Any parent can tell you that taking care of a baby is a full-time job in and of itself. And anyone experienced in animal husbandry will know that raising baby animals can be nearly as difficult. So with everything you have to do in your daily life, taking care of twelve baby chicks, for example, can seem like quite a chore.
The Problem
Unfortunately, since chickens have been highly domesticated for specialized purposes like egg laying or meat production, they have lost the genetic drive to raise their own young. This means that people who choose to raise these birds are stuck buying new chicks year after year or incubating eggs, then having to set up a separate (sometimes indoor) pin for them, with a heat lamp and other supplies not necessary for adult chickens. And there is still always the chance that some of those chicks will die. How can this be avoided?
Breeding Better Mothers
One possible solution is to raise multipurpose chickens like Rockbarred chickens. This breed is good for both egg laying and meat production. But since they still rarely “go broody” and care for their chicks, you can also get two or three Bantam hens (depending on how large of a flock you are going for). Bantams are much smaller chickens so they are not raised for their meat or eggs, but they are closer to a wild chicken and will go broody and raise their own chicks. This will make multiplying your number of chickens near effortless.
A downside to this is that over time your flock may be made up of smaller chickens since they will be part Bantam. But since you would have to buy new chicks anyway that’s not really much of an inconvenience, and it will take several generations before much of a difference is noticeable. On the other hand, your chickens may also start to show an interest in raising their babies. While this solution would not work for someone that is looking for high egg or meat production for commercial sale, it may be just the trick for those that want to establish a less needy flock of backyard birds that still provide plenty of eggs and meat for personal consumption.
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