Breeding Chickens

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There are a number of reasons that breeding chickens might be viable for you. Perhaps you'd like to raise a clutch of fluffy chicks to add to your existing flock, or to replace chickens that are to be killed for meat.

If you keep one of the rarer poultry breeds, then breeding chickens is important to maintaining that breed. After all, rare breed poultry types must be maintained, or they'll go extinct!

The good news is that no matter why you need to breed, it's not hard to produce more chickens. Let's take a look.

There are several chicken breeding methods, from isolating individual hens and roosters to control which members of the flock are breeding, to just letting the roosters and hens live together.

Either way, once you have fertilized eggs, you'll need to incubate them. Feeding chickens well during this period is extremely important. That way, you'll know that they'll stay in good health, even though they're producing eggs.

To incubate naturally, just stop collecting the eggs. A broody hen will eventually sit on the eggs and incubate them to hatching.

Remember that lower ranking hens may need to be separated from the flock to avoid harassment.

Artificial incubation is another option. After all, hens are only broody at certain times of the year. If you'd like to hatch chicks at another time, you'll need to have a way to do it.

A commercial incubator will remain at the correct temperature and bring your chicks to hatching.

Then, you can either allow them to be raised by the mother hen, or you can raise them yourself in a warm brooder.

Both methods work, though chicks will need to be kept away from the rest of the chickens if raised by a hen.

Sexing chicks takes a few tries, but is important. After all, you'll need to know which are roosters and which are hens, particularly if you're raising just chickens for eggs, or you prefer roosters for meat.

This process can be done relatively easily if you have the training, however. Just take the time to learn what to look for and be gentle with the chick.

After all, chicks are very small and can be quite fragile. Once you know which sex your chicks are, you can keep track of them better.

There's not a lot to breeding chickens, though you should keep track of which ones you've bred to keep them in the best health.

Tracking the genetic background of your chickens will help you prevent inbreeding and will ensure that you'll have healthier chickens that will produce longer. Take the time to plan your breeding, and you're sure to avoid running into problems.

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