Barred Rocks Good Shepard Poulty Ranch

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cbnovick said:
Congrats and thanks for posting pics!! How many eggs of each did you start with from GS??
nice mix of heritage chicks too...of course the ducks are a bonus---looking forward to individual pics when you get a chance.
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I purchased a dozen of each. He sent 14 Barred Rock, but 2 broke in shipping, and sent 18 Cornish, but 1 broke in shipping. I was hoping for a better hatch from the Cornish since I started with so many eggs. Most of the ones I lost seemed to develop right up until around the time of lock down. They had movement when I put them in, although in the ones that didn't hatch that movement was very faint and only detectable though a float test. I marked the eggs so I knew which had strong versus weak movement.

I don't live far from Chris Herzog, so will be getting a few more GS Barred Rock chicks from him in a couple weeks, plus purchasing a dozen eggs from JWhip. I think I've found a WL Red Cornish breeder here in Louisiana that I am going to call today: If he raises the large fowl, I am going to buy some stock from him. Otherwise, I think I am going to get more Cornish eggs as well as some New Hampshire eggs from Frank this month. I don't want to buy 25 chicks, so will take the chance with the hatching eggs.

Jamie Duckworth is shipping my eggs from his line of Barred Rocks today or tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed they hatch well since they are way more expensive than Frank's eggs!

Oh and......
THANK YOU Aspen!!!!
hugs.gif
 
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1MrsMagoo said:
I purchased a dozen of each. He sent 14 Barred Rock, but 2 broke in shipping, and sent 18 Cornish, but 1 broke in shipping. I was hoping for a better hatch from the Cornish since I started with so many eggs. Most of the ones I lost seemed to develop right up until around the time of lock down. They had movement when I put them in, although in the ones that didn't hatch that movement was very faint and only detectable though a float test. I marked the eggs so I knew which had strong versus weak movement.

I don't live far from Chris Herzog, so will be getting a few more GS Barred Rock chicks from him in a couple weeks, plus purchasing a dozen eggs from JWhip. I think I've found a WL Red Cornish breeder here in Louisiana that I am going to call today: If he raises the large fowl, I am going to buy some stock from him. Otherwise, I think I am going to get more Cornish eggs as well as some New Hampshire eggs from Frank this month. I don't want to buy 25 chicks, so will take the chance with the hatching eggs.

Jamie Duckworth is shipping my eggs from his line of Barred Rocks today or tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed they hatch well since they are way more expensive than Frank's eggs!

Oh and......
THANK YOU Aspen!!!!
hugs.gif
Click to expand...
Lucky you to have any hatch. Out of the 12 GSBR eggs I received from Frank 1 was broken so 11 were set. I had 5 make it to lockdown, and like yours, they seemed weak. None of them hatched.
 
Okay, I finally got a minute to take those pictures. Also to clarify...I marked each egg as it was put into the incubator as to whether it had strong or weak chick movement in the egg. Only one of the ones marked weak hatched and it died before it even dried off. The eggs with the strongest movement when candled hatched without any real issues. I stood all the eggs in cartons to hatch.

The only problem I had from the ones that hatched was that one of the chicks had the top of his egg become glued to his back while he was resting before climbing out of the bottom of his shell. It is one the right in the first photo. The one on the left, I suspect is a male: It has the least black on its legs and I didn't get a good photo of it, but the entire back of his head has a good deal of white fluff. Also note the thickness of its legs compared to the others.

Here they are...








They are all running around the brooder and actively eating and drinking. All the Cornish hatched from his eggs are doing well also.
 
Robert Blosl said:
http://readmychickenscratch.com/?p=843

You are so lucky to get to go to his farm. I did not think this would ever happen. Nice story. bob
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This stuck out to me the most when reading the blog on the visit to Good Shepard farm and Franks advice.
And I'm a witness too(seen it with my own 2 eyes) and firm believer in this information.


Culling
Next I asked about culling the extra roosters, since I know I don’t have room here to keep them all. His advice was that I look at the roosters at 16-18 weeks. If roosters are crowing or have big combs they are maturing too fast. Slower maturing birds will grow larger. His breeding roosters are about 9 1/2 pounds! If you cull the ones that are maturing too fast now, they will probably dress out about 3 pounds and be young and tender enough for frying. Keep at least 2 roosters. The roosters you keep should take 36+ weeks (up to even nearly a year) to fully mature.

Jeff
 
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