Arizona Chickens

[DesertChic]

Gosh, he's a big fella - 13 lbs - wow! If I get a chance tomorrow I'll have to take a picture of three of the NN cockerels I have now. They're the biggest, most muscular birds I've ever owned at their young age of 3 1/2 months. They're hatchery birds too - never expected to get anything that robust. They're not aggressive or anything, in fact they're very friendly, but nobody bothers them at all. Initially I was thinking to only keep the one best but I think I'd like to keep all three to see how they progress. I'm really impressed with them.

Muwaahhaahaha.....You've surrendered to the NN bug!

I knew you'd like them. They're really great birds!

 

[MagicChicken]

When I first got my Black Javas they had a really low hatch rate. Over the last few years I have been working on improving the hatch rate. Be careful what you ask for. You may get it. This year the hatch rate for fertile eggs is turning out to be over 80%. (Might have been even higher but the humidity got messed up for the first hatch this year.) Which means that the 30-35 chicks I planned for may turn into 50-60 chicks if the hatch ratio holds through the eggs already in the incubator. Yikes! Glad I had already decided to cut the hatching season short and didn't set any more eggs than are already incubating. Now I've got to scramble for chick space. And cull way more than I had planned.

Edited to add: On the other hand, chicks are adorable! I am overwhelmed by cuteness.

 

[ejcrist]

Muwaahhaahaha.....You've surrendered to the NN bug!

I knew you'd like them. They're really great birds!

You got that right. At first I thought I might just be physically dependent on them but after a while I realized I've become a NN addict. They are really great birds for sure. I integrated 12 pullets (six NN and six Brown Leghorns) this morning in with my layer flock and the NN's adapted really, really quick - like within an hour or so. I never had birds join an established flock that quick and easy. The NN's gave way to the older birds (Barred Rocks and White Leghorns) and after a couple hours when I didn't hear the scraping I was expecting, I looked over at the coop/run and they were all eating together out of the same troughs. I don't know what made it work out that way but I ain't asking no questions. The Brown Leghorns are still staying in their own group but I kinda expected that since they're always in a state of nervousness. This evening they all got up on the roosts together and their universe seems to be in order. Hopefully we'll have the same state of affairs tomorrow and going forward. I don't know if their general dispositions (friendly and smart) had anything to do with it but I'll take it whatever it was. They're the only birds I've ever had that greet you like they've known you for years.

 

[deserteggs22]

I'm planning to cross Monty with a few of my NN girls, especially the green and blue egg layers since he also carries that gene. Crossing him with my buff barred NN hen, Cocoa Puffs, who also carries the green egg gene could result in some very pretty chicks. Lenny will remain part of my NN breeding for meat program. Andres I'm not entirely sure about yet. He's still pretty young. My next focused breeding will revolve around crossing my NNs with my Dark Cornish mixes to improve breast size. I'll probably put Heisenberg in with my Cornish-mix hen and my White Rocks and WR-mixed hens. My DC-mixed cockerels will also need to be crossed with some NN hens/pullets before the heat sets in. There's no way my massive boy, Tubbs, will survive another summer out here. He weighed in at 13 lbs the day I took this photo. The other day I thought he'd died. He was right outside my bedroom sliding door, flat on his back. I ran out to him in full distress, only to find him looking up at me as if to say, "A little help here?". I'm guessing he tried to breed my NN hen, Zen, who's VERY particular about which of the boys may touch her, and she probably kicked his butt. He's SO big that once he was on his back he simply couldn't get upright again without help, LOL!

I cannot wait to see Monty and Cocoa Puffs's babies!!!

 

[azchickens14]

When I first got my Black Javas they had a really low hatch rate. Over the last few years I have been working on improving the hatch rate. Be careful what you ask for. You may get it. This year the hatch rate for fertile eggs is turning out to be over 80%. (Might have been even higher but the humidity got messed up for the first hatch this year.) Which means that the 30-35 chicks I planned for may turn into 50-60 chicks if the hatch ratio holds through the eggs already in the incubator. Yikes! Glad I had already decided to cut the hatching season short and didn't set any more eggs than are already incubating. Now I've got to scramble for chick space. And cull way more than I had planned.

Edited to add: On the other hand, chicks are adorable! I am overwhelmed by cuteness.

What happened with your humidity? I am attempting to hatch out chicks for the second time. Last time the chicks developed all the way, but then i couldnt get the humidity up high enough no matter how many sponges and containers of water i had in the incubator and all but one shrunk wrapped. It was so sad :'( i was just wondering if anyone on here had the same issue and found a way to fix it. I am thinking maybe a tent over it with a humidifier inside to bring up the ambient humidity level, bit dont know :/ I can see why ypu would keep hatching no matter how many you have with how cute they are!

 

[nicollee]

Do "baby" roosters usually start crowing about the same age?

It's been a loooooonnnnnnnng time since I had roo's

I have 5 (3mo old) chicks.
one is attempting to crow,
two others are suspected roos, but have not been caught attempting to crow.
two are definitely hens...

babies, Picard, Roberto, Roo, Lumpy, and FiveAlive

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:

The humidity was screwed up because I didn't add water to the well in the bottom of the hatcher. I use a Hoverbator for hatching. The dry hatch was a deliberate experiment, because in prior years I had had trouble with violently fluctuating humidity in the hatcher - often to the point where the observation window fogged and I couldn't clear it no matter how long I left the little vent plug open. The dry hatch didn't work because all but one of the chicks wound up badly shrink wrapped. I managed to rescue most of them, but had to cull two of the rescues within a day or two. The rest are fine and happy and running around. (Normally I try not to rescue, but this time the problems were my fault so I made an exception.)

The most recent hatch went much better. For years I have used cheese cloth over the grate in the hatcher to make cleanup easier. That causes problems because if any cheese cloth threads drop into the water they wick up water, which increases the water surface area and makes it harder to control the humidity. It's hard to keep the cheesecloth out of the water when it is stretched across the whole grate. The cheese cloth was not an optimal solution. For this last hatch I used paper towels on top of the grate instead of cheese cloth. Worked much better.

The Hoverbator water tray has different size wells. I started with a medium surface area well and monitored hatcher humidity for a couple of days. It was still low. So I added another small well. Still too low. Added another small well and bingo - it held around 48%, with minor fluctuations that were similar to fluctuations in the nearby incubator so I think they were related to ambient humidity. Once I got the humidity stabilized I topped off those particular wells before adding the paper towels and the eggs. I also made sure the grate was perfectly dry before adding anything, because extra surface area (like drops of water spilled on the grate) adds to the humidity and can send it spiking. This latest hatch went really well. I didn't open the hatcher once. The humidity held without spiking. 7 out of 9 eggs hatched properly. An 8th egg partially zipped but had other problems. I had to cull that chick. The 9th egg didn't pip.

There is a genetic component to the hatch rate. I have Black Javas from two different lines. Birds from one line have had a low hatch rate. Birds from the other line pop out like popcorn, often 12-24 hours ahead of the original line, under identical incubation and hatching conditions. This year I hatched some eggs from the more vigorous hatching line, and some eggs that were from a line cross. The vigorous line is still hatching like popcorn. The mixed line is now hatching 70-80% instead of below 50%. Making progress.

Edited to add: I kept the humidity around 48% through most of the hatch, but once the birds start hatching the humidity spikes a bit. The spikes topped out in the mid-high 50% range.

 

[DesertChic]

Do "baby" roosters usually start crowing about the same age?

It's been a loooooonnnnnnnng time since I had roo's

I have 5 (3mo old) chicks.
one is attempting to crow,
two others are suspected roos, but have not been caught attempting to crow.
two are definitely hens...

babies, Picard, Roberto, Roo, Lumpy, and FiveAlive

No, it completely depends upon the birds. I've had some start crowing as early as 3 weeks of age, though it's a stretch to call the sounds they make "crowing". It's morel like a kazoo. A few haven't crowed until they're as old as 6 months.

 

[BlueBaby]

Hey, is anyone near me raising any pure bred Cream Legbars that lay those nice pretty blue eggs?

 

[saguaroskeleton]

Not about chickens, but who doesn't love baby goats! My doe had triplets a few hours ago