The Broody House

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On the camera you can see a group of nine chicks which are about 9 days old. We get them from a chap who has converted an old fridge into an incubator which he gets great success rates from. We get them at a day old and raise them under the heat lamp, then grow them on till they reach 16 weeks and begin to lay eggs because they are hens, or we eat them because they are cockerels! They are very cute at this stage and need the Infra red heat lamp because they have no hen to keep them warm.

This is where we put the chickens that go broody and sit on their eggs. It takes 21 days for a hens egg to hatch after being laid. Duck eggs take 28 and geese eggs take 35 days.

The eggs will only hatch if they are fertile (you have a good and active cockerel) and if the hen decides to sit on them. She will get off for short periods of time to eat and drink but for the most part just sits on the nest she makes with the eggs in.

We made this broody house because in the normal hen house we were finding newly hatched chicks were disappearing and thought it could well be rats. This house is as rat proof as it is possible to be.

We have been having some problems here - Some hens don't like being moved and have taken to destroying eggs here. As a result we are now only moving the hens after they hatch out the chicks. We have to hope we find them before the rats do!

 

If you want to get in touch with us then email me kayt@virtuallynatural.co.uk with ideas, questions and comments.