Moving a broody

[jessmorris]

Hi Suzy,
I just moved two broody bantams into new broody houses. I did it quickly at night time and draped a tarpaulin over the run so the house and run were gloomy. They seemed to settle ok so far, the darkness seemed to calm them down a bit. Frustrating though it is, I would save the hen not the eggs. However good luck with it all, and your incubator! Red mites are the very devil and it must have been horrible to see them crawling over your broody.

[SuzyB]

I think we're ok - moved my broody last night, eggs in the incubator. Early this morning she was wandering around, now she's tucked up on her rubber eggs. Stroked her, she made her normal 'I'll allow that because its nice' noises but didnt shift. Will leave her a bit longer with her falsies and either put her eggs back tonight or tomorrow night.

Who knew being a chicken momma would be so fraught!

[jessmorris]

If they are to live with the main flock then you could start introducing them now, or wait just a couple more weeks till they have gained in size a little more. They will be picked on at first but things will settle down over time.

I tend to let mine grow on in a separate enclosure till almost full size before introducing them, but I have more space than most people, so I appreciate this is not a practical solution for everyone. My growers stay as a mixed group until the cocks start getting naughty (usually at about the 12 week mark), then I will take the pullets out and fatten up the boys on their own.

Richmondhens - just out of interest and referring to a much earlier post - how long do you fatten yours birds up for and is there an age before which you wouldn't eat them? A friend mentioned she'd killed and eaten a young cockerel but that 'he wasn't ready for eating', not sure what she meant - not enough meat on him?....just wondered...

[RichmondHens]

Richmondhens - just out of interest and referring to a much earlier post - how long do you fatten yours birds up for and is there an age before which you wouldn't eat them? A friend mentioned she'd killed and eaten a young cockerel but that 'he wasn't ready for eating', not sure what she meant - not enough meat on him?....just wondered...

Mine are all around 6 months old before we eat them (they are all either pure breeds or crosses of, not broiler hybrids). They don't have a particularly restricted lifestyle - in fact at the moment my large fowl growers are running loose round the fields because I don't like them to be penned all the time, but too much running around will just toughen up the legs too much so you have to find a balance. I will put them on a finisher diet and keep them in a smaller area for the last four weeks or so. We eat bantams at pretty much at the same age but obviously don't make as much weight, but following the same rearing programme they do ok and feed two people comfortably. i do find though that bantams because of their nature tend to scrap a lot more with their siblings and there comes a point when I know they are not going to make any more weight because they spend too much time squabbling, so some are culled because they are trouble even though they are not up to weight.

I guess your friend meant there wasn't enough meat on their bird. They tend to make the size in frame before they lay down the meat, and you can't feed too much corn otherwise it goes on as fat. Mine get growers pellet plus anything they find ranging around and then as I said above finishers for the last few weeks. Potatoes are supposed to be good for finishing birds on too, although I've never tried them as part of a formal diet, just as scraps.

[RichmondHens]

As an addition to the above, you can eat almost any bird in some way or other. We tend to roast the big young boys, and skin and casserole the bantams and smaller or older birds. Old hens cooked slow make good stews too. Or with a skinny bird you can just boil the carcass and make soup or stock.

[Hilary B]

Protein and minerals (eg calcium) are what make a bird (or anything else) grow. There is no advantage to adding a high carb feed unless they are going to be using up a lot of energy (which will probably result in a tough roaster).
While the 'broiler breeds' do have a propensity for turning feed into meat quickly, a lot of that is due to the amount they eat, and the lack of anything else to do.
You could take a half-dozen broiler-bred chicks, put them with a half-dozen "first cross of 2 traditional meat breeds" and rear them the same way from hatching on. The difference in size would be less than you might expect.....

[jessmorris]

Food for thought (as it were!)