Chicken And The Egg

A comprehensive guide to choosing which Hens to breed from and which of their eggs to set

- Megg Miller

Sit outdoors with a cuppa and observe your chooks going about their daily activities. They’re great DIY workers. They all have individual quirks and personalities and most lay a distinctly colored and shaped egg.

With the breeding season imminent, how will you decide which eggs to set? You could set whatever is fresh and on hand or you could have a long hard look at the girls, acknowledging that some meet your requirements better than others.

What characteristics do you rate highly? My list for important characteristics includes a quiet, curious temperament, good health, freedom from physical defects, persistence in laying, good egg shape and size and, lastly, longevity. I haven’t included broodiness — this trait is associated with numerous breeds so often it occurs naturally.

A BIDDABLE TEMPERAMENT

Placid, curious birds grow better than their more anxious, flightier flock mates and enjoy better health and immunity.

Recent research has shown that anxious hens deposit stress hormones in their fertile eggs that result in chicks that are fearful and less adventurous. Unless your more nervous hens have some very desirable traits, it makes sense to bypass their eggs for the setting.

Is your rooster a nice-natured chap, kind to his girls and sensibly protective? What about his behavior with humans? An aggressive rooster passes his temperament on to his sons. Cast around for a replacement rooster rather than risk daily confrontations when entering the henhouse.

GOOD HEALTH

Healthy hens are likely to be better foragers and more able to resist internal parasites than hens that have a lowgrade infection or look lackluster.

A hen that’s not 100 percent will need to use more of her nutritional resources on combating disease than a healthy bird and so produce eggs of lesser quality. And she may not absorb nutrients well.