Shade Tree Poultry

08/20/2026

Incubating eggs is one of my favorite parts of raising poultry. It’s where data and analytics come crashing against strategy and hope.

The data of making breeding decisions, logging bird performance and egg weights, tracking incubator performance. The strategy of pairing birds and building a breeding plan. The hope that in these 22 eggs is a replacement for a special hen, or a cockerel to elevate one of my breeding families to the next level.

08/18/2026

Wildlife and livestock are notoriously difficult to photograph. While this picture isn’t perfect, it’s got its merits. Show us your best animal photos!

08/18/2026

Check out our first YouTube video! More coming soon. What types of poultry topics would you like to see us cover?

A quick overview of hatching egg selection.

07/12/2026

The girls getting some yard time this morning!

06/20/2026

This little chick is a super cool one. I pulled the egg out from under the two broody hens I had, and threw him in an incubator. Lo and behold, it hatched right on time (based off my guess). I also had a good friend come and help wing band the Hatch 002! Once I get leg band colors aligned with the new wing band numbers, I’ll share some of that data and how I’m interpreting it.

06/14/2026

As an update on the broody hen saga:

1 hen has taken custodianship of the entire set. She seems to be doing a good job. I have to say, baby chicks under a momma hen is a new level of cute.

06/12/2026

Over the past couple weeks, these two hens have decided to try and hatch one egg together.

Broodiness, or a hens desire or willingness to sit on and egg and hatch it, is a mixed bag as far as traits go.

On the one hand, a hen that can hatch her own or other hens eggs and successfully raise those chicks means less problems adding birds to the existing flock, because they’re born in the coop with the flock. It also means I don’t necessarily need to rely on electricity to hatch baby chicks.

The down side is a broody hen doesn’t lay eggs, and so I get to eat less eggs. The hens also do not leave their nest to eat or drink very often. In the Texas summer, that can cause them to lose condition and suffer.

I’ve decided I’m ok with a little broodiness. I let the hens sit for about two weeks. Last night while they were asleep, I snuck 6 blue copper Maran pullets under them. So far, the adoption is a moderate success. Hopefully by the end of the day they will be wandering around and taking care of their chicks. It can take some time to shift from “egg hatching mode” to “mom mode.”

06/09/2026

One of my favorite things is fresh chicks in a clean brooder!

They wear their hearts on their sleeves. If they are happy, it is immediately obvious. As a livestock and poultry owner, I can appreciate an animal that is so readily observable as stressed or content.

All of these chicks have been individually identified with leg bands for now. They’ll all be given a permanent wing band ID in a week or two.

I’ve also revamped my spreadsheets to allow me to track the necessary information on a single “hatch” sheet, recording the peers of each hatch against themselves. Once they are promoted to breeder, those that make the cut will have their data recorded onto a new individual ID sheet. I likely won’t be able to keep up this level of record keeping for many generations as bird numbers continue to grow, but doing it this way now will allow me to train myself to see what I am looking for by using data to point out relevant information. Stay tuned, next weekend on weigh day I’ll post my “hatch tracker” sheet!

06/08/2026

Well, hatch is in full swing and then some! 13 out of 18 eggs hatched in the first 24 hours.

Soon, I’ll pull these chicks out of the incubator and put them in the brooder. As I do I’ll begin a breeder ID sheet for each chick. Not all will make it to be a member of my breeding flock, but those that do will have their hatch weight, down color, family/flock origin, and other nice to know things recorded.

I’ll also take time to note any undesirable traits or issues like crooked toes, crossed beak, and other various easily identifiable defects. The hope is that I’ll be able to lay all this data alongside these birds as they mature and use it to make the best breeding decisions I can.