Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

> Any hen will set. It is in their nature to reproduce. . . . Most hen hatched 
> chicks turn out more pullets than
> roosters . . .  You will need to separate the mother hen
> and her chicks from the other chickens.
>
> Art in Arkansas

1) By definition, it is in their nature to reproduce--but actually, the 
broody trait has been largely bred out of most modern breeds. (If you 
make going broody a capital offense, doesn't take long for the hens to 
get the point!) To be sure, you will always find an oddball in any breed 
who retains the trait--last year one of my Silver Spangled Hamburgs went 
determinedly broody, wouldn't normally expect that, not only in that 
breed but in the whole non-setting Mediterranean, "egg specialist" 
class. But if you want reliably broody hens, I recommend going back to 
the historic breeds, among whom broodiness is the norm, not the exception.

2) The gender of the chick is determined even before the female germ 
cell is released from the ovary, thus even before fertilization by the 
cock's sperm. Thus it is certainly determined by the time the egg is 
laid, and from that point the ratio of males to females (as in humans, 
not exactly 1:1, but awfully close) is set, and how the eggs are 
hatched--natural or artificial--is irrelevant to gender ratio.

3) Actually there is no need to separate the hen and her clutch from the 
rest of the flock--mama will certainly kick butt for anybody rash enough 
to mess with her chicks--with this proviso: Young growing chicks must 
not eat layer mash feeds, doing so can seriously compromise their 
development, particularly of the reproductive systems. Among chickens 
eating a more natural diet, this is not a problem. I have my chicks with 
mamas running with the main flock all the time, no problem. I have 
devised a "creep feeder" that permits feeding the young ones more 
protein-rich foods, while excluding the adults.

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