First time hatching eggs from a broody chicken

[myelli]

We got baby chicks last June from McMurray’s. We have 13 hens and one Rooster. Our bielefelder is broody laying on 12 eggs. How do you know what breed the baby chicks will be? Our hen breeds are bielefelder, Rhode Island Red, Red Star, Buff Orpington, Black Cochin, Ameraucana, Barred Rock and Silver Laced Wyandotte. This is our first time doing this and I’ve tried to find videos, but I’m struggling to find what will answer my questions.

Also how does egg coloring work when mixed with an Ameraucana Rooster?

 

[Perris]

Our bielefelder is broody laying on 12 eggs

that's a lot for a novice. You might lose less along the way if she were trying to incubate and then raise fewer. What matters to you most: how many she sits on, how many hatch, or how many survive to adulthood?

How do you know what breed the baby chicks will be? Our hen breeds are bielefelder, Rhode Island Red, Red Star, Buff Orpington, Black Cochin, Ameraucana, Barred Rock and Silver Laced Wyandotte.

an Ameraucana Rooster

with that rooster, the only possible pure breeds (in so far as an Ameraucana is a pure breed) is the Ameraucana. All the rest will perforce by hybrids, Ameraucana roo x whatever the hen is.

 

[myelli]

I don’t know that all the eggs are fertile. We tried candling and can only say 7 for sure are fertilized. My daughter decided to let her lay on everyone’s eggs she “stole” including her own. We thought she had to lay on several to keep broody.

 

[myelli]

that's a lot for a novice. You might lose less along the way if she were trying to incubate and then raise fewer. What matters to you most: how many she sits on, how many hatch, or how many survive to adulthood?


with that rooster, the only possible pure breeds (in so far as an Ameraucana is a pure breed) is the Ameraucana. All the rest will perforce by hybrids, Ameraucana roo x whatever the hen is.

 

[myelli]

I don’t know that all the eggs are fertile. We tried candling and can only say 7 for sure are fertilized. My daughter decided to let her lay on everyone’s eggs she “stole” including her own. We thought she had to lay on several to keep broody

 

[myelli]

that's a lot for a novice. You might lose less along the way if she were trying to incubate and then raise fewer. What matters to you most: how many she sits on, how many hatch, or how many survive to adulthood?


with that rooster, the only possible pure breeds (in so far as an Ameraucana is a pure breed) is the Ameraucana. All the rest will perforce by hybrids, Ameraucana roo x whatever the hen is.

I am only curious as in knowing what breeds I have. I know they won’t be purebred. Also curious about what color of eggs they will lay.

 

[Iluveggers]

They will all be mixed Easter Eggers. You have a chance of the offspring laying blue (out of the blue egg), green (from any of the eggs), or brown, depending on the male’s genetics. I hatched 3 chicks from an Easter Egger rooster two years ago, one from a blue egg and two from brown eggs. All three now lay green eggs, although one sometimes has a bloom that makes it more of a teal color.

 

[Perris]

I don’t know that all the eggs are fertile.

the hen needs to cover them to incubate them; if she's a big girl, no worries. If she is not and she struggles to keep them all warm, the fertile ones may be the ones that get cold and then die. More is not necessarily better in this case. It's not hedging bets, it's increasing risk of failure.

We tried candling and can only say 7 for sure are fertilized

there are many posts on BYC where people have misread what they saw when candling, and killed the chick(s) as a result. If you are going to leave them all under her anyway, what is the point of candling?

We thought she had to lay on several to keep broody.

That's true, but 1 or 2 will do for that purpose.

Also curious about what color of eggs they will lay

Iluveggers answered that. You may get pink too.

 

[Sally PB]

Good luck!

Read up on the hatching threads, try to learn from others' experiences. Ask questions when you need to.

I've never incubated/hatched, so I am not knowledgeable, by any means. Maybe think about candling in a week... or so...? If you can get non-fertile eggs or early quitters out of the nest, that would be a good thing. You definitely don't want an egg to rot and break in the nest.

And,

 

[welderskelter]

Myelli . Not sure what you are talking about being broody. She will lay about a n egg a day. Then quit laying and go to sitting. Thats called broody. But you want to have the eggs ready when she starts sitting. Fresh eggs not some she has been sitting on or she will hatch them and then go feed them and let the rest die from being cold. And the trouble I have had is to many different breeds in same clutch. If one is say a blond chick and the rest brown she may kill it. They are a little racist at times.