SO, hatching eggs and raising chicks from, er, birth... what is entailed?

[BoysOnToast]

i knwo you need an incubator thingamy.

but then what do you do? do you have a separate house/hutch/what and a light etc... how much money/time is needed for all this?

also, more broadly, if i were going to raise chicks as well as keep my layers, what do i do about housing them all, given that some i'll want to eat (at 20wks, is that right?) and some keep for laying/cause i like em.

would it be pref to have a separate area for them? (i have space so both camps could still be free range)

Boys..
I've never used an incubator but waited until I had a broody hen.
IME silkies and a bantie maran have been good for this.

When they get broody stick 6 or so eggs underneath them.
it takes 3-4 weeks I think. the hen sits there most of the time but gets off once or twice a day for a drink. you can then candle the eggs to see whats happening. (i can explain this in more depth if you want) when the chicks hatch you need to keep the mother and chicks in a seperate run for a couple of weeks. you must do this as your other hens will attack the babies.

so it doesnt matter who laid the eggs, whichever hen is broody will sit on them? (and is this the hen you refer to as mother?)

i like the idea of doing it more naturally like that (not least b/cause it requires least effort on my part!)... so the separate, smaller run and house - does it need to be heated in some way? or are those lamps just for chicks who dont have a mummy ?

and when theyre old enough to mix up with other hens, do/would you keep chickens youre intending to eat at 20wks separate from the ones youre going to be keeping?

We have loads of chicks from birth but the hens and cockerels do it all by themsleves - I've a broody hen atm sitting in the corner of my mare's stable. Some of the other hens are furious as it's their preferred laying spot too and she won't budge ecept for her brief daily swoop for food.
My other hens don't attack the babies, but I do try and keep them separated for about a week, and also keep them inside for that time. I do find the hens are fab mothers, really protective and always on the lookout for their chicks. I do buy in chick mash for the chicks for the first ten days or so, wet it for for the first 3-4 days, then they get it dry.

no it doesn't matter where the fertilised eggs are from a broody hen will hatch duck eggs if you want
hens and ducks will try and sit on a clutch that isn't fertilised, so you just swop the eggs. you can also encourage them to be broody by placing china eggs or golf ball in their nest.
This is much much easier as the hen (mother) is keeping the eggs at the right temp, turning them
Incubators are for hatching eggs if you don't have a broody, but tbh I think you either need an expensive one or you need to be there constantly turning the eggs and checking them, sprinkling with water eto get a successful hatch

hmmm, so getting the hens to do it sounds cute/a piece of piss - and incubators sound hassle-y and/or expensive.

think i'll go for the natural.

NOW, about this fertilised egg thing... if i have a cockerel or two about the plkace, will all the eggs be fertilised as a matter of course? and does that affect eating them/storing them?

sorry for dumb questions - im from the concrete jungle y'know. all this nature stuff is new to me

There's a very good chance your eggs are fertilised if you've got a couple of cocks. I think they only need to get their leg over once and the eggs continue to be fertilised for a couple of months. It doesn't make any difference to you eating them.
Once you've got your hen sitting on them you candle them and that way you see which are fertilised and developing

has just occured to me that i dont really need the cube...

i have a barn, most of which is a big open space used fro storing cars/furniture/stuff... but then theres the part which has 3 stable rooms and an end section... currently we use 2 of the stables fro dp to keep instruments and wine in... and the end section is kitted out as a playroom for the dc... but the last stable is my own 'store room'. i could find other places to keep my stuff.

it would be secure and dry. easy to put a few perches in... then i just open the barn door in the morning and let them free range - ooh, will talk to dp about it.

sorry for rambles , thinking aloud

sounds perfect boys

your set up sounds perfect , why not try it and if its no good then get something else. eglus are expensive you know.
hatching: we have used our brooduy to do it and she was fab. she was always broody so we thought it cruel for her to sit on her own unfertilised ones so got some from a friend trouble was the four were all male and had to go.
we are going to try htaching ducklings in our mini incubator (which we were given) -[ a fsiend hah used it succesfully for ebay eggs so we are hopeful. we dont have a broody at the moment sadly, she got eaten

but we have one who might do just to look after them

ah
he says it will smell. bad.
is he right or do i have a comeback for that/?

also that if they are free range there, it'll be an area we dont want covered in chicken poo. (whereas the area i had earmarked doesnt matter in that respect)

ho hum

where did you send your superfluous males, ska?

am off out for a few hours now... not ignoring

Hens that run with cocks can produce fertilised eggs for up to 10 days since last being jumped on. So if you start your broody on say, just 5 eggs, she may continue to lay for a few days. 9 eggs are enough for a first-timer (hen that is, not you!) so if she ends up with too many, remove some, otherwise some eggs will end up out in the cold and won't progress.

I've just bought a new henhouse for my broody & chicks because I have an entirely new flock this year, including the cock, and I don't know how well they'll behave with chicks. So I'll keep them separate for a good few weeks.

Once I've split the boys from the girls, the boys go to live in very basic accommodation in the paddock until we eat them.

The china eggs that you can leave in the nest to tempt a broody on are available from Scats, farm supply shops, online chicken stores etc, they cost about 50p each. It means you can collect fertilised eggs and store them properly until the hen is ready to sit. But if you're set-up is as free and easy as Loshads, you probably won't need to bother with any of that and just let them get on with it!

the kids think we sent them to anice farm near letchworth but the reality was far messier! any tips on humane dispatch DoN?

ah, so you do keep the ones for the table in separate accom. i thought that might be prudent...

We only eat the boys and they are kept separate but mostly because they are boys and because I don't have a henhouse big enough for everyone. I don't think it matters if table & layers live together, you need to despatch them well away from the rest of the flock anyway.

ska - I gave an in-depth despatching description on another thread earlier this afternoon actually... if you haven't seen it, I'll do a link later.

just thought it'd be easier to keep track if they livede elsewhere.

can i not outsource the 'despatching'? surely the local butcher will sort that out for me? [hopeful]

TDEONB is right about the fertility lasting about 10 days on average however on single comb birds it can be much longer than this, I think about 1 month. my maran hatched her own eggs 10 weeks after my cock was eaten by a fox.! eekk!
Thanks for your advice on dispatching NB... still too scared to try. and certainly can't rely on dh, he faints at the sight of blood