MyMonsters91
Chirping
- Aug 17, 2015
- 162
- 22
- 61
So a month ago I was sky high. I had successfully incubated 13 chicken eggs with a 100% hatch rate. First time ever, and I managed to keep every single one of the 13 straight with very careful notes and weekly photos of development. I was looking forward to some more girls, maybe keeping a male or two who I favored.
Let me introduce you to my group. Keep in mind one of the 13 is lame, and will probably be culled. Her leg is twisted and swollen and looks painful. Splinted tendon. I tried to save it within a day of her being born but wasn't able to do anything. I left it, hoping maybe she could be okay despite the lame, but it's delaying her development and just looks hurt. So that leaves me 12.
All now 4 weeks old
Fervent. BOY. What ever. Keeping, he's a favorite.
Mangle. BOY. My daughters chicken choice from hatch. Keeping, he's amazing looking.
Chicka. BOY. My son's chicken choice from hatch. Last week I thought he was a girl, this week he's red. I don't know what to do, my 5 year old is going to be upset if I get rid of his chicken, but I already have 2 roosters chosen.
Chipper. BOY. I rehomed him a few days ago.
Volvagia. BOY. I rehomed him a few days ago as well.
Cucco. BOY. I rehomed him a few days ago, too.
Zebra. BOY. I suspected boy last week due to coloring, but waited for the red. He'll be rehomed soon.
...getting the pattern yet?
Minda. Probably boy. Suspected it for a week based on coloring, just waiting for comb to change to rehome.
Ooccoo. I was hoping girl, but waddles are growing quite a bit already. Based off luck, probably boy. Will have to rehome if so.
Down to 3, yes? The only ones that might be girls. BUT, it's only week 4, there's still time for THEM to also be boys!
Navi. My beautiful brown faced Navi.
Goron. My dark 'girl'. Takes after her mom.
Twilight. 'Her' mom is a white EE, which I found hiliarious since she was one of my darkest chicks.
On top of my HORRIBLE hen/roo odds and losing all my first 'babies' that I hatched and loved and cared for due to them mostly all being BOYS. My 2nd batch hasn't been as good. I put 10 eggs in. The 5 eggs I was most looking forward to ended up being infertile (favorite hen's eggs, who wasn't laying when I did the first hatch) and the other 5 made it to lock down just fine. 3 came out on time.. the last 2 are now a day late and I'm worried that they're dead. Due to the coloring on the 3 that came out and how many came out to be boys in batch 1, I'm suspecting at least 2 of them are probably roos as well. Won't know for sure for a few weeks.. but...
This is a sad hobby.
I didn't have this problem with my older girls. I collected 9 chickens from my son's teacher almost a year ago and brought them home to the 4 chicks my husband surprised me with days before. Of the 13 chicks I then had, only 5 grew up to be roosters. 4 I rehomed while they were still young but most definite boys, and I kept one roo for the 8 hens I had left. Not too bad. They've been great chickens and as you can see from above, they have some beautiful babies... My roo is a different matter, he's a jerk, but still. It's harder with these babies. I watched them incubate, candled them, and took careful tabs on them to be sure I didn't mix up who was who and who came from what hen so I could watch their growth and see how the mixing came out.
Let me introduce you to my group. Keep in mind one of the 13 is lame, and will probably be culled. Her leg is twisted and swollen and looks painful. Splinted tendon. I tried to save it within a day of her being born but wasn't able to do anything. I left it, hoping maybe she could be okay despite the lame, but it's delaying her development and just looks hurt. So that leaves me 12.
All now 4 weeks old
Fervent. BOY. What ever. Keeping, he's a favorite.
Mangle. BOY. My daughters chicken choice from hatch. Keeping, he's amazing looking.
Chicka. BOY. My son's chicken choice from hatch. Last week I thought he was a girl, this week he's red. I don't know what to do, my 5 year old is going to be upset if I get rid of his chicken, but I already have 2 roosters chosen.
Chipper. BOY. I rehomed him a few days ago.
Volvagia. BOY. I rehomed him a few days ago as well.
Cucco. BOY. I rehomed him a few days ago, too.
Zebra. BOY. I suspected boy last week due to coloring, but waited for the red. He'll be rehomed soon.
...getting the pattern yet?
Minda. Probably boy. Suspected it for a week based on coloring, just waiting for comb to change to rehome.
Ooccoo. I was hoping girl, but waddles are growing quite a bit already. Based off luck, probably boy. Will have to rehome if so.
Down to 3, yes? The only ones that might be girls. BUT, it's only week 4, there's still time for THEM to also be boys!
Navi. My beautiful brown faced Navi.
Goron. My dark 'girl'. Takes after her mom.
Twilight. 'Her' mom is a white EE, which I found hiliarious since she was one of my darkest chicks.
On top of my HORRIBLE hen/roo odds and losing all my first 'babies' that I hatched and loved and cared for due to them mostly all being BOYS. My 2nd batch hasn't been as good. I put 10 eggs in. The 5 eggs I was most looking forward to ended up being infertile (favorite hen's eggs, who wasn't laying when I did the first hatch) and the other 5 made it to lock down just fine. 3 came out on time.. the last 2 are now a day late and I'm worried that they're dead. Due to the coloring on the 3 that came out and how many came out to be boys in batch 1, I'm suspecting at least 2 of them are probably roos as well. Won't know for sure for a few weeks.. but...
This is a sad hobby.
I didn't have this problem with my older girls. I collected 9 chickens from my son's teacher almost a year ago and brought them home to the 4 chicks my husband surprised me with days before. Of the 13 chicks I then had, only 5 grew up to be roosters. 4 I rehomed while they were still young but most definite boys, and I kept one roo for the 8 hens I had left. Not too bad. They've been great chickens and as you can see from above, they have some beautiful babies... My roo is a different matter, he's a jerk, but still. It's harder with these babies. I watched them incubate, candled them, and took careful tabs on them to be sure I didn't mix up who was who and who came from what hen so I could watch their growth and see how the mixing came out.
