Chicken breeding

[sep1712]

Next week we take collection of an incubator and 30 eggs, ye har.

Any tips, pointers would be helpful.

I'm so excited!!!! Said i was doing this for the kids but its for me really.

30!!!!
what will you do with 30 chicks???

Hi

You'll probably find that almost half the chicks are male and you'll have to choose out of the following:

1. find 2 females to each cockerel and separate house for each
2. Split the females in half and give each group an area to be in and a male each (see below for what to do with the rest)
3. Once they're adult, put in one cockerel and all the hens and eat the rest of the cockerels.
4. If you're lucky you might be able to pass on 1 or 2 cockerels but everyone always has too many of them.

We have just had 8 chicks hatch before Christmas and 5 were male. We're waiting for them to be big enough for the pot.

30 is a nice number as you'll proabably have about 12-15 hens and this will give you a lot of eggs once they start laying for most of the warm weather. They don't like it too hot and don't like the cold.

What type of chickens will they be as this will give you some indication as to how good at laying etc they are.

Good luck with it. My kids love them apart from the Cockerels who attack them until the kids are taller than the chickens can jump/attack.

Oh once they've started hatching any eggs that haven't hatched within about 48 hours of the first chick should be thrown away. They won't hatch, if you want to leave it a bit longer do but they all hatch within about 48 hours normally.

Our Chicken sat on 13 and 8 were ok.

good luck, it's great to have fresh eggs for everything.

Oh don't keep clean the eggs that the chicken lays as it'll get rid of the protective layer around the egg until you use it.
All eggs must be kept a day before using as otherwise they are too fresh. Day old eggs are perfect for everything and they'll keep for a couple of weeks easily.

Thanks for your advice.

I was going to try and sell what i can, either as chicks or POL.

I have Light sussex bantams,Lavender and gold wing bantams coming. I've also borrowed a cock from my friend and popped him in with my girls. They are making a racket and don't seem to be very welcoming to him!!!

Is it right that you can keep the eggs for up to 7 days in a cold place turning twice daily then incubate them?

Not sure about the 7 days but Bantams are fantastic we have a mix of golden and black/white. They are good mothers if you could find one that would sit for you.

Going to get the eggs and bator tomorrow.I'm so excited!!!! More than the children.

Wish me luck that they hatch.

Will keep you posted.

The bators on warming up, eggs ready to go in tomorrow.

Gosh i'm so excited

The eggs are in!!!

how exciting. regular updates will be needed, I( am thinking of hatching next year but I cant decide what breeds I want.

I'll keep you updated on there progress!

Candling them next weds to see if they are fertile.

Out of interest what are you doing with the males?

27 of the 30 are fertile! Only 3 in the bin.

So things are going well. Will candle again next saturday so will keep you posted.

Bronze we will sell/give away what little boys we have or eat? If we can pluck up the courage, excuse the pun.

I'm hoping someone would like to swap a male so i have a breeding trio but thats a long shot.

27 of the 30 are fertile! Only 3 in the bin.

So things are going well. Will candle again next saturday so will keep you posted.

Bronze we will sell/give away what little boys we have or eat? If we can pluck up the courage, excuse the pun.

I'm hoping someone would like to swap a male so i have a breeding trio but thats a long shot.

We have a couple of cracks and cheeping coming from the eggs so hopefully they will be here soon.

We have chicks ye har!

Thats exciting, how many hatched?