What is this thread all about?
Just a place for general discussion. A place to unload whats on your mind and talk about anything - personal, health, help needed, achievements, daily highs and daily lows, theories, predictions and what have you.
Does not need to be Q related.
what breed of chickens? I love chickens! I have a nice flock, and I have thought of getting a small incubator, I usually get a box of newly hatched chicks in the mail, every few years, but I might want to start hatching my own.
If she goes broody she should hatch them out if you put fertilized eggs under her. Not sure about integrating chicks,I've never done it. Otherwise get an incubator. Only reason I want more chickens is my girls are getting old now,oh and I give the eggs to the pensioners in town.
I tried a breed a couple of years ago, called Bieldfelders, they are great birds, the eggs are medium, but they are a hardy breed and a pretty gentle bird. I've had Orps and Delawares, Austrolops, Turkens and I bought a few hens from a farmer I know called Sapphire Gems. Enormous eggs and a pretty hardy breed, it is a bluish gray Rock, so pretty and friendly. I love Speckled Sussex, but that breed is a bit soft when it comes to hardiness. If the new birds have a way to look at each other without reaching each other there will be less squabbles, but the older group has already set up their community, and you have to watch for fighting, and hens can fight as well as roosters with each other. I try to pick non broody breeds, because they have a huge fenced in area, 3/4 acre, to free range in, but sure enough the ones that want to go broody find places to get out and start clutches in the bushes, the gardens, etc, and that leaves them open to predators, in this area that would be racoons, skunks, and foxes. No worse sound than a hen being carried off into the woods in the middle of the night.
Some Silkies,Buff Orpington,Isa Browns and Wyandotte. I had a hen hatch a few out and then we had a really bad thunderstorm and she got off the eggs. A friend's hen did the same. Thought I'd have a try at hatching in an incubator.