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Making choices for your chicks

The Country Smallholder

March 2026

Victoria Roberts BVSc MRCVS says Natural and Artifical Incubation are not an either/or choice

- Victoria Roberts

Some chicken breeders use both methods - it is useful to have an incubator handy in case something happens to the broody. Even an experienced broody can get startled enough to make her abandon her nest and an incubator can quickly take care of the valuable eggs. Most of the broodies are the Silkie cross Buff Sussex, known as Gold Tops as they are sex-linked when hatched (females are buff, males are white). The unformed and fluffy Silkie feathers are changed to properly formed feathers with this cross as pure broody Silkies may risk getting their fluffy feathers stuck around a chick and throttle it.

A BROODY HEN

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 2026-Ausgabe von The Country Smallholder.

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