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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Hatching your own

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Hatching your own
  • Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 12:23:57 +0000

Now that's a concept, Harvey - no incubators. In your experience is that
better for the chicks? One more area where rising cost of electricity may
slow down production of chicks commercially. Or if folks are off-grid they
look for ways to cut down the kilowatts. Hmm?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Better for the chicks, are you kidding me?! Better in every possible way. Read any advice on brooding chicks artificially, and you will be told to avoid drafts and keep temp at 95 degrees. Well, my first batch of chicks this spring went direct from the nest to the pasture with the mama hen. First couple of days, daytime temp's were 45-50 degrees, with 20-25 mph winds. Water froze in the waterers overnight. No prob--didn't lose a single one--mama knows just what to do.

I hatch using natural mothers mainly because I like more natural methods, and because I love seeing the mother hens taking care of their young. But yes, it is very much in my mind that there will come a time when use of lots of electricity to incubate/brood artificially will not be so casual a thing. So I work to preserve and enhance the broody instinct in a portion of my overall flock. (The trait has been bred out of many modern hens.)

My article on working with broody hens starts at

http://themodernhomestead.us/poultry/broodies_find.html

I recently wrote an update for Backyard Poultry, their June-July issue.

~Harvey
--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us




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