Arizona Chickens

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
She may be going broody. A bird in its natural environment will lay an egg every day or so in the nest, and won't sit on them until the clutch is complete. That way the chicks all hatch at the same time. So she may be in the pre-sitting process, trying to accumulate enough eggs to sit on. And you keep stealing them on her. You party-pooper, you!

 

[lacymorgan]

CUUUTE!!! I am having chick envy here.....I go in lockdown tomorrow!!!

how exciting be sure to post what you get when they hatch with pixs too if possible

 

[girlchick]

how exciting be sure to post what you get when they hatch with pixs too if possible

When these little fuzzballs make their grand entrance, pictures will definitely be coming.

 

[lacymorgan]

When these little fuzzballs make their grand entrance, pictures will definitely be coming.

sweet

 

[MagicChicken]

Hi all well terrible hatch but the 13 out of 45 that did hatch are looking very healthy. I would buy from the breeders again. In fact I am buying from them again to see if it was me and or the post office using the boxes for hockey pucks that gave me a bad hatch. I have another bator going into lock down in 6 days with marans and dark cornish here is a pix of my new babies

Don't be too quick to blame the post office. Hatching eggs are tricky because you don't know how many eggs were actually fertile until you've set them in the incubator for a while. Low hatch rates may be due to the eggs themselves. The post office may be innocent.

I have Black Javas, a heritage breed that needs a lot of work. My hatch rates are low if I count them from the day the eggs were set in the incubator. Maybe 25-30% are not fertile (no development when candled at 7-10 days). Others stop developing after that and don't make it into the hatcher. Of the fully developed eggs that make it into the hatcher, 20-30% don't make it out of the egg. So my overall hatch rate from start to finish is 25-40%, depending on the parents and the time of year and other factors. Low hatch rates are common in my breed. We java breeders are working to overcome that issue but it is only one of many issues in the breed that need improving.

Eggs I set in December and January had a much lower hatch rate (higher infertility) than the eggs I set in mid-late February from the same birds. The last batch I set barely fit in the incubator because I didn't cull as many non-developing eggs in the previous set as I had expected. (I set eggs every 7-10 days, so the incubator has two or three different sets of eggs in it at any given time. I remove eggs that are not developing as expected. Developed eggs get moved to a separate hatcher a few days before the hatch date.)

The only way to know if hatching eggs are fertile is to put them in an incubator and see what happens. The problem is that buyers of hatching eggs do not always understand this. It's one reason some breeders don't want to sell hatching eggs. It's hard to keep people happy.

 

[MagicChicken]

Who wants the seed box next? It is at my house (southwest of Tucson). It is time for the box to be moving along. Lots of good stuff in it. Let me know if you want it and we will work out a way to transfer it.

 

[lacymorgan]

Don't be too quick to blame the post office. Hatching eggs are tricky because you don't know how many eggs were actually fertile until you've set them in the incubator for a while. Low hatch rates may be due to the eggs themselves. The post office may be innocent.

I have Black Javas, a heritage breed that needs a lot of work. My hatch rates are low if I count them from the day the eggs were set in the incubator. Maybe 25-30% are not fertile (no development when candled at 7-10 days). Others stop developing after that and don't make it into the hatcher. Of the fully developed eggs that make it into the hatcher, 20-30% don't make it out of the egg. So my overall hatch rate from start to finish is 25-40%, depending on the parents and the time of year and other factors. Low hatch rates are common in my breed. We java breeders are working to overcome that issue but it is only one of many issues in the breed that need improving.

Eggs I set in December and January had a much lower hatch rate (higher infertility) than the eggs I set in mid-late February from the same birds. The last batch I set barely fit in the incubator because I didn't cull as many non-developing eggs in the previous set as I had expected. (I set eggs every 7-10 days, so the incubator has two or three different sets of eggs in it at any given time. I remove eggs that are not developing as expected. Developed eggs get moved to a separate hatcher a few days before the hatch date.)

The only way to know if hatching eggs are fertile is to put them in an incubator and see what happens. The problem is that buyers of hatching eggs do not always understand this. It's one reason some breeders don't want to sell hatching eggs. It's hard to keep people happy.

I took that into consideration and removed 10 eggs that were not fertile but when I recieved my box of eggs and the end was crushed and torn open I am afraid I have to place some blame on the post office. I have confidence in the breeders I bought from and even though the hatch was low bought or am buying from them again. My hope is a 50% hatch rate but will take what I get.

 

[pins2danes]

She may be going broody.  A bird in its natural environment will lay an egg every day or so in the nest, and won't sit on them until the clutch is complete.  That way the chicks all hatch at the same time.  So she may be in the pre-sitting process, trying to accumulate enough eggs to sit on. And you keep stealing them on her.  You party-pooper, you!   

Haha!

I didn't know that they didn't stay sitting on them from the beginning, that's so interesting! Thanks for the info!

 

[lacymorgan]

Haha!

I didn't know that they didn't stay sitting on them from the beginning, that's so interesting! Thanks for the info!

I think my dark cornish might be thinking about going broody so I ordered some ceramic eggs to make a clutch with to see if she sits on them. If she does will switch them for the ayam cemani eggs I have coming

 

[DesertChic]

I think my dark cornish might be thinking about going broody so I ordered some ceramic eggs to make a clutch with to see if she sits on them. If she does will switch them for the ayam cemani eggs I have coming

Ayam Cemani? Wow! That's a sizable investment. How many will you be hatching?