Today has been full of surprises! Soon after I posted on pecans and grapes I heard peeping in the incubator. We have some friends that are wanting replacement hens so we added some eggs into the incubator while hatching turkey eggs.
Last year we combined all our hens into one pen and only kept one rooster so most of these will be a mixed breed. The rooster was a jersey giant. I am actually surprised at the hatch rate since we only have 1 rooster to 30 hens. They have 1 more full day so I will be excited to learn the hatch rate with only 1 rooster. In the past we have always kept a ratio of 1 rooster to 7 hens. Not only do they eat food they seem to always stir up the dust chasing each other!
Do you prefer to buy, incubate, or let the chickens hatch them on your homestead? I would appreciate your answer and reason why you do what you do with raising the next generation of chickens.
