Well, we experimented with letting the hens set on eggs and hatch them, and all in all we did pretty good. Hard to say exactly on some of them, think they had just as good of hatches as me, and maybe better for some. The geese for sure. But we also had some real issues pop up that we are going to have to deal with and prepare for next year.
First is where are we going to have the hens set on their eggs? We had the geese set in a corner of the coop and then a Narragansett tried to make her nest in the same spot. That resulted in the geese standing on her eggs during the night, and getting poop all over them. She never did set on any of the eggs. Not a good thing. In the peacock cage we had Edith make a nest on one side and the Narragansett make one on the other side. Eventually the Narr. Would move over to Edith’s nest and lay her eggs there, then she finally just tried to sit on the nest with her. In the end I pulled the Narragansett out of the cage and gave her 4 poults from the incubator. One Narragansett hen set on eggs out in the tall grass in the front yard and hatched 7, including 1 chicken. Finally, Redd made a nest out in the Black Berries and set on maybe a dozen eggs.
The next problem we had was keeping track of how many eggs were under each hen, and preventing others from getting in and laying additional ones. I tried to mark some of them, especially when I could watch them lay the eggs and wait for them to set on them. I didn’t so much have a problem with more than one hen laying in the same nest, in fact it helps build the number of eggs in the nest faster. The problem comes when one of the hens finally decides to set, how do you keep the others from continuing to lay there?
And the last major problem we had was what to do with the mother and babies after they hatch? The natural instinct is to take the babies into the brush or grass and hide. And I didn’t think the moms were up to that, and I didn’t trust them or the wild animals around here with that. So I put her in a cage, but the babies kept getting out. So I ended up letting her roam free. Cost me 2 of her babies some where. When the Narragansett hatched in the front yard, she started taking them to the woods, so I put her in the cage, where she still is. She started with 7, the dogs “played with one during the night and she had 6. Then the other night we lost 2 more. They looked like they were trampled in the cage. Think Nikita was loose that night and may have harassed mom in the cage, or something else came around and scared her. So she is down to 4, and one of them is a chicken, go figure. Redd hatched out at least 7 that I counted, but she also had that many dead babies under her, several looked like they were half out of the egg. Then the white rooster got in the yard and chased her all over, and I think she lost some of the babies. When I went out tonight and looked she only had 4. So now we have to decide what to do with her and the babies and how to protect them best we can. I’m thinking about letting the Narragansett out with her 4 babies, they are a little bigger now and they should be ok, and putting Redd in the cage until hers get bigger.
What I have learned this year is that you can only have one hen in a small cage, either in the peacock enclosure or in the small cage I built. They will share nests when one of them is setting and after the babies hatch one will bully the other. And they don’t like to be caged after they the babies hatch. The babies don’t stay near mom. And I still worry about the babies getting enough to eat and drink, and have no way of controlling or making sure they get the game starter they need. The other thing that concerns us is there is no way of really securing mom and her babies for the night. So what do we do?
Ideally each hen would have their own space. Don’t think that is going to happen. I also need to separate the different birds, so the geese, chickens, ducks and turkeys each get their own living space. So we make pens of some sort and put 1 Tom and 2 hens in each one. When one of them shows a willingness to set try to remover her and out her on eggs in another space. When the second hen begins to set I can remove the Tom. If the spaces are planned right, the hen can just stay there with her babies until they grow some. Just need to think about how big the enclosures or what ever need to be. Obviously need to be tall enough for the Tom to get on a hen and partially covered to protect from weather. Both Redd and the Narragansett set on eggs out in the open with minimal protection, through storms and rain and such, so it can be done, but prefer not to force the issue. Have to think about it.
First is where are we going to have the hens set on their eggs? We had the geese set in a corner of the coop and then a Narragansett tried to make her nest in the same spot. That resulted in the geese standing on her eggs during the night, and getting poop all over them. She never did set on any of the eggs. Not a good thing. In the peacock cage we had Edith make a nest on one side and the Narragansett make one on the other side. Eventually the Narr. Would move over to Edith’s nest and lay her eggs there, then she finally just tried to sit on the nest with her. In the end I pulled the Narragansett out of the cage and gave her 4 poults from the incubator. One Narragansett hen set on eggs out in the tall grass in the front yard and hatched 7, including 1 chicken. Finally, Redd made a nest out in the Black Berries and set on maybe a dozen eggs.
The next problem we had was keeping track of how many eggs were under each hen, and preventing others from getting in and laying additional ones. I tried to mark some of them, especially when I could watch them lay the eggs and wait for them to set on them. I didn’t so much have a problem with more than one hen laying in the same nest, in fact it helps build the number of eggs in the nest faster. The problem comes when one of the hens finally decides to set, how do you keep the others from continuing to lay there?
And the last major problem we had was what to do with the mother and babies after they hatch? The natural instinct is to take the babies into the brush or grass and hide. And I didn’t think the moms were up to that, and I didn’t trust them or the wild animals around here with that. So I put her in a cage, but the babies kept getting out. So I ended up letting her roam free. Cost me 2 of her babies some where. When the Narragansett hatched in the front yard, she started taking them to the woods, so I put her in the cage, where she still is. She started with 7, the dogs “played with one during the night and she had 6. Then the other night we lost 2 more. They looked like they were trampled in the cage. Think Nikita was loose that night and may have harassed mom in the cage, or something else came around and scared her. So she is down to 4, and one of them is a chicken, go figure. Redd hatched out at least 7 that I counted, but she also had that many dead babies under her, several looked like they were half out of the egg. Then the white rooster got in the yard and chased her all over, and I think she lost some of the babies. When I went out tonight and looked she only had 4. So now we have to decide what to do with her and the babies and how to protect them best we can. I’m thinking about letting the Narragansett out with her 4 babies, they are a little bigger now and they should be ok, and putting Redd in the cage until hers get bigger.
What I have learned this year is that you can only have one hen in a small cage, either in the peacock enclosure or in the small cage I built. They will share nests when one of them is setting and after the babies hatch one will bully the other. And they don’t like to be caged after they the babies hatch. The babies don’t stay near mom. And I still worry about the babies getting enough to eat and drink, and have no way of controlling or making sure they get the game starter they need. The other thing that concerns us is there is no way of really securing mom and her babies for the night. So what do we do?
Ideally each hen would have their own space. Don’t think that is going to happen. I also need to separate the different birds, so the geese, chickens, ducks and turkeys each get their own living space. So we make pens of some sort and put 1 Tom and 2 hens in each one. When one of them shows a willingness to set try to remover her and out her on eggs in another space. When the second hen begins to set I can remove the Tom. If the spaces are planned right, the hen can just stay there with her babies until they grow some. Just need to think about how big the enclosures or what ever need to be. Obviously need to be tall enough for the Tom to get on a hen and partially covered to protect from weather. Both Redd and the Narragansett set on eggs out in the open with minimal protection, through storms and rain and such, so it can be done, but prefer not to force the issue. Have to think about it.
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