Poorly chicken

[Angela & Ken]

Hi all. Our girls, Barbie and Hen, are around 2 yrs 4 months now and I'm dreading the day they pass away (hopefully naturally and no fox in sight). I've come to love them so much and my partner and I were just wondering how we could get them pregnant (if that's the right word) and carry on the family of Barbie and Hen. (Yes, I realise a Cock will be involved!)

 

We live in London and we know we need a Cock. However, we haven't got one and can't keep on here, but I am able to take my hens to my sister's in the country for a week, should it be possible to "loan" a Cock for that purpose.

 

Other problems.....what to do with chicks that are boys? I couldn't put them in the pot and can't keep them. Also, will my girls lay on the eggs as they don't seem broody at all. And....how many eggs do they have to lay on, as we only want another 2, one from each hen. Finally, if all of the above can be sorted, do we have to separate them from each other or from their own chicks?

 

Thanks for your help (in advance!) Feel very sad they may go and we don't have any offspring from them.

[Cinnamon]

Hi

 

You are broody aren't you

 

One of the esiest ways to get chicks is simply to buy some fertilized eggs.

You may be able to get them from a local breeder,or they sell them on Ebay

 

You can then pop them under a broody hen & let nature work its magic.

I am no expert,but others here have done this with great success.There are some threads somewhere if you do a search.

 

As for the little boys,well you can give them away.

Some breeds are sexed from the day the chick hatches,which might be easier.

 

Good luck!

[Gallina]

I don't think it would be a good idea to breed from hybrids, as they are specially bred not to be mothers, which is why they don't often go broody.

 

Your hens won't know that there is anything special about their post-coital eggs, and unless they regularly sit on their eggs they won't suddenly start doing so: you would have to look after them in an incubator.

 

Also, I'm afraid, your hens are probably too old already. My remaining hybrid is over two years old now and is getting quite elderly: I wouldn't put her through it now. And you may get the worst of both worlds: mongrel hens that don't lay.

 

My neighbours are always putting pure-bred eggs in incubators and have great success: you can buy fertilized eggs on eBay. There are places that will take cockerels.

[Lesley]

Be very careful buying eggs on Ebay - go to Practical Poultry and read what has been said on there and then check any seller's feedback. Make sure the feedback you read relates to hatching eggs and not just any old tat.

 

I checked well but my eggs from Ebay were not a success.

 

I've hatched eggs from our hybrids and they are fine and are laying. I would prefer to hatch using a broody hen any day but your hybrids are unlikely to go broody.

 

If you use an incubator then you will need to keep the chicks inside and under heat for at least 4 weeks. Then you gradually wean them onto going outside in the daytime and then back in at night. You will need to keep them seperate from the big girls until they are full grown and then introduce any hens in the usual way.

 

Cockerels don't start crowing until about 20 weeks - and they are big enough to eat then if you feel able to despatch them or get someone to do it for you.

[Aunty e]

I've just ordered some hybrid hatching eggs from Country Poultry to set up under our broody silkie. If they hatch and there are any girls, you'd be more than welcome to grab a couple when they were a few weeks old to rear up yourselves. We ran our chick last year with the big girls from when he was around three weeks old, but he had his mother to look after him, your girls would probably beat up any chicks they saw. Alternatively, you could borrow a broody hen from someone and hatch your own, there are plenty of places who would take excess girls (and lesley could offer a 'good home' to any boys). We're hatching from Kitty right now, but we'll probably have another broody soon if you wanted to borrow one. Penny, our pekin, could sit on four hybrid eggs, which would hopefully give you a couple of girls, and she's a brilliant mother.

[The Dogmother]

My pure breeds go broody at the drop of a hat - four at one time last year! As Gallina said, hybrids aren't supposed to go broody, so you probably won't have any luck.

 

Lst year, one of my girls was broody and we popped some eggs from Lesley's hens under her and she hatched and looked after them beautifully, raising gorgeous, sturdy chickies. We kept one of them (a barnevelder bantam hen that I had been hankering after for a while) the other two went back to Lesley's farm. We really enjoyed the experience and hope to hatch again this year if I can aly my hands on some more accommodation.

 

Good luck.

[Karen & co.]

I thought the Omlet girls were hybrids? My four spent weeks on end being broody last summer

 

karen x

[chocchick]

My Amber star hybrid spent weeks being broody last Summer due to the high temperatures. It depends whether they have been broody before, they won't suddenly become broody if they haven't so far. From what I gather if they start in their first year they will be broody again.

Broody doesn't always equal a good mother either as they have to stay with the eggs nearly all the time and not abandon them for too long, and look after the chicks.

There's the question of what you crossed the chickens with as the chicks could end up very different to expected depending on what the cockeral was-and could take after him, or end up nearly all cockerals you couldn't keep.

If you added chicks ot young birds your chickens would just attack them as the mother/surrogate broody protects them up to a certain age and they have to be kept separate.

 

I would personally just add some young companions, or try incubator hatching if your chickens have not been broody consistantly before.

[Angela & Ken]

Thanks very much for your help all. Feeling very sad that my girls are a bit past breeding and that they've had breeding bred out of them anyway! No, they don't get broody......I think anyway. They do rush into the kitchen when they can, and go mad if they can't, and race into the hall where there is a small table with a cloth over it. They make very strange noises like small clucks, face the walls, hide under the table and sit down, again making strange noises. Not sure what this is and no idea why they do it!

 

Sometimes too, when they are laying in the eglu, they will pick at the straw and draw it towards them. Is this broody? They don't spend hours drooling over baby chick photos and looking at Mothercare catalogues, that's for sure!

 

I just really wanted to carry on the bloodline from both. If we do get more hens it will be from battery rescues I think, but that's not the same.

 

Thanks again, much appreciated.

 

[Liz Steed]

I thought the Omlet girls were hybrids? My four spent weeks on end being broody last summer

 

karen x

 

As did my !!

[Guest]

Thanks very much for your help all. Feeling very sad that my girls are a bit past breeding and that they've had breeding bred out of them anyway! No, they don't get broody......I think anyway. They do rush into the kitchen when they can, and go mad if they can't, and race into the hall where there is a small table with a cloth over it. They make very strange noises like small clucks, face the walls, hide under the table and sit down, again making strange noises. Not sure what this is and no idea why they do it!

 

Mine do that if they come inside. One likes to get behind the television and another likes the top of the piano. I think they're 'nesting'. It is especially bad if they need to lay!

[Angela & Ken]

Yes, that's it Ginette! They also scream sometimes, when trying to lay, poor mites.