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Thanks. Growing up my dad would just put some eggs in a nest in a milk crate, put a hen on it with a cover. She'd get the idea. Of course we didn't have as many chicks at once and it was always just one hen at a time.
My three hens, Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney, are just layers....no rooster to fertilize the eggs and bother the neighbors.
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May I ask why the incubator vs just setting a few hens on them in a nest? Is there an advantage?
It's really a matter of control.
I can set as many eggs as I want, when I want and control when they hatch.
Otherwise I would be waiting/hoping for a hen to go broody - or more likely waiting on 2 or 3 to go broody for the size hatch I want.
To "force" one to set is a challenge - to try and sync 2 or 3 isn't happening.
This way I can insure I have one large timed hatch and don't have different aged chicks to deal with in the brooder and grow out pen.
It also means I don't have 2 or 3 hens "offline" for a month or more while they sit.
Plus its cool.
Thanks. Growing up my dad would just put some eggs in a nest in a milk crate, put a hen on it with a cover. She'd get the idea. Of course we didn't have as many chicks at once and it was always just one hen at a time.
My three hens, Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney, are just layers....no rooster to fertilize the eggs and bother the neighbors.
I don't know what kind of voodoo jinx you put on me, but since I last updated I had two different hens in different tractors go broody on me. One is an old gal, easily 4 yrs old and the other is right at a year that I hatched last fall.
The younger one managed to hoard a dozen eggs at the start - and is letting the other girls lay and add to her collection... after a week she's sitting on a pile well over 2 dozen she can barely cover.
Not to be outdone by grandma hen, who is sitting on a clutch of 4... three of which are ceramic eggs I keep in to discourage pecking
. She laid the one real egg and refuses to let the other girls in to lay more... their house has a communal box that normally accommodates 3 abreast but she routes all that approach.
I doubt either will be very successful but I'm gonna lay it play out since the brooder is already setup and we're not in an egg production deficit.
I'd be more keen on their success if it weren't for the fact that I just bought another dozen chicks to brood alongside my current hatch. My better half wanted a more colorful egg basket so I picked up some blue laying Ameraucanas.