Our offspring...(as told our light golden Bantam). I am the queen of the broodies here on the Relaxed smallholding and will raise two or even three broods a year (though I don't hang around with them for too long as they grow up...)
And what of the incubator? If our owners hatch chicks in an incubator, things are a little different. The chicks hatch without any help, hopefully, and then they have to spend a day in the incubator drying off (remember they have the egg yolk inside them for food). When they are dry and fluffy (and at that cute stage), they either go into something called a brooder (a big box with a heat lamp or similar, plus food and water) OR, if they are lucky, there may be a broody hen back amongst us lot who will be happy to take them on.
After I raised a set of chicks one spring I went all broody again but instead of giving me some eggs to hatch, I was given a set of ready-made chicks. Our owners play this trick: they give us a few 'false' eggs to sit on and then a few days later they 'fool' us into thinking the eggs have hatched by swapping the eggs for some chicks. I wasn't fooled but I didn't mind and I brought up the chicks just as happily as if I HAD hatched them myself!!!
If the chicks end up in the broody box, our owners have to look after them by making sure the feed and water is always topped up, and the box is cleaned at least once a day. Chicks raised like this can get quite tame but they miss out on being able to run around on grass and soil in their first few weeks. Not sure it makes any difference in the long run but it is definitely MORE work for our owners!!!
Almost dry!! One of our owners' incubators: this one can hold 48 chicken eggs at once!!
Our offspring...(as told our light golden Bantam). I am the queen of the broodies here on the Relaxed smallholding and will raise two or even three broods a year (though I don't hang around with them for too long as they grow up...)
