting and watching to see the chicks from the absolute beginning is exciting.On the other hand the cons are that I am not guaranteed the sex. If she hatches out a rooster I will eventually have to get rid of it since I am not to have roosters in my area. The other con is I am not sure how the other birds will treat these new ones. I will have to do some research to see how long I would need to separate them from the other hens. I imagine about the same amount of time as if I were to get them from the store. I started introducing last years new birds at around 6 weeks.
There is a lot to think about. I have a lot of questions that need to be answered before I hatch my own. Like will the new birds be warm enough if they are hatched outside? You have to keep them under a heat lamp if you buy them from the store. What will they eat? Do I buy chick food and if so how do I keep the older hens from eating all the babies food? Will the mother feed them? Do I keep the mother and babies separated form the rest of the flock? If so for how long? Looks like I will be renting some chicken books again!
Feel free to offer any advise. If you have hatched your own chickens how did you do it?
I have never raised chickens, so I"m useless in that area :) :) However, I think the idea of little fluffy baby chicks is a good one, whether you incubate them at home OR buy them pre-hatched at the store :) :) Keep us updated on your chicken adventures :) Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)
ReplyDeleteI am not an expert on this but I remember when my mother had it. She fed them with hard boiled eggs chopped with green onions, and some sot of grains. I remember because it was my job to feed them. I had to do all prep work too. She kept them separately from other flock.
ReplyDeleteWe have never hatched our own, but our "ladies" are about 4 years old and so we decided to add some to the flock. We just brought them home yesterday. I read to keep them separate for about 6-8 weeks, then gradually introduce them to the flock. I'm a little nervous, but I wanted to get more laying before our older ladies stop laying. I'll post the updates on my blog; hopefully they will all get along. Good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteThere is an awesome site called backyardchickens.com I bet you can get your questions answered there.
ReplyDeleteI have not yet hatched my own eggs. I have always bought chicks and like you mentioned it is easy to make sure you get girls and not a rooster. Plus I get breeds that I do not have at the time. This is also another good site to go to.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hencam.com
Are you in des moines? I live in des moines and have been trying to figure out if I can own chickens and I cannot find anything :(
ReplyDeleteWe've hatched our own and would rather pay a couple more dollars to just get a pullet of choice. Also, we've always had an easy time getting rid of roosters, since ours are calm and peaceful.
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