I, Farm Boy!
LESSON 3 ON CHICKEN RAISING:
HENS ARE NATURAL INCUBATORS
For farmers who only have a few heads of backyard chicken or for those who live outside the powergrid, the best option for hatching chicks would be the hens.
Hens are nature's incubators and brooders which do not need temperature adjustment to ensure that the eggs get enough heat to hatch and the chicks are protected from the cold.
Compared to the man-made incubators, the farmer does not need electric power to hatch the eggs or bulbs to provide heat the the brooding chicks.
Of course, meron ding disadvantages ang hen hatching.
If the bedding of the nest is not laid properly, it could result in very low hatching rate, sometimes as low as only 40%.
To address this, the farmer has to make sure that when the hen starts to sit on her eggs, the bedding of the nest must be properly laid to prevent cold air coming in from under the nest.
A hatching hen is also a good breeding area for lice and mites. This could be solved by laying "Kakawate" leaves, "Tanglad" or Citronella or Basil leaves in the nest. Sevin Dust power also works well.
Also, allowing the hen to sit on her eggs would render her unproductive for almost two months because it takes 21 days to hatch the eggs and over a month before she weans her chicks.
But when hens sit on their eggs, it actually results in longer productivity because every time they brood for 21 days, their body heat melts the fats in their guts.
The Gut Fat, as that hard ball-shaped mass is called, affects the productivity of the hens as it reduces their egg production and even their productive years.
While hens normally lay eggs up until they are about 8 years old, those which freely roam the yard and sit on their eggs could still be productive up until they are 12 years old.
Chickens could live for as long as 12 to 14 years if they are well cared for although their most productive years start from 10 months up to 3 years.
(Starting this week, our video material in the Lessons on Breeding Chicken will be prepared by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Media Team to provide our farmers a better educational material - Sec. Manny Piñol)
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