Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Silkysmooth on July 03, 2010, 23:07

Title: To breed or not to breed?
Post by: Silkysmooth on July 03, 2010, 23:07

Hi Everyone,

One of my black rocks has gone very broody and is currently spending alot of time in the nest boxes. She is very warm with her tail feathers in the air and is trying to snatch eggs off the other girls to sit on.

I was wondering about purchasing fertile eggs but wondered if it would be ok for her to hatch these. We have a single coop only that is very big and can hold 40 birds and there is currently 20 in there at the moment. Would I need to separate her away from the others or will she be ok in one of the nesting boxes she is sat in all the time?

I've added an extra nesting box in the coop as she is currently hogging one of them...

any advice about this would be appreciated as would any about breeding in general!

Thank you!

Andy

Title: Re: To breed or not to breed?
Post by: joyfull on July 04, 2010, 08:56

she would need her own seperate broody coup. What will you do with the the boys that hatch (bear in mind some you cant tell until they are quite old so you will have got attached to them), last year I rehomed all mine, and this year I have swaped mine with Grannie Annie so we get fresh blood, but to be able to do this is unusal, most have to be either culled at first signs of their sex or fattened up for the pot.
If you click on the search part and type in broody hen, or raising chicks etc loads of things should come up.

Title: Re: To breed or not to breed?
Post by: Silkysmooth on July 04, 2010, 12:13

Thanks Joy.

Where can I get a decent but cheap broody coop from?

does anyone have one for sale?

Thanks

Andy

Title: Re: To breed or not to breed?
Post by: joyfull on July 05, 2010, 16:56

sorry there is a policyof no buying or selling on this forum, however if you join the classified section you could ask in there  :D