Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[Ridgerunner]

Oh, I was referring to going broody in the fall and winter. I definitely want broodiness.

In my flock I'd be OK with a hen going broody and raising chicks in the fall or winter. One of my goals is to eat chicken every week without taking up all my freezer space with chicken meat. During harvest season I use my freezer to store veggies, berries, and fruit until I have enough to make jams, jellies, sauces, or soup, which I then can. When I butcher I freeze parts that I won't be eating like backs, wings, feet, and some other body parts to make chicken broth, which I can. It's a balancing act, I may need to can a batch of chicken broth to make room for some cut up tomatoes.

All this to say that I need to incubate eggs in February in an incubator so I don't run out of chicken meat in June. Then I can usually rely on broody hens to hatch and raise the rest I need. Most years anyway. If I had a hen hatch and raise chicks in late Fall or Winter I could make adjustments. That's another thing with this, you always have to stay flexible.

When I was in Northwest Arkansas my climate was close to parts of Kansas. I never had a late fall or winter broody hen. If I had a broody I would have tried it, partly to see if I could wait a while on those incubator chicks and partly just to try it. There are threads on here where people a lot further north than you had a broody hatch and raise chicks in winter.

 

[Mrs. K]

I have hatched under a broody in October, and actually it worked well. I nearly pulled the chicks when at 2 weeks of age, we hit a cold spell of -20 night time temperatures, but she raised them just fine.

I did feed soaked grain, as I was worried about water freezing too fast.

Mrs K

 

[U_Stormcrow]

A lot of people on this forum can't manage them my way. Some because they won't, they can't keep their hands off or they just enjoy it. Some because they don't know that chickens have been doing this for thousands of years without human interference. And some because they don't have the room.

And a rare few of us don't have reliably broody birds and needed to rapidly increase flock size to advance our project.

But yes, eventually, after everything else has been checked off, I'll try and encourage some broodiness. Right now, its lowest priority.

(and since we don't actually get winter here - just a couple days at freezing - any time of year is fine. Its the hot + wet that is our problem, makes bacteria bombs on my clay soils)

 

[fluffycrow]

Encouraging broodiness is one of my top priorities right now, but I've been utterly unsuccessful. Don't know of any other way to introduce broodiness to my line other than somehow finding a grown bird of the same landrace that is a proven broody (a plan that has a lot of biosecurity issues)

 

[Perris]

So in your estimation, a broody in high summer, fall or winter is a defect? Would you cull a bird that only wants to brood in winter?

you overlooked the word 'before' in my sentence: not before April. Last year we had clutches in June, August and September. No bird here has gone broody in winter or early spring, so the issue didn't arise. And I just break broodies that flip at the wrong time (for them or for me); I don't cull them.

 

[Perris]

Further to when broodies go broody, looking back on my records, I've been dealing with broodies since 2019, and all of those that I let sit have hatched between April and September, with 3 Mays, 2 Junes, 2 Julys, 2 Augusts and 3 Septembers. So my broodies slightly prefer late spring and early autumn over high summer, but remember that I interfere by not letting more than one sit at a time, so some of the summer ones may be deferred spring ones.

 

[Perris]

Tree sleeping for me is a plus. My birds seem to do a good job by sleeping high for the most part. My very longterm plan is to range them 24/7 (not just dawn-dusk), so tree sleepers are welcome

this may work for adults but since we're talking about broodies, at the risk of stating the obvious, it doesn't work for chicks. Perhaps think about ground nesting options before they arise, if they arise.

 

[NatJ]

this may work for adults but since we're talking about broodies, at the risk of stating the obvious, it doesn't work for chicks. Perhaps think about ground nesting options before they arise, if they arise.

A friend of mine had several broodies that lost their chicks to predators, and one that did not. The successful one was a tree-sleeper, and she took her clutch of chicks up a tree from a very young age, well before they could fly.

My friend described it: the hen would choose a tree with low branches, get on the first one, and call the chicks up. Then the hen would go up to the next branch, and call the chicks up again. She kept repeating this until the chicks were way up the tree. The chicks were not flying, just jumping up one bit at a time.

I can see that this would not work in all situations (needs a tree with low branches, needs warm enough weather that the chicks can stay warm beside the hen instead of underneath her, does not work with predators that climb that kind of tree, etc.) But apparently tree-sleeping can sometimes work for chicks from a much younger age than we would normally expect.

 

[fluffycrow]

this may work for adults but since we're talking about broodies, at the risk of stating the obvious, it doesn't work for chicks. Perhaps think about ground nesting options before they arise, if they arise.

For the first two-three weeks the chicks are bound to the ground, indeed. This plan is only made possible by the fact that my area has a considerably low predator load. It is also possible due to the fact that many of the trees here have low branches, that would help getting the chicks off the ground even quicker.

In this photo, on the right, you can see the beginning of what is a large clump of branches and twigs overtaken by wild grasses. It's thick enough that foxes, and possibly cats (although not much of a worry, I've seen my hens chase cats away) can't get in. On the other hand, I see the chickens going into this very thick "bush" quite regularly. If all else fails, I have no doubt that the "bush" is safe As an extra security measure, guard dogs patrol the entire property at night, and have driven foxes away in the past (previous dogs caught some too).



As also proven by the photo, outside ground nests do happen, but never used for brooding

 

[LaurenRitz]

She seems to go broody pretty predictably in April/May and October/November. The babies just spend more time under Mama.

It does bypass snake season.