Ebay or Breeder?

I see so many people buying hatching eggs from Ebay and they are often disappointed with the result and wonder why they haven’t been successful.

I, like most people, love a bargain and use Ebay for a lot of my purchases in my day to day life, but when it comes to something more important like hatching eggs, i’d recommend going to a specific breeder (doesn’t have to be us, but definitely can be if you’d like!)

One of the downfalls with Ebay is that any Tom, Dick or Harry can put any eggs that they have on there without proof or background of where they have come from. A lot of sellers just put photos of the eggs themselves without seeing the parent stock, which is not ideal. You should always look at the parent stock to ensure they are good quality birds and are good standards of their breeds. It also allows you to see the health of the birds, the healthier the bird, the better the chance of the eggs developing once you’ve received them.

If you look at purchasing hens and eggs the same way that you would look at buying a dog. Ensure the parents are healthy and good specimens. Have a look at previous eggs that the hens have laid, ensure they are good quality eggs. The last thing you’d want is to pay for your eggs and to receive eggs that are strange shapes (that a chick wouldn’t fit comfortably in) and to have eggs with ridges or dull shells, as the likelihood of them developing to full term is quite slim.

If you contact a reputable breeder, they should be able to supply you with all the information you need about their breeding flocks and answer any queries that you have about their hatching eggs.

If you’d like any more information on our hatching eggs, please do get in touch!

Hatching Chicks With A Broody Hen

You’d presume it would be a natural instinct for a hen to want to hatch her own chicks, but that’s definitely not always the case. At Higher Oak farm, because we breed rare breed hens, it’s really hard to get them to hatch and rear their own chicks. We’ve only been successful with 1 Araucana hen that’s naturally hatched and raised her own chicks. Having said that, we still hatch and rear hundreds of chicks by using special brooding hens. We use Silkie hens, as we’ve found these guys live for hatching their own chicks. We collect and choose which breed we want to hatch more of and swap the eggs from underneath a broody hen with the eggs we want to hatch (We do this at night to help keep the hen calm).

We try and utilise broody hens as often as we can. There are so many benefits to having the chicks being brought up by another hen. It takes away the issues of using incubators as the hen does everything naturally. The chicks will grow up understanding their environment a lot more as they’ve learnt everything from the mother hen. They are more wary of people to begin with, but soon understand that you’re the one that will feed them and they become a lot more friendly!

Common broody hen breeds

Some of the most common broody breeds are Cochins, Orpingtons, Brahmas, Silkies, Sussexes, and Marans. There are other common heritage breeds that will go broody (Cornish, Barred Rocks, Wyandottes, and Turkens, to name a few), but you may have more trouble keeping them on the nest. If you want to hatch eggs without an incubator, don’t take your chances on regular breeds. Instead, get broody breeds!

Signs of a good brooder

You may notice that the same hen has been sitting on the nest for quite a while. You might think, “she’s broody!” But that isn’t always the case. In fact, it’s often not the case. Sometimes hens just get tired and lay in the box to rest. Others abandon the nest after 24-hours. Here’s some signs of a good broody.

• She’s a permanent sitter - She sits on the nest all day and all night when you leave eggs in the nest. She’ll not get up to roost in the evening with the other chickens. She’ll sit on the nest longer than 24-hours, and she’ll return to the nest quickly after getting a drink and bite to eat.

• She screams at you - Broody hens can be vicious things, and rightfully so. They have the ultimate prize to protect! If you try to remove her from the nest, she’ll puff up and make a shrill noise while resisting all your efforts.

• Broody poop - If you’ve had a hen that’s been sitting on the nest all day, she’s been retaining her poop. When she finally gets off the nest, her manure will be larger than normal and stink. Don’t worry, you’ll know the difference when you smell it and see it

• She lays fairly flat - While laying hens will sit in the nesting box, brooders tend to lay flat, making sure they cover all of the eggs.

We always take the broody hen out from the flock and into a separate pen where she can brood in peace. We tried to let the hen brood and hatch in the run but unfortunately the other hens and cockerel did not take it well and killed the chicks. It’s safe to say, we'll never be doing that again! If you don’t have another separate coop you can use any of the below:

-An old doghouse as long as there is an enclosed area where the hen can go outside safely.

-An enclosed pet carrier or dog crate

-Rabbit Hutch

-Small portable chicken coop with run.

Hatching the eggs

1. Bedding - Make sure she has plenty of fresh straw in her nesting area, deep enough to protect the eggs from hard surfaces.

2. Food and Water - Give the hen plenty of food and water. Place the food and water near her nesting spot to encourage her to get up once or twice a day.

3. Make sure she gets back on the nest - If she gets off the nest for long enough for the eggs to start getting cold, just coax her back into the nest using treats or pop her back on the nest.

4. Hatching- It takes about 3 weeks for eggs to hatch. Make a note of the day she goes broody, about half way through you might want to look at candling the eggs to take out any that aren’t viable. Once the chicks start to pip (crack the shell) keep an eye on them. Most of them should hatch on their own but you’ll want to be on hand to help if there’s any hiccups.

Congratulations on your new arrivals!

22 Likes, 1 Comments - Amelia Robertson (@ameliarobertson) on Instagram: "🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥 @higheroakfarm"

Incubator Vs Broody Hen

As we are entering the brooding/Hatching season, we wanted to post about the pro’s and con’s of hatching chicks with an incubator and hatching with a broody hen.

Pro’s to hatching chicks with broody hens

The really great thing about hens is that they go broody and then can hatch and look after their own chicks. Hens are completely self-sufficient with their chicks which makes it super easy for you.

One major bonus about using a broody hen is that they don't need a heat lamp. The hen generates her own heat to keep the chicks warm and they’ll cuddle right up inside her to keep warm.

Con’s to hatching chicks with broody hens

One big downfall about hatching with a broody is that it’s in natures hands and they are not always broody when you need them to be! They can also be quite vicious when it comes to handling. We’re currently putting together a new blog post on how to break a broody hen, watch this space for more information.
Broody hens are also not always reliable. They can get bored of sitting and just get off the nest and not come back, leaving the eggs to go cold. This is not to be confused for the bird getting off the nest for food and water.

Hens can also be destructive. Once in a while you can come across a hen that doesn’t know what they are doing. We had an instance where the hen sat until all the chicks hatched and then she unfortunately killed them all as she was a first time mum and didn’t quite know what she was doing. However, this is a rare occasion, but it does sometimes happen.

Pros to hatching with an incubator

In an incubator you have full control of how many eggs you can start to incubate. You also have control of when they will hatch. Hens can go broody at all sorts of times, and aren’t necessarily aware of the convenience for you.

When hatching chicks in an incubator you get to watch the process more closely. Chicks that are hatched in an incubator can generally be handled more easily because they don’t have a mother hen chasing them around. Some people argue that incubator chicks are more friendly as they are used to you being around and rely on you for food and water.

Cons to hatching with an incubator

Clearly hatching with an incubator means that you actually need an incubator and depending on the spec these can be quite pricey. You are also in control of the chicks. It’s up to you to decide when a hatch is finished and if you are to help a struggling chick (I always do, just because I’m a softie and can’t leave them to die) and these decisions are not always easy to make.

If you hatch chicks from an incubator your situation will be exactly like if you’d purchased the chicks. They will need heat, water and food. Your chicks will need to be kept separate from the rest of your flock until they are old enough that they would not be picked on.

Which way is best?

There are pros and cons to both hatching methods, but it’s entirely up to you and your set up and what you want to deal with.