Natural Chicken Incubator

We have been trying for years, but finally the natural chicken incubator got fired up until completion. Despite being prepared to run the incubator on alternative power and having it all prepared for hatching chicks we have always wanted the hens to hatch out some chicks. It is a great learning experience as the children get to see how the mother hen takes care of the chicks.

The children and my wife decided to give it another shot unbeknown to me. Well after years of trying and really giving up with that flock of hatchery birds they actually completed the mission. We will see how many actually hatch out as there are four hens actively sitting. So far two have hatched out and are running around the coop.

These chicks violate all the rules of raising chicks as they are running around the main coop. We had given up this batch ever sitting on them long enough to hatch that we never separated the quarters to isolate the chicks and mother hen. It is comforting to know the natural chicken incubator was working properly.

The reason that we did not have faith in this batch of hens is due to there hatchery lineage. They have tried to breed out broodiness and actually sitting on eggs until completion. I think it is important for the future of backyard flocks to have hens that will actually sit on eggs until completion.

We finally made arrangements and were planning on future breeding efforts to be heritage breeds. Of course that is the time the natural chicken incubator gets fired up. That is ok as it is much easier and a lot less time to let the mother hen take care of the baby chicks instead of us filling that role.

The future success of the backyard flocks are for the natural chicken incubator to be working in full force. Guess I need to schedule a talk with the Heritage breed now.