Dear Hugh and Fiona, As I said in my last note to you, I am working my way through your videos. As with the others I have watched so far, this one on incubation was up to your excellent standard. I love how the two of you complement each other. Your videos are put together beautifully: well-organized, divided up nicely, just the right length, and the sound and visuals are a delight. Sincerely, Larry Clarence Lewis London, Ontario, Canada.

@EnglishCountryLife

2 ай бұрын

Thanks so much Larry, that's really kind of you

Love your videos they have lots of good information in them I live in the United States . Some of y'all's info is different than what I get here but it helps me to understand things a little more . Thank you keep them coming

@EnglishCountryLife

3 ай бұрын

Glad you like them!

We took your advice last year and bought in some eggs for our bantam Sussex when she became an angry growl monster one day. She successfully hatched a brood of speckled Sussex and an errant Silkie. Watching proud mother hen and her zipping balls of fluff was the highlight of the year for us. Thank you for giving us the confidence to try! All of our birds moulted late this year, one has only just started (January), I guess because of the mild winter. Is this something you have noticed with your hens too?

@EnglishCountryLife

5 ай бұрын

It's really magical, we are do glad you were brave enough to enjoy it! Yes it's a funny year for moulting, it was mild for so long. Our Orpingtons are all finished but non of the others are in lay

Thank you. 😊 In Sweden we can only have a maximum of 4 hens and no roosters in built-up areas. Technically it is therefore legal to have 4 hens in a flat. But I live in a flat and I think I will wait to get chickens until I get a better place with an outdoor area. 🐔🐣🐤🐥

@EnglishCountryLife

5 ай бұрын

I think 4 hens in a flat would be hilarious 🤣...but messy!

@nian60

5 ай бұрын

@@EnglishCountryLife Yes I think so too. 😄

This is just the information I needed. After 13 years of raising chicks with a cock and broody hen just for our own eggs we are seriously thinking of buying in eggs to incubate. The big advantage would be raising chicks when it suits us and not having hatchings when we are near to going on our summer holiday which always seems to happen! I can recommend your on-line shop. I bought a device from you that raises and lowers the pop hole in the coop based on the light levels and it even worked when we had a hard frost. At this time of year when the light levels change so much (North east of Scotland) it is a comfort to know that we will not be too late to tuck them in. After having a badger attack in what we thought was a secure enclosure and being caught out by both thinking the other had tucked them in, it gives us peace of mind especially if we are out when it gets dark early.

@EnglishCountryLife

5 ай бұрын

Hi Donna! When we get a broody hen we put dome extra eggs in the incubator. Then when we candle the eggs under the broody, if any aren't developing, we swap them for incubator ones that are viable!

Lovely video, very helpful!!! Thank you for the well-laid out information! ❤❤❤

@EnglishCountryLife

3 ай бұрын

Thank you Mary 🙂

" you'll end up with 50 hens " . Is that what happened with you ? 😁 The Lussac 5 ( this is their collective noun) are doing well. Very well in fact. We can't keep up with their egg production. We had 4 eggs on Christmas day, which was nice. Most days we have at least 3 eggs if not 4. And their characters are developing nicely. We have some very naughty hens who try to get out of the coop/run/enclosure at any given opportunity, 2 of the little tinkers got out of the enclosure whilst we were in the house ! It's like the great escape, I'm sure they keep whispering about Tom,Dick and Harry and I wouldn't be surprised if we get a delivery of a baseball glove from Amazon. Do you give your girls treats to eat ? Ours go mad for sweetcorn and grapes. They will literally mug us for them whenever we go into the enclosure with any. To a lesser degree they will eat cucumber and apple, tomatoes are well received and we want to try them with some melon and strawberries if we can get them. And the flavour of the eggs is out of this world. We've had free range eggs plenty of times and know the difference in flavour from commercial eggs but we can honestly say that these eggs are in a league of their own. And I know all chicken keepers will say the same about their eggs, probably because the chicks have had access to fresh grass or leafy greens. 🥦🍅🍇🙂

@EnglishCountryLife

5 ай бұрын

Happy New Year! Chicken maths certainly got us...and lots of other people we know too!

@chrishamilton-wearing3232

5 ай бұрын

And a very happy new year to you both too.@@EnglishCountryLife

I would love nothing more than to incubate my own hens but I worry about male hatchlings and wouldn’t want any of them to be slaughtered 😢 I wouldn’t want to add to the unwanted boys that are out there , it’s so sad.

@EnglishCountryLife

5 ай бұрын

It is something that needs to be considered. We raise ours to maturity and some do become table birds. Perhaps not ideal but much preferable to what happens to the males in commercial hatcheries

@homestead.smallholding

5 ай бұрын

What do you think happens everywhere else?

@catladywblueeyes5833

5 ай бұрын

That is a concern, but if you buy chicks and only the pullets, just as much cockerels have been born, you just don't know about it. I've hatched my own 3 times now and we've always found a home for the cockerels. Sadly we can't keep any due to regulations.

@tanny1974

5 ай бұрын

@@catladywblueeyes5833 yes that’s my problem as well, I live too close to neighbours who would complain about the roosters. I would worry about finding homes as I live in an area where so many people just dump the roosters out in the wild. I do appreciate this is what has to be expected whenever chicks hatch . It’s just something I wanted to make others aware of , because some people don’t think of this when hatching their own chicks .

I think they're intelligent animals that people take for granted, what would we do without the eggs they provide for us? We should have more respect and love and care for farm animals! Why are these eggs being incubated really....where is the mother anyway? What have you done with her?

@EnglishCountryLife

5 ай бұрын

Most chicken breeds do not go broody any more, it's a trait that's been bred out of them do without incubators they would die out. They certainly are more intelligent than people think. What types of chicken have you kept & how where they hatched?