By: Monique de Vrijer Photos: Monique de Vrijer en Pauline van Schaik FROM EGG TO CHICKEN At last, spring is here and many of us are looking forward to the first chicks! But before we can have chicks, there is some work to be done, at least for most of us. Of course some of us will be surprised by a broody, which was gone for some weeks, coming out with her chicks one day. This may happen if you keep your birds running free and they have hidden their nest. If we want some more control in breeding, then of course there is the incubator to use, or else we simply wait for a hen to get broody. On the right: father and son, Brahmas Collecting eggs Before we can have chicks, we have to start with the eggs. For breeding we need good hatching eggs. Maybe you have your own birds that you want to breed from, or if you do not have a cock, one can buy some hatching eggs. Before you buy eggs, think of what breed you want and what broody you have to sit on them. For instance, if you have a Brahma hen as a broody, you should not put bantam eggs under her, because she might break some eggs, or kill some chicks with her large feet. If you want to breed from your own birds you can start collecting eggs as soon as you have a broody. You gather eggs every day till you have enough. There are a few things to think about though. Not every egg can be used for breeding. For instance, dirty eggs should not be taken. These could infect the chicks when hatched. Cleaning or washing the eggs is not advisable, because the natural protection of the eggs will be washed off in that way. They can then become
infected through the shell. Abnormal or deformed eggs should also not be used. Save well formed, clean eggs without bursts to breed from. On the left: a broody Silky. A broody hen has a naked spot under the body, so called broody spot. Of course one should not keep the eggs for too long; maximum 14 days to have the best results. The eggs have to be kept under good conditions. Best is a temperature of 10 to 15 degrees and they have to be turned several times a day, just like the broody would do. Keep them in a place where humidity and temperature are relatively constant. For some people this is a cellar or even the toilet might be the right place! Turn the eggs at least twice a day. You can do this by hand or just carefully turn the boxes you keep them in. We put them in the open incubator without the heater on but with the automatic egg turner on. It is a good practice to write the date and the breed on them with a pencil (not a pen, the ink might contain a poison). On the right: broody, the chicks just hatched A broody Those who are more experienced in poultry know when a hen is broody, but not everyone is familiar with this phenomenon. Some people might confuse a broody with a sick bird. A hen is broody when she stays in the nest for a long time. If you want to take the eggs from under her she will make herself fat and make strange noises. Some will get aggressive and might peck your hand. Her comb and wattles become less red and she will stop laying. Broodies will get a naked spot under the body, called brooding spot. A simple trick to see if a hen is broody is to put an egg in front of her. If she is broody she will take the egg and roll it under herself and sit on it. If she leaves the nest she will be a bit moody and hostile towards the other birds. Also her feathers stay spread out and she looks fatter than usual. Not all breeds do brood equally well. Best is to brood with a hen of a breed that is well known for being good and
loyal broodies. If you have been collecting eggs for two weeks and your broody has already been sitting for that same time, there is a good chance that she will walk off the eggs after sitting on them for some time, before the hatching time has come. This is different for each hen, but still the chance is there. So if you want to use a broody, don t wait too long before you give her the eggs. A better idea is to collect the eggs, put a date on them and do not let them get older then 14 days. This way you can eat the oldest eggs and you will always have a stock of fresh eggs if a hen goes broody. Using an incubator will not give you these problems. Above: not all breeds are suitable for broodies; this little Sebright hen was a perfect broody! How to make a hen stop brooding It might happen that you have several broodies at a time when you do not want to breed. Some hens can be very stubborn and sit for weeks. If you do not want to use them for brooding, it is better to stop them being broody. A sitting hen does not lay eggs and her physical condition deteriorates. Some hens stop more easily than others. There are various methods to stop them sitting, although not all are friendly for the birds. Best is to keep them away from the nest and from material they can make a nest with. We isolate the hen in a room with a concrete floor (cold).we give her food and water and put a cage over her. No straw or shavings because this would encourage her in her broodiness. This way they usually stop within a week. If you have a hen that has been sitting only a couple of days it is much easier to get her to stop than a hen that has been sitting for several weeks. After a few days we put the hen back into the coop for a short time so she does not become estranged from the other birds. If you keep her
apart too long, it will cause trouble when you put her back. This is also a test to see if she has stopped or if she goes directly back to the nest. Breeding with a broody A broody should be in good condition, because brooding is a hard job. She should be free from lice and other vermin, because this might irritate her so much that she may stop brooding long before the eggs hatch. If at last you have a broody, it is best is to isolate her from the other birds. This prevents the other hens laying any more eggs in her nest which she would surely try to sit on. When there is more than one broody they often try to steal each others eggs. This also reduces the chance of broken eggs or dirty eggs. The broody should have peace and quiet for the task ahead. Separate her in a quiet place. Before we move her to her new home we have to prepare a nest which should not be too wet, or too dry. On our farm, if we set a broody we take a square part out of the lawn and remove the soil in the centre which gives a nice hollow spot where the eggs can lay in. On top some straw and the nest is ready. If you pick up the hen and bring her to her new home she will not sit immediately. Madame will try to find a way back to the place where she used to sit. It is best to shut her in her new home a couple of days. You can use a box or a cage to do so. What also helps is to have her sit somewhere dark and to leave her alone till she sits well in her new home. On the right: a good trick is to make a nest with some eggs in a fruit box or something like that and put it near the place where the broody hen uses to sit. Afterwards you can carry her in her own box to a new place. When we have moved our hen to her new place we give her some eggs to test if she will sit. Not yet the eggs we want her to sit on, but just some eggs to try out to see if she is truly sitting. This can be some eggs we bought in the store, or even artificial eggs. Before we put the real eggs in the nest she has to practice on these first. You can also take eggs from your birds, but throwing them away after they have been sat on and a chick has started
to develop itself, I think is not a good idea. So, after some days, when she had proved that she sits well, I give her the eggs she has to sit on (best done when she is off the nest, for eating). Do not put too many eggs in the nest; the hen should be able to cover all eggs at once, otherwise not all eggs may hatch. Eggs she is not able to cover are not kept warm. The hen, after she returns to the eggs, will turn them all over and around, and some other egg may not be covered. So all your eggs may be involved in this and might not hatch. That is why it is very important that she should be able to easily cover all eggs at the same time. On the left: On these 16 eggs a bantam hen was sitting. This was far too much! Except feeding and giving water, there is not much we have to do. The hen does all the work. One should control her physical condition. Some hens just sit and forget to eat or drink in that time. This causes her to lose weight and some may even die. Best is to take her off the nest once a day and leave her off for ten to fifteen minutes to eat and drink. During this period she is best fed with corn, which contains the energy she needs. This you cannot do with every hen. It depends on how well she sits. A short time away from the nest will do her good. She can eat, drink and poop. In the mean time the eggs get fresh air and oxygen. The part of the egg containing oxygen will get larger from day to day. Clean away the large amounts of poop they produce, because it stinks awfully. If you find the poop outside the nest, there is no need to take her off the eggs any more, because that is a sign she regularly leaves the eggs by herself. Also if you see she has been eating, it is a sign everything is ok. Hatching Normally after 21 days the little ones should hatch. We always spray some hand warm water on the eggs for the last two days before they should hatch. Others have different opinions about that, but in our experience, the chicks come out of the eggs more easily this way. You can also put the hen in the wet grass in the morning so her feathers get wet. This humidity is needed for easy hatching. On the left: hatching begins If the little ones start hatching it is difficult not to get impatient, but please don t, because it can take quite some time before the first chicks, fully dry, appear from under the hen. It might take up to 24 hours. Best is to leave the hen alone; too much disturbance can make her stand on one of the chicks and maybe kill it this way.
On the right: the first bite on mother s indication If, at last, mother and children leave the nest it is up to us to see that they receive the best food and have a place where they can get water. A drinker, especially for chicks, is most ideal. Any other container for water should have some stones or marbles in it, so that the little ones cannot drown in it. The chicks will soon imitate mother in drinking and eating. The hen can, for this first period, also eat normal chick food. Best is to leave the hen with her chicks by themselves. If you put them back into the flock you might not be the first to lose a chick by the other hens pecking them to death. A separate stable or run is the best solution for the first six weeks or so. If you let them run free, they may be endangered by birds of prey, mink and foxes. It is better to have them safely inside a run or a stable. See to it that the chicks can reach drinking water and food and that they cannot escape. In some stables the hen and her chicks have to climb a ladder which is sometimes the reason that some of the chicks get left outside. When the temperature is too low, this might kill them. So in the evening you have to check that they are all inside. Chicks hatched in the incubator It is best to leave the chicks in the incubator until all have hatched. They can at least stay in the incubator for 24 hours. They have enough food reserve from the yolk for one or two days. Opening the incubator to take out the first chicks might have a bad impact on the others still to hatch, because the humidity is reduced. After all chicks have hatched, put them in a clean (disinfected) stable which is free of draughts and with a lamp to keep them warm. Right: sleeping peacefully in a circle under the lamp, indicating that the temperature is right.
There are lamps that give heat but no light. This way the chicks develop a normal day and night rhythm. Observe the chicks to make sure the heat is ok. If they go away from the lamp and lay with open beaks it sure is too warm! If they gather under the lamp making an uncomfortable impression, it is too cold. It is best when they spread in a circle under the lamp. Then you have the right temperature. They can use the distance from the lamp to vary the temperature. Some problems that can occur with the chicks Typical is spreading the legs if the floor of the stable is slippery. Because the skeleton and the muscles are not completely developed they cannot hold themselves and their legs keep slipping away. See to it that the surface of the floor gives them enough grip to hold themselves properly. Pictures right and left below: To prevent the legs from spreading you can tie them together with a piece of rope or some tape. It must not be too tight so that the circulation in the leg is hindered. Tie the legs together in the correct position, so that the chick can walk with it. Also take care of the surface of the stable. Usually in a few days this problem is solved this way. Picture left below: Jasper Pictures below: These spreading legs are not caused a slippery surface. This chick was under a broody on a rough surface. Probably a vitamin-b problem, hence a nutrition problem. If the mother of this bird was not in good shape and produced many eggs it might be that defects occur. These cannot be solved by a piece of rope. Pictures: Sandy
Picture on the right: Vitamin-B2 defect often gives crooked toes and tetany in the leg muscles. Give the birds, directly after they hatched like this, vitamin B2 or a multi-vitamin product for 5 to 7 days and chances are good this will correct itself, and the birds will grow normally and make great hens. This kind of problem is usually due to nutrition defects in the parents. Picture: Marjolein Wagemaker. What we see sometimes with very young chicks, especially those hatched in the incubator, is that the poop sticks to their bottoms. This usually gets more and more and gives problems with defecation. On the left: chicken with defecation problems This is due to an infection before the umbilical cord closes. Here pathogens may enter the body and cause this problem. Usually you can cure this by giving them boiled water the first days/week. Never pull of the clumps of poop at once. You might damage the cloaca or damage the skin. Use warm water to soak the clump, or cut it off carefully with a pair of scissors. Another problem can be the crossed beaks you sometimes see. The upper and lower part do not fit together properly and cross. On the left: Chicken with completely deformed beak; a very strongly crossed beak. As one can see the bird also lacks one eye. It was hatched under a broody and was not a failure of the incubator. It started to hatch but did not come out of the egg by itself. If this deformation is minimal the bird can live to an old age. If it is worse, the bird will have problems eating and drinking and it will not grow well and may often die. This deformity is a failure in the development of the embryo and
has nothing to do with the brooding procedure and is not genetic. In serious cases the chicks also don t have eyes, or have underdeveloped eyes. This is because eyes and beak develop together. By brooding with an incubator, deformities can also occur when the temperature is too high or too low during the incubation process. If only one or two chicks have deformities, it is more likely that it is something genetic, because if due to a temperature failure, more or nearly all the chicks would have deformities. Of course, especially if you breed chickens of diverse breeds, there will be differences in vitality. If you have a flock of healthy chickens without all these problems you can start enjoying them, and hopefully there are some coming champions among them! Reacties op dit artikel zijn welkom op redactie@aviculture-europe.nl Copyright 2006 Aviculture-Europe. All rights reserved by VBC.