To broody or not to broody (should I let my hen hatch eggs next year?)

[Cheekychook12]

I had at least 1 cockerel ever time I let my broodies hatch. And I can’t keep a single rooster bc my neighbours start to complain if he gets too noisy.

I managed to give them all away. Some to a great new home. Where a previous rooster died (predator catch) or someone has bought hens and they like to have a rooster too. A few times I was not very sure what would happen after a few months. Like the one time a father and his two sons picked up 2 male chicks as pets.
Once someone was very happy to breed with a cockerel I had, being such a beautiful standard cockerel. He was bought to fertilise his hens.

Sometimes it takes months to find a new home. So next time the boy starts to annoy the neighbors it might be a good temporary solution to buy him a no crow collar until I find him a new home.

The difficulty is that all the chicks that grow up with a broody are not easy to handle. I can pick the boy up at night to put a collar on. And probably a few times to adjust it.

Last time I had a boy who was sleeping/roosting in a coop with curtains a bit further away with his sisters and their mama. The sound was a bit muffled. But one night he started to roost with the other hens and this was too noisy. I could pick the boy up at night to put him in the coop with his sisters. After a few evenings he was aware and wouldn’t cooperate anymore. l was lucky he got so annoyed , he chose to sleep with his sisters again.

Another month later he got louder and the sun came up earlier every day. I was lucky finally someone reacted on the add. Bc it got to a point that I really needed to do something about the noise or my neighbours would warn me to immediately take action. A no crow collar could be just that.

Whoops wrong thread sorry

 

[BDutch]

I have people who will be able to take boys in pretty short notice, so that’s not an issue

Candled eggs again today, both look great and I saw movement, but one egg looks like it’s a day or two ahead in development, and appears to possibly have an internal pip, the egg is completely dark except for larger air cell and a round shape bobbing into the air cell on one side, no clear beak but it looks like the head in pushing
Other egg is mostly full but can still see veining on it and a little clear space
Should I move them to the incubator sooner than tomorrow night?

I respond in the other thread.

 

[BDutch]

She has mites and I’d rather not treat the chicks, also there’s only two so if she kills one or it needs assistance hatching the other will be left alone, this way I have more control

Yes. Good choice. You got me mixed up too.

 

[SkyAJK]

I had at least 1 cockerel ever time I let my broodies hatch. And I can’t keep a single rooster bc my neighbours start to complain if he gets too noisy.

I managed to give them all away. Some to a great new home. Where a previous rooster died (predator catch) or someone has bought hens and they like to have a rooster too. A few times I was not very sure what would happen after a few months. Like the one time a father and his two sons picked up 2 male chicks as pets.
Once someone was very happy to breed with a cockerel I had, being such a beautiful standard cockerel. He was bought to fertilise his hens.

Sometimes it takes months to find a new home. So next time the boy starts to annoy the neighbors it might be a good temporary solution to buy him a no crow collar until I find him a new home.

The difficulty is that all the chicks that grow up with a broody are not easy to handle. I can pick the boy up at night to put a collar on. And probably a few times to adjust it.

Last time I had a boy who was sleeping/roosting in a coop with curtains a bit further away with his sisters and their mama. The sound was a bit muffled. But one night he started to roost with the other hens and this was too noisy. I could pick the boy up at night to put him in the coop with his sisters. After a few evenings he was aware and wouldn’t cooperate anymore. l was lucky he got so annoyed , he chose to sleep with his sisters again.

Another month later he got louder and the sun came up earlier every day. I was lucky finally someone reacted on the add. Bc it got to a point that I really needed to do something about the noise or my neighbours would warn me to immediately take action. A no crow collar could be just that.

Your roosters were lucky you found them good homes.

Yes, it is a lot of work moving the rooster around. I shared that with you there.

I used to wake up at 5am to move my old rooster from the coop where he slept with his hens to inside the house. Then he crowed earlier and earlier so by the time it got to the 4am, I can not do it anymore so we build a sound proof room out of our spare closet for him. The sound proof materials was about $100 and we got a sound check device to measure how noisy from the outside and it was barely heard. He started his crow about 3am in the morning.

It is really hard to rehome a rooster in the city. My 2nd rooster I put up an adv for over half a year and still no call.

It is always a fear of my to hatch out rooster and I know it is a 50:50 chance. If I had chickens when I was younger, I would have move a bit further from the city to where rooster is allowed, but I am older now, so I am not moving anywhere far away from the city.

 

[BDutch]

It is always a fear of my to hatch out rooster and I know it is a 50:50 chance.

Yes, this is life. Every now and then I like to have new female chicks for maintenance. The roosters are a no go but I get them anyway.

Buying only female chicks/pullets means a boy is killed as chick or kept in a bachelor pen until he is full grown to get eaten.

I prefer to start with fertile eggs if have a broody. This gives the least chance of bringing in a disease and it makes my broody and me very happy to have a few chicks running around.

I try to rehome the boys to a good place if possible. I have accepted that its is not always an option to give him a good future. And if people are going to kill him for food he had at least a wonderful youth.