Aug. 18, 2025

Nature vs Nurture Hatching Chicks with Hens or Hatchers-Part 2

Nature vs Nurture Hatching Chicks with Hens or Hatchers-Part 2

In Part 2 of Nature vs Nurture: Hatching Chicks with Hens or Hatchers, we explore the time-tested traditions of broody hens alongside the science of modern incubators.
Discover:

  • How to prepare housing and bedding for a broody hen
  • Why moving a setting hen rarely works and what to do instead
  • The benefits and drawbacks of peat moss, straw, and other bedding options
  • Why incubator calibration is critical for success
  • The importance of stable temperature and humidity for hatch rates
  • What to feed chicks in their first two weeks for the best start

From beginner-friendly advice to advanced insights for serious breeders, this conversation blends personal stories, practical tips, and decades of poultry-keeping wisdom. If you’ve ever wondered whether Mother Nature or modern hatchers give better results, this episode will give you the clarity you need.

To listen to this episode now go to www.thepoultrykeeperspodcast.com and don’t miss future episodes of the Poultry Keepers Podcast — subscribe for more expert poultry tips!

#PoultryKeepersPodcast #PoultryKeepers360 #PoultryBreedersNutrition #ShowProFarmSupply #BackyardChickens #HatchingChicks #IncubatorTips #BroodyHen #PoultryManagement #ChickCare #PoultryPodcast #HomesteadChickens 

You can email us at - poultrykeeperspodcast@gmail.com
Join our Facebook Groups:

Poultry Keepers Podcast -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/907679597724837
Poultry Keepers 360 - - https://www.facebook.com/groups/354973752688125
Poultry Breeders Nutrition - https://www.facebook.com/groups/4908798409211973

Check out the Poultry Kepers Podcast YouTube Channel -
https://www.youtube.com/@PoultryKeepersPodcast/featured

WEBVTT

00:00:00.050 --> 00:00:06.639
When it comes to raising chicks, poultry keepers often debate whether hens or incubators give better results.

00:00:07.309 --> 00:00:17.390
In this episode of the Poultry Keepers Podcast, Jeff Mattocks and Carey Blackmon dive into the pros and cons of hatching with broody hens versus artificial incubators.

00:00:18.109 --> 00:00:28.199
You’ll hear real-life stories of unexpected broody hens, practical advice on bedding and nest preparation, and expert tips on choosing and running an incubator successfully.

00:00:28.350 --> 00:00:39.500
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced poultry breeder, this discussion will help you understand the balance between nature’s way and modern technology in hatching strong, healthy chicks.

00:00:40.915 --> 00:00:42.415
What would you do?

00:00:42.445 --> 00:00:48.295
Let's say you didn't have any chicks and you had a broody hen.

00:00:49.195 --> 00:00:59.845
What would you recommend as far as housing and bedding for that broy hen to get her outta the ailments if she doesn't have any eggs.

00:01:00.746 --> 00:01:01.375
No eggs?

00:01:02.185 --> 00:01:03.265
No, she's got eggs.

00:01:12.998 --> 00:01:13.358
Oh, okay.

00:01:14.088 --> 00:01:14.933
One or two of'em.

00:01:15.228 --> 00:01:16.338
Look, you can't move her.

00:01:16.388 --> 00:01:25.549
All you can do is put, some sort of makeshift shelter over to keep her dry, make sure she's got enough bedding and stuff like that under.

00:01:26.179 --> 00:01:32.319
Now, if you don't physically take the eggs out, you can, add some additional bedding in there.

00:01:32.769 --> 00:01:36.429
You can in some, hes, you can actually put the bedding around her.

00:01:37.328 --> 00:01:40.868
And she will reshape the nest according to what she needs, right?

00:01:40.868 --> 00:01:40.929
Yeah.

00:01:41.138 --> 00:01:42.789
Some will, some won't.

00:01:42.789 --> 00:01:43.358
Some won't.

00:01:43.448 --> 00:01:43.539
Yeah.

00:01:43.539 --> 00:01:45.849
So you can put some loose straw and stuff in there.

00:01:46.308 --> 00:01:49.849
And she'll reshape that nest and make it what it ought to be.

00:01:50.748 --> 00:01:51.948
But you can't really move'em.

00:01:52.248 --> 00:02:01.739
Like we talked about earlier, they're not gonna have I very limited success on moving a hen and eggs to another, and not lose the broodiness, where she'll go back to setting.

00:02:02.228 --> 00:02:09.118
I wouldn't wanna risk it, especially if it's a breed that you really need eggs from or need chicks from you can't really risk that.

00:02:09.299 --> 00:02:14.308
But so you're, wait, you mean you're your nest box or your brewed area?

00:02:15.058 --> 00:02:18.688
Should have been, you had to have thought about this a month prior.

00:02:18.729 --> 00:02:22.473
Hey, mean, a seasoned chicken tender would, yeah.

00:02:22.524 --> 00:02:29.334
Somewhere by April, by tax day, you really should have cleaned out all the nest boxes, right?

00:02:29.873 --> 00:02:35.424
Maybe through a little ous Earth or something else in there just to make sure you got bugs under control.

00:02:35.424 --> 00:02:42.563
Maybe a little lime, high calcium lime and fresh bedding substrate in there, and get a little bit excessive.

00:02:42.623 --> 00:02:45.804
And actually, if you want a hand to go broy.

00:02:46.299 --> 00:02:58.149
If you give her really deep bedding in there where she can get really cozy and comfortable I, I feel that the more bedding you put in, the more broody, the quicker they'll go broody.

00:02:58.579 --> 00:03:00.438
I think you're helping that situation.

00:03:01.338 --> 00:03:02.329
That makes sense.

00:03:03.229 --> 00:03:06.498
You're just making a much more comfortable bed for that chicken.

00:03:06.628 --> 00:03:06.748
Yeah.

00:03:06.774 --> 00:03:08.213
And she doesn't wanna leave.

00:03:08.373 --> 00:03:08.544
And.

00:03:09.443 --> 00:03:09.954
Okay.

00:03:10.433 --> 00:03:10.704
Yeah.

00:03:11.343 --> 00:03:28.084
One thing I had earlier this year, I, a lot of times at night I'll go outside and I'll check on my animals before I go to bed and I had a chicken make the godless noise like I thought I'd stepped on Tony and I didn't see one though.

00:03:28.354 --> 00:03:32.734
I'm looking around and the bushes that we have along the front of our house.

00:03:33.334 --> 00:03:40.503
One had got on the backside of one of the bushes and decided to lay her eggs.

00:03:41.403 --> 00:03:45.063
And I'm like, okay, number one, when did you get out?

00:03:45.963 --> 00:03:47.524
Is this even gonna work?

00:03:48.424 --> 00:03:52.563
And then I realized exactly when it was that she got out.

00:03:52.593 --> 00:03:54.183
'cause I do have some cameras back there.

00:03:54.723 --> 00:03:56.193
And I went and found a drop pin.

00:03:57.093 --> 00:04:06.903
And for a few weeks I had a drop pen in my flower bed over a bush with his hand in it.

00:04:07.804 --> 00:04:13.294
I'm watering feed, my wife's what the, I said, Hey, look, you don't mess with him.

00:04:14.193 --> 00:04:18.053
So I was able to keep her calm for a few weeks and I had to move them.

00:04:18.053 --> 00:04:20.014
But like you said, don't move them.

00:04:20.913 --> 00:04:23.103
I just put the drop pin around her to keep her safe.

00:04:23.134 --> 00:04:34.894
'cause I do live in some very raccoon infested places and my dogs should not be in my front yard unattended.

00:04:34.894 --> 00:04:38.704
They should be in the fence in the back with everything else.

00:04:38.973 --> 00:04:41.733
So I had to make sure she was safe.

00:04:41.963 --> 00:04:45.233
Since you're, since we're sharing those funny stories right.

00:04:45.593 --> 00:04:46.223
There you go.

00:04:47.124 --> 00:04:56.509
The reason I learned that Pete Moss was an excellent bedding was in the season of my life, when we had chickens here at my place in the backyard.

00:04:57.408 --> 00:05:06.619
Of course somebody thought we needed bantams, so I had a small black bantam hen and one day she of course did the disappear thing, right?

00:05:06.728 --> 00:05:08.093
I was like I had no clue.

00:05:08.194 --> 00:05:14.514
I didn't even know, through the day she would fly over the fence, six foot high, chicken wire fence in the run.

00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:17.139
And she would do her own thing.

00:05:17.408 --> 00:05:19.678
Then one day I didn't see her I didn't know, did.

00:05:20.579 --> 00:05:23.038
Raccoon did Al get her to talk?

00:05:23.038 --> 00:05:23.098
Yeah.

00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:24.569
Anyway, she just disappeared.

00:05:24.999 --> 00:05:28.119
Everybody's, if you've had chickens long enough, you figured this out.

00:05:28.119 --> 00:05:29.019
She disappeared.

00:05:29.528 --> 00:05:33.459
And of course, 21 days later she comes hopping out with 10 chicks.

00:05:33.509 --> 00:05:39.418
But she, we had a bale of pea moss sitting out by the chicken coop for gardening purposes.

00:05:39.838 --> 00:05:45.629
And there was a hole cut in that no bigger than a dinner plate, a smaller sized dinner plate.

00:05:46.168 --> 00:05:48.418
Yeah, she figured this out, right?

00:05:48.418 --> 00:05:52.499
So she was in there, and this is where she did her thing, right?

00:05:52.528 --> 00:05:53.428
All by herself.

00:05:54.178 --> 00:05:56.788
And, but she loved that pea mos man.

00:05:56.848 --> 00:06:00.059
She'd get in there, she'd bury herself all the way to her eyeballs.

00:06:00.569 --> 00:06:03.149
She'd just have herself a spa day or something.

00:06:03.149 --> 00:06:06.653
It was, and I'm like okay, if they like it, why not?

00:06:06.653 --> 00:06:07.673
Whatever, right?

00:06:07.678 --> 00:06:07.759
Yeah.

00:06:07.764 --> 00:06:09.504
I started doing a little research, why not?

00:06:09.653 --> 00:06:10.043
And.

00:06:10.524 --> 00:06:22.194
It, look it, it's not great nest box material because you know when they lay the egg and the bloom is still wet before it dries it's, you get pea moss stuck all over the eggs, right?

00:06:22.283 --> 00:06:22.374
Oh yeah.

00:06:22.704 --> 00:06:30.353
'cause it, it likes to absorb the moisture, but this is where I learned that pea moss was a favored bedding substrate for chickens.

00:06:30.353 --> 00:06:35.574
Now people don't like it at all'cause it's dusty, but chickens love that stuff, man.

00:06:35.843 --> 00:06:37.119
They love meat moss.

00:06:38.019 --> 00:06:39.939
Anyway, sorry, digress.

00:06:40.689 --> 00:06:55.028
So what did, what is the best advice you can give for the rookie chicken tender as it relates to them deciding that they want to hatch out their very own chicks?

00:06:55.928 --> 00:06:57.353
What advice would you have for'em?

00:06:58.134 --> 00:07:00.504
I'll go back to, I still think they need an incubator.

00:07:00.564 --> 00:07:03.053
And I think they need to have the incubator experience.

00:07:03.113 --> 00:07:13.134
I don't think they need to set their expectations too high until they figure out their incubator based on where they live, because everybody's climate is different.

00:07:13.283 --> 00:07:13.793
Okay.

00:07:14.254 --> 00:07:28.973
Some people dry hats, some people need to have a, have a lot of water and humidity, working with one lady, she lives at 6,000 or 7,000 feet in Colorado and all these things, all the altitude's, a whole different world.

00:07:29.394 --> 00:07:30.834
It's a whole different world.

00:07:30.834 --> 00:07:40.593
So you have to learn how to set your incubator and how you know what you're gonna do, in your part of the country.

00:07:40.834 --> 00:07:44.093
Because the weather's different, so that's a big challenge.

00:07:44.553 --> 00:07:46.954
Yeah, don't go cheap on your incubator.

00:07:47.014 --> 00:07:56.103
If you're gonna be serious about this, don't be cheap on your incubator, at least the GQF if you're not gonna go to the hatch time, somewhere in there.

00:07:56.103 --> 00:07:57.064
There's other good ones.

00:07:57.064 --> 00:08:07.384
Don't get me wrong, honestly, the old redwood, if you can get one of the really old redwood incubators and.

00:08:07.874 --> 00:08:11.834
You get it retrofitted with some newer electronics and equipment.

00:08:12.374 --> 00:08:12.524
Yeah.

00:08:12.973 --> 00:08:13.423
That's the big key.

00:08:14.324 --> 00:08:21.519
So we've done away with wood, but wood, like red wood helps stabilize your humidity.

00:08:22.069 --> 00:08:26.069
Yeah, because it'll take moisture and release moisture, and it'll help you.

00:08:26.129 --> 00:08:30.204
But okay, so you do the incubator thing, but you also do the hand hats.

00:08:30.204 --> 00:08:31.283
It's back to the hybrid.

00:08:31.283 --> 00:08:33.443
So you do a combination, right?

00:08:33.443 --> 00:08:36.504
You do a few sets with your incubator, right?

00:08:36.864 --> 00:08:40.413
To learn it, figure it out, become a be better chicken tender.

00:08:40.984 --> 00:08:50.024
To make sure that you have genetics moving forward, when a hand goes, Rudy, I would put a dozen eggs under her and let her go.

00:08:50.774 --> 00:08:54.073
So that, that would be my advice to somebody just getting started.

00:08:54.974 --> 00:08:55.423
Yeah.

00:08:55.543 --> 00:09:10.274
And like he said, definitely people ask about incubators and I tell'em they need to get the best quality incubator they can afford in their budget because a thousand dollars incubator may not be in everybody's budget.

00:09:11.173 --> 00:09:17.533
Maybe only a two or$300 incubator, but whatever your budget is, do your homework.

00:09:17.653 --> 00:09:23.984
Don't just buy the cheapest one because good crap ain't cheap and cheap crap ain't good.

00:09:24.884 --> 00:09:25.933
It's got its issues.

00:09:25.933 --> 00:09:34.374
So do that because everybody needs to dial in their incubator and learn how to use it.

00:09:35.274 --> 00:09:38.563
But if you're lucky enough to have, they should be doing well.

00:09:38.563 --> 00:09:43.813
They should be doing their experimenting in the off season, not in your primary breeding se.

00:09:44.173 --> 00:09:52.274
Don't wait to, February, March, April in your, in the middle of your primary breeding season to see Oh yeah.

00:09:52.423 --> 00:10:09.953
If you got your incubator do a few test runs in the off season, and also do not don't go buy an incubator and order a$250 dozen of eggs and let that be your first hatching experience.

00:10:10.433 --> 00:10:10.583
No.

00:10:11.124 --> 00:10:14.933
And then blast the person you got those eggs from.

00:10:14.994 --> 00:10:16.104
You see it all the time.

00:10:16.583 --> 00:10:17.004
You do.

00:10:17.004 --> 00:10:17.693
You really do.

00:10:17.693 --> 00:10:22.344
I see it a lot because incubating is a science.

00:10:23.244 --> 00:10:25.673
You know when you take something from Mother Nature.

00:10:26.364 --> 00:10:28.193
You have gotta get scientific with it.

00:10:28.793 --> 00:10:30.683
You gotta have your incubator dialed in.

00:10:30.953 --> 00:10:32.484
You gotta have your moisture right?

00:10:32.933 --> 00:10:34.433
You gotta have your temperature right.

00:10:34.764 --> 00:10:35.514
It's gotta stay.

00:10:35.994 --> 00:10:37.403
It's gotta stay steady.

00:10:37.764 --> 00:10:38.874
It can't fluctuate.

00:10:39.774 --> 00:10:43.144
It's gotta be per almost perfect very consistent.

00:10:44.043 --> 00:10:49.144
However, you got the hen outside 110 during the day.

00:10:50.043 --> 00:10:52.984
80 at night, huge fluctuation.

00:10:53.254 --> 00:10:56.823
She's just got her down and nothing else sitting on top of them eggs.

00:10:57.724 --> 00:11:15.614
Now ideally, there's not a lot of fluctuation there, but I've had, hi, I've had hens go broody in the wintertime when it was in the thirties and had really good hatch rates, and I'm like that, that ain't happening in the cabinet.

00:11:15.734 --> 00:11:16.933
I don't care how much you spend on.

00:11:17.833 --> 00:11:22.094
So take all that stuff into consideration when you're working it out.

00:11:22.994 --> 00:11:28.453
cause when it happens in Mother Nature, it's mother nature, it's going to be what it's going to be.

00:11:29.354 --> 00:11:34.124
You got to be very detail oriented when you do it yourself.

00:11:35.024 --> 00:11:40.874
So don't be a rookie incubator and blast the person you got the eggs from.

00:11:41.698 --> 00:11:51.479
Because I would venture to say if somebody's selling eggs for$250 a dozen, they're also hatching a lot of them to verify the fertility.

00:11:52.379 --> 00:11:54.089
So Yeah.

00:11:54.089 --> 00:11:56.589
And people don't realize you've got some.

00:11:57.489 --> 00:11:59.448
Backyard mixes or barnyard mixes.

00:11:59.774 --> 00:12:00.073
Yeah.

00:12:00.104 --> 00:12:01.453
And stick them in your incubator.

00:12:01.453 --> 00:12:02.144
First experiment.

00:12:02.144 --> 00:12:02.774
To work it out.

00:12:03.104 --> 00:12:04.813
You take the chicks back to'em when you're done.

00:12:05.153 --> 00:12:07.344
You don't, but you're just running the experiment.

00:12:07.573 --> 00:12:07.693
Yeah.

00:12:08.594 --> 00:12:10.214
So learn the hard way.

00:12:10.543 --> 00:12:18.553
Your incubator, no matter how good it good or not good it is really needs to be in a stable environment.

00:12:19.063 --> 00:12:19.558
It should be.

00:12:20.458 --> 00:12:26.698
In a part of your house that is either heated or air conditioned or humidified or whatever.

00:12:27.178 --> 00:12:34.899
But it needs to be'cause not all incubators can keep up with those fluctuations like, Carrie just talked about.

00:12:34.899 --> 00:12:41.828
So keep, you're gonna have a much better success rate if your incubator is in a stable environment, right?

00:12:42.219 --> 00:12:42.548
Yep.

00:12:43.448 --> 00:12:48.458
We have a mutual friend up in Canada, and I use this as an example, a good bit.

00:12:49.058 --> 00:13:05.558
He has a nice tabletop incubator, but where it was, the temperature was fluctuating and so was the humidity, and just by simply moving it into the closet where it's steady, he was able to significantly increase his hatch rate.

00:13:06.458 --> 00:13:09.938
He was having a big issue with duct toe duct to and curly toe.

00:13:10.839 --> 00:13:14.198
'Cause that he was going out of range on his humidity.

00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:15.578
Yeah, it was jumping way up.

00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:17.438
And, in, in that final week.

00:13:18.339 --> 00:13:20.173
And right before Hatch, so yeah.

00:13:20.173 --> 00:13:24.583
Stabilizing that, how stable does it need to be in the first seven days?

00:13:24.583 --> 00:13:25.063
Don't know.

00:13:25.573 --> 00:13:31.884
But that last seven days when you have a huge amount of chick formation going on very important.

00:13:31.884 --> 00:13:32.874
Very important.

00:13:32.923 --> 00:13:41.474
All right, so wrapping it up in the first week, whether you hatched them out in the hatcher.

00:13:42.374 --> 00:13:46.994
Or in the brood pen, what are you feeding?

00:13:47.864 --> 00:13:53.264
You giving any kind of supplements, electrolytes, anything like that?

00:13:53.293 --> 00:13:57.073
'cause you see stuff in these chicken groups all over.

00:13:57.974 --> 00:14:02.923
What do you recommend first two weeks of the chick's life?

00:14:03.173 --> 00:14:06.833
I mean it, it's that really true high quality.

00:14:07.224 --> 00:14:07.673
Okay.

00:14:07.884 --> 00:14:09.443
Fresh a.

00:14:10.058 --> 00:14:14.828
High quality, that meets all the numbers, and we've given the numbers for years now.

00:14:15.369 --> 00:14:18.908
High, fresh, high quality, start your feed right.

00:14:19.328 --> 00:14:25.908
You don't need any magic foo powder and you don't like, every time I see somebody talk about Save a chick, right?

00:14:25.908 --> 00:14:29.599
Going in the chick brand new chick water, I'm like, I cringe.

00:14:29.744 --> 00:14:31.379
I just, I don't know.

00:14:31.379 --> 00:14:32.533
Where does it need saving from?

00:14:33.433 --> 00:14:34.543
It just hatched.

00:14:34.783 --> 00:14:36.053
I i, exactly.

00:14:36.594 --> 00:14:43.644
I just need some really good, clean, fresh water that is at room temperature.

00:14:44.244 --> 00:14:44.573
Okay.

00:14:44.813 --> 00:14:48.234
'cause you don't wanna, you don't want to cause their body temperature to dive.

00:14:48.894 --> 00:14:50.698
I need some really great.

00:14:51.308 --> 00:14:55.089
Chicken chick feed, like 21, 20 2%.

00:14:55.089 --> 00:14:58.418
Proteins got all the right amino acids, good vitamin levels.

00:14:59.139 --> 00:15:04.219
And I need it, really easy to find if it's incubator hatched.

00:15:04.788 --> 00:15:06.528
So I, I like to crowd'em.

00:15:06.798 --> 00:15:10.818
One's one quarter square foot per check, or I can say it another way.

00:15:10.818 --> 00:15:12.469
Four checks per square foot.

00:15:12.599 --> 00:15:13.979
So they're fairly crowded.

00:15:14.653 --> 00:15:23.254
And I don't want a chick to go more than six or eight inches without either bumping into feed or water in the first four or five days.

00:15:23.823 --> 00:15:24.124
Okay.

00:15:24.994 --> 00:15:26.344
They haven't learned how to chicken.

00:15:26.884 --> 00:15:27.303
No.

00:15:27.543 --> 00:15:28.683
It's gotta be right there.

00:15:28.683 --> 00:15:29.673
They won't figure it out.

00:15:30.033 --> 00:15:31.114
After that first week.

00:15:31.203 --> 00:15:41.403
You can get the feed up off like trays or cardboard or whatever, and then you can start moving out their boundaries and giving them more space after the first week.

00:15:42.004 --> 00:15:42.094
Yeah.

00:15:42.994 --> 00:15:52.923
I don't need them out exploring a huge brooder space, and getting lost and disoriented and chilled over in the corner because it's not warm enough over there.

00:15:53.403 --> 00:15:54.803
Just don't need that headache.

00:15:54.803 --> 00:16:02.933
But look, good fresh air, good clean feed, good clean water, just you don't protein that's animal based.

00:16:03.188 --> 00:16:03.479
Yeah.

00:16:04.379 --> 00:16:04.678
Yeah.

00:16:05.578 --> 00:16:15.948
And if you don't, the only thing I would say to supplement with is if you wanted to hard boil some eggs, crush'em up, shell and all, crush'em up a little bit on the finer side.

00:16:16.548 --> 00:16:18.438
Sprinkle that on top of the feed.

00:16:19.038 --> 00:16:21.589
Now, when I say that, don't get carried away.

00:16:21.619 --> 00:16:26.599
It is like one egg per day for 25 chicks.

00:16:26.869 --> 00:16:27.168
Okay?

00:16:27.708 --> 00:16:29.249
It's not, a half a dozen.

00:16:29.278 --> 00:16:30.839
It's not right.

00:16:30.999 --> 00:16:49.349
Sprinkling hard, boiled egg on top of the feed is always good and it helps'em find that feed before you started, before you made the recipe that you called the perfect chicken feed for me, what I would do is I took a pound of store-bought starter.

00:16:49.349 --> 00:16:51.119
That was the best I could find.

00:16:52.019 --> 00:16:53.519
I'd take a hard boiled egg.

00:16:54.418 --> 00:16:57.089
And mush it behind between my hands, like I was Mr.

00:16:57.089 --> 00:16:59.428
Miyagi fixing to lay hands on Daniel's son.

00:17:00.328 --> 00:17:10.888
And then I would throw that in a baggie, and then I would take a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon, a breeder supplement zip lock.

00:17:10.949 --> 00:17:17.009
I would fill the bag up with air, zip lock it and shake it just like my wife does her salads.

00:17:17.429 --> 00:17:21.419
She'll shake'em like this and then open the container, and that's what I do.

00:17:22.318 --> 00:17:22.588
Yeah.

00:17:22.588 --> 00:17:23.118
And that's quick.

00:17:23.118 --> 00:17:29.989
And Easy's, if you're using store-bought feed that's not perfect, then you know that's a great option.

00:17:30.449 --> 00:17:35.308
You know what we did up in Saskatchewan at Kelly's place is we took some chopped up raw liver.

00:17:35.953 --> 00:17:38.473
And some hard boiled egg equal amounts.

00:17:38.473 --> 00:17:45.453
We put a little bit of chick feed in that a little bit of breeder supplement and that's what we started'em on, right?

00:17:45.544 --> 00:17:46.683
Just to give'em a boost.

00:17:46.683 --> 00:17:52.153
The liver's full of protein B vitamins the eggs got all the benefits of an egg.

00:17:52.644 --> 00:17:55.433
That was a win-win situation, in his case.

00:17:55.854 --> 00:17:59.334
So there's things you can do if you can't get.

00:18:00.054 --> 00:18:01.644
That awesome chick feed.

00:18:02.334 --> 00:18:07.223
There are things you can do, but I'm not a huge fan of adding things.

00:18:07.223 --> 00:18:23.094
I know I designed supplements for you and me and other people, and that's only because I realized that in, in our world most places, you can't get top shelf high quality chicken feed, right?

00:18:23.173 --> 00:18:23.769
Sorry to say that.

00:18:24.669 --> 00:18:29.949
The choices at Tractor Supply rural King and elsewhere are not really choices.

00:18:30.028 --> 00:18:37.703
It, it's it's like when I go vote every four years or whatever, I'm like I'm choosing the lesser of two evils.

00:18:38.394 --> 00:18:38.453
Yeah.

00:18:38.453 --> 00:18:39.144
And I hate it.

00:18:39.423 --> 00:18:40.054
I hate it.

00:18:40.104 --> 00:18:42.134
I don't like any of them, but.

00:18:43.034 --> 00:18:55.513
All right all i'm scanning the comment section and I do not see anything that we have left out so well, I wanna, I want to, Rob made a great point.

00:18:55.604 --> 00:18:58.663
He can leave his brooder for a week unattended with chicks.

00:18:59.233 --> 00:19:04.669
He can fill up the food and water and he can go and Rob you are 100% correct.

00:19:04.729 --> 00:19:06.288
I don't disagree with you at all.

00:19:07.189 --> 00:19:14.659
At the end of the day, hand raised will still outperform anything we do in a brooder.

00:19:15.318 --> 00:19:19.054
Yeah, we just can't beat Mother Nature, but yeah I don't disagree with you.

00:19:19.094 --> 00:19:22.334
You can fill up the food and water and leave them unattended for a week.

00:19:22.544 --> 00:19:24.574
So I agree with that statement.

00:19:25.124 --> 00:19:27.673
Aside from that, we'll see y'all in the comment section.

00:19:28.003 --> 00:19:28.604
All right.

00:19:28.808 --> 00:19:29.419
Goodnight.

00:19:30.318 --> 00:19:30.499
Goodnight.