How many times does can a hen raise babies in a year?

[ging3rhoffman]

How many times does a hen raise babies. We only want to raise about 25 chick a year. How many hens will I need?

 

[Mikhail]

Depends on how many they have in a clutch. If they have nearly 20 eggs in just one clutch, you can have 2 hens and after 1 clutch from each of them you'll have around 25 chiccks.

 

[Mahonri]

Sounds like a story problem from childhood math days.

It all depends.

When I was a kid we had a game hen that would consistently raise two clutches a year. Most will only do one.

On average, I'd guess most broodies will raise about 4 or 5 chicks to maturity, so you'd need about 5 or 6 hens to go broody each year.

All guestimates of course.

Good luck.

 

[ging3rhoffman]

Do the columbian white rocks or the plain white rocks go broody? I need a meat bird that is broody. thanks for your help.

 

[Ms Ellen]

You might want to get some hens from a breed known to be broody but with different looking eggs from what you want to hatch so you can tell them apart and then put the eggs from the meat chickens under her and take her eggs out and eat them instead. She will hatch the eggs from the meaties instead then.