Prepare a report by collect the following information. How many eggs does a mother hen lay at a time? What is the size of the eggs? How much time does the young one take to hatch out from the egg? Does the mother look after its eggs and the new-born chick?
Answers
Answer:
STEP 1: WHAT BREEDS ARE BORN MOTHERS?
not all breed are good for hatching,
most breeds have lost the instinct and will not sit on eggs.
The hen you will follow in this instructable, is a wild mix between different breeds but did her job very good :)
good breeds are:
Brahma - brilliant mothers and a big plus is their size, place for up to 20 eggs!
Silkie - also brilliant mothers but not that much space - good for small coops
STEP 2: PLACE FAKE-EGGS IN A NEST AND WAIT
Place about 5 fake eggs ( for example pottery or rubber eggs) in a normal nest in your chicken coop.
Now:
WAIT! until one of your precious hens decides to be a mommy :)
you can be sure, that you have a broody hen when she:
- ruffles her feathers
- makes noises that remind of water in a bottle ( "glug glug")
- leaves the nest only for a few minutes a day and returns to the eggs very fast
- gets angry when you come near her ( she picks)
STEP 3: PREPARE A SEPARATE NEST FOR THE BECOMING MOTHER
It's time to move your hen mother,
prepare a separate nest, there she can sit undisturbed of the other chickens in your coop.
Why?
- the other chicken may lay eggs in the brood-nest and you have always eggs in a different phase - that means some chicks will die.
- the other hens or the rooster may disturb and distract her and she will leaves the eggs, and stops to brood.
- the other chicken may kill your new hatched chicks
the requierements for this nest are:
- comfortable, fill it with straw
- separate from all other chickens, to avoid disturbing and distraction
- dark
- silent
- safe from predators
wait for the night or darken your coop.
Why? - chicken can't see very well when it's dark and will remain calm and unaffected.
take the fake eggs from your hen and put them into the "new" nest.
now carefully lift her up and carry her to the new nest.
close the opening of the nest with a towel or something
now wait for 2 or 3 days, until you are sure that she remains on the nest.
offer her water and wheat every day(!) but she won't eat that much.
STEP 4: THE REAL EGGS
time for real fertilized eggs.
if you have a good rooster you can use your own eggs
other possibilities are:
- exchange with other chicken owners
- buy fertilized eggs online
Your hen will accept every kind of egg, every breed.
choose eggs:
- without cracks
- normal sized - No extrem big ones and no extrem small ones ( depends on the breed)
wait for the night or darken your coop, remove the fake eggs and replace the carefully with the real ones.
From now on it takes 21 days until the chicks will hatch!!! - mark it in your calendar
if you have eggs of different breeds you may mark them with a pencil.