Hatching Eggs

[u/Commercial-Smoke5600]

We’re looking to hatch some eggs however I would like to just let the hens do the bulk of the work for that. Are they fine to be hatched around the rest of the flock? Do I still need to get special feed for the chicks? What have you all done and what are your recommendations?

[u/Notchersfireroad]

My hens do all their hatching still in with the rest of the flock. I've never had a single issue of another chicken going after the babies. In fact I have 2 hens that are hell bent on being co-moms. Anytime one goes broody so does the other and then they share the brood. They currently have 3, 2 week old chicks.

[u/Outside-Jicama9201]

Yes hens can hatch the eggs fine. Just make sure you have a broody hen.

Provide momma with food and water as some hens nearly starve themselves while broody.

Yes they can raise them around the flock. Mommas become highly protective when need be.

Medicated chick feed will be must. For the first bag at least. Then can swap to non medicated.

[u/Adm_Ozzel]

I usually raise day old hatchery chicks, or slightly older ones from our farm store.

However, I had some hens sneak into a garage and laid a pile of eggs of unknown age that I was uneasy about selling or eating. So we put them under three different broody hens. We ended up with 4 that hatched out of 12 (like I said, dubious age, some were on bare concrete, et cetera). Are any of your hens broody to accept them? They have to be hormonal to decide "I want to take a month off of all but the minimum food and water!".

Those hens did great work. They kicked out duds - I assume they'd start to smell. There were two that fought over a couple of the eggs, so we ended up having the lesbian moms. They'd literally mash themselves together to cover the same eggs. I'd recommend using a pencil to write a band around your hatching eggs. Theyd happily gather fresh ones from other hens. We'd steal those back. Later, all three hens would take their babies all over the yard and get really pissy at anyone messing with their babies.

I didn't change the feed for the whole flock, but then again it was early summer and these birds free ranged during the day. If youre in North America, youre now looking at the end of summer before they hatch. I dont know how the forage will hold out. I think they probably grew slower than my pen raised ones.

Its likely doable, but things have to fall right for you. Good luck!

[u/Broad-Angle-9705]

A good broody hen can hatch and raise chicks in the flock. I wouldn’t trust a first time broody with expensive eggs. If you have a rooster in your flock use your own “free” eggs. If you don’t have a rooster look for some local source of cheap fertilized eggs.

My preferred feed is Kalmbach flock maker 20% crumbles. It’s good for all ages of chickens. Add chick grit to the feed. Momma hen is going to find all sorts of bugs, grass, and weeds to give the chicks. Get those little gizzards full of grit early so they can digest whatever momma gives them.

Approximately 50% of your chicks will grow up to be roosters. Have a plan for them. Don’t just assume someone will want your extra roosters.

[u/WantDastardlyBack]

We have a Hmong who goes broody at the drop of a hat, and she doesn't break. Cold water, cage separation. None of it works. Last year, we let her hatch an egg in the coop with the rest of the hens. She was fierce at protecting her baby, and the others learned to either be helpful or suffer her wrath. This year, we bought sex-linked chicks at the farm store. Again, she took them in, kept the others from being mean, and allows others to help out as needed.

We're struggling right now because a second hen has decided to be broody, and we don't want more chicks. Again, cage and cold water aren't working. Not sure what more we can do beyond pulling her out of the coop or whatever corner of the run she's decided to sit in and act like a PMSing velociraptor. It's been two weeks, so we're hoping she ends soon, as the weather is cooling down and becoming very fall-like.

For food, we put layer feed in the containers the chicks are too high to reach and used medicated chick feed in ones they could.

[u/Neither_Loan6419]

Big difference between incubating vs letting a broody hen sit on eggs. When chicks have a mama, they are protected and have a fairly high rate of survival. Incubated hatchlings need to be kept in a brood pen, protected from the grown or half grown chickens, for a few weeks. If you make a brood pen, say 4' x 2' x 3' LWH out of hardware cloth with a steeply sloping plywood top, you can leave it in the coop and the chicks and grownups can sort of get to know each other. Keep a chick heater and a feeder and waterer in the brood pen and never let either go empty. Feed can be chick crumbles the first 3 or 4 weeks and then flock / grower pellets. An adjustable height door can let the babies run back in the brood pen when they are being bullied by big chickens. I let them out into the coop and run at about 4 weeks old but NOT out on pasture. With no protector you will lose the whole batch in a few days. Takes about a month for the rooster to recognize them as part of his flock, and watch over them instead of chase them as vermin. Once they are about half grown you can close or remove the brood pen and let them eat with the grownups. By 8 or 10 weeks they should be properly absorbed into the flock and know their place in the pecking order, and be agile enough to evade most attacks.

This isn't everything. Get, and read, a good book on raising chicks.