Order fertilized eggs?

[Ragfrey]

Just wow! I am completely new to the chicken game and am extensively reading on building plans/prep for chicken coop in South Louisiana.

I was researching and discovered that one can order fertilized eggs online and put under a broody hen?? What? I guess in theory it should work….just wow.

So then I was thinking, what would be the advantages of getting a broody hen and ordering 8 fertilized eggs to put under her

Vs ordering chicks from a nursery?

Nursery:
- nursery can sex the chicks
- nursery can give different breeds

Broody hen:
- you can watch life begin
- you can watch a joyous momma hen
- momma hen can care for chicks vey young

What do you think? I think a very interesting topic and would love to hear your expert thoughts.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

I currently have fertilized eggs arriving today to place under a broody hen for the first time. She’s been sitting on 6 fake eggs in the broody mama area… The benefits of this is I can get more rare breeds/rarer colors that I can’t find locally (in my case they’re purebred white Ameraucanas) especially since the chicks are usually straight run anyways! I already raised a few chicks in a brooder early this spring so it’ll be nice to have a mama hen do the work for me this time!

 

[BastyPutt]

Hello there

A few things.....

We have ordered a lot of fertilized eggs from both hatcheries and eBay. We have had luck with both. The only catch is the success rate Which we find to be on average about 50%, with sometimes 100% hatching, and sometimes 2 of 12 having been fertilized. You need to be flexible on the amount of chicks you'd like.

Next, you are going to have a lot more interaction with the chicks either getting them as day olds, or hatching them in an incubator. Most all of the chicks we have had hatched here on the farm by hens, are less personalble and far more independent. Not a bad thing, but also not something I'd want if just getting started. We all have those two or three hens that run up to us like dogs everyday which is a result of handling them daily as chicks, which is something a mama isn't going to want you to do - but will allow it in most cases.

It is also really difficult to "procure" a broody hen. Even if you were to find someone willing to sell one, moving her and the stress involved could cause her to snap out of it. Hatcheries claim to "breed out" the broodiness in hens, which we have found to be true to an extent - but the most broody hens we have are ones that have either hatched in our incubator, or hatched by a mama. One thing is, once you have established that a hen is broody, she is going to most likely continue that habit for the rest of her laying life. We have 50 adult hens here, around 40 of the being hatched here, and only one that consistently goes broody about once every 6 months.

Either way, best of luck to you and your flock

 

[BastyPutt]

I did also want to add, that there is no guarantee that the broody hen is going to accept the eggs. We have had multiple instances of them pushing them out of the box. There is even less of a chance that she accepts and raises chicks that have already hatched.

 

[Ragfrey]

Great information!!

I’m learning!!

Thanks y’all.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The biggest problem with a broody hen is getting a broody hen. Not every hen will ever go broody. You have no way to force one to go broody, you have no control over that. You certainly cannot control when a hen goes broody. If one does go broody and she breaks from being broody it is likely she will go broody sometime in the future, but that might be next year.

A broody hen will do the work for you, both hatching them and raising them. There are different ways to do this. I trust my broody hens and leave them alone to do their job. Many people micromanage and interfere every step of the way. Both and everything in between can be successful but that makes for a different experience for each of us.

With a broody hen hatching you have no idea what sexes you are getting. Often it is heavy on one sex versus the other. I've had hatches that were almost all male, some that were almost all female. Are you OK with that? What are your plans for the males?

Whether with a broody hen or an incubator you never know how many will hatch. It could be 100%, it could be 0%. You may read to expect 50% of shipped eggs to hatch. That is an average. My experience is more like Mathewharp mentioned. Either real good or real bad. You can maybe improve your odds by picking up eggs from somebody local and carefully transport them yourself.

With chicks from a hatchery they are alive when they are shipped, you don't have to worry about whether they hatch or not. It is possible some could die during shipping, especially if there is a delay in the mail, but the majority arrive alive.

Most major hatcheries will not sex bantam chicks but they will sex most full-sized fowl chicks. You don't get a 100% guarantee on sex, usually around 90% because of the difficulty in doing that, but your odds of getting the sex you want are much better than hatching them.

If you want them vaccinated, hatcheries can usually do that. If you hatch with a broody hen that is not practical. For most of the vaccines to take effect the chicks need to be isolated from other chickens for two or three weeks. With a broody hen they are immediately exposed. Many of us do not get the chicks vaccinated but some people do.

If you get shipped eggs they are usually all the same breed. Of course you can sometimes find an exception but you may need to look. Hatcheries can ship multiple breeds. You need to look at their pricing policies, sometimes it can get expensive to get very few of multiple breeds, but the capability is there.

If you get chicks from a hatchery you have to go through the expense and trouble of setting up and managing a brooder. Brooders don't have to be complicated but if you read too much on this forum about them people will have you going batty. You can get that with advice on a broody hen too so maybe there's not that much difference.

Another option would be to get an incubator and hatch your own. You get some advantages and disadvantages of broody hens and hatcheries.

Another option is to get POL (Point of Lay) pullets. These are usually around 16 weeks old and should be laying in about a month or so. You bypass all that raising baby chicks stuff and by then you know if they are boys or girls. They are usually kind of expensive, but so is raising baby chicks.

 

[BastyPutt]

With a broody hen hatching you have no idea what sexes you are getting. Often it is heavy on one sex versus the other. I've had hatches that were almost all male, some that were almost all female. Are you OK with that? What are your plans for the males?

My experience too. Very odd this one. If we have a very sucsessful hatch, it is usually pull heavy. Some of the more least sucsessful, a lot of cockerels.

 

[ffibyar]

I currently have fertilized eggs arriving today to place under a broody hen for the first time. She’s been sitting on 6 fake eggs in the broody mama area… The benefits of this is I can get more rare breeds/rarer colors that I can’t find locally (in my case they’re purebred white Ameraucanas) especially since the chicks are usually straight run anyways! I already raised a few chicks in a brooder early this spring so it’ll be nice to have a mama hen do the work for me this time!

At one time when I was a 90+ chicken farmer, I had a broody hen. All my girls loved me and I took good care of them. If I wanted them to come I would whistle or yell for them and they would come running. I free ranged/pastured the flock. When I noticed that I had a broody hen, the first thing I thought was I will use her to hatch eggs for me.
I bought 6 Silver Laced Wyandot eggs. Beautiful bird.
She did a wonderful job. All eggs hatched and she took great care of them but, the ones she hatched and took care of never got close to me like the others that I had raised from one day old. All the others would respond to me but those 6 that the hen hatched never did warm up.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

At one time when I was a 90+ chicken farmer, I had a broody hen. All my girls loved me and I took good care of them. If I wanted them to come I would whistle or yell for them and they would come running. I free ranged/pastured the flock. When I noticed that I had a broody hen, the first thing I thought was I will use her to hatch eggs for me.
I bought 6 Silver Laced Wyandot eggs. Beautiful bird.
She did a wonderful job. All eggs hatched and she took great care of them but, the ones she hatched and took care of never got close to me like the others that I had raised from one day old. All the others would respond to me but those 6 that the hen hatched never did warm up.

Yes I’ve heard hen raised chicks may not be as friendly as chicks raised in a brooder! The hen I have hatching eggs right now is a huge sweetheart, even when she’s broody right now so I’m hoping that handling them daily will make them get used to me and be people friendly like the rest of my flock! The chicken incubating eggs right now and her sister were both hen raised without much attention from people in my Aunts flock. I got them when they were fully feathered around 6 weeks old and I could definitely tell that they were more skittish with people. It took a lot of handling and just hanging out with them to make them friendly hens but it did work!

 

[MysteryChicken]

I've got hatching eggs arriving either today, or tomorrow. They'll be going into my incubator after they settle for about 6-12, hours.