Breeding and Raising and Hatching of Barnyard Chickens!!!!!!!!!!

[TheChickenQueen]

I am one lazy hatcher (or whatever it's called). I didn't mark air cells, didn't watch the humidity until lockdown. Probably for the most part most of them didn't have huge air cells, so I wasn't worried.


Hello @countrygirl5 , @Flutterby , and @Zanybabzooka !

 

[Zanybabzooka]

I do the dry incubation and I like it a lot better. Basically if your incubator can hold 20/25% humidity w/o any water in it, you run the incubator dry the first 17 days and you monitor the egg's air cells (or weight, I do air cells) to make sure that your humidity levels are alright. (You should monitor air cells either way you incubate.) As long as your air cells are growing at the right rate, you don't worry about changing the humidity. (However if they are growing too big too fast you need to add some water to higher the humidity so the loss of moisture slows down.) Then at day 18 when you go into lockdown you up the humidity as you would with a standard hatch. (I prefer my humidity to be around 75% at lockdown/hatch.)  The key though is watching (and marking) your air cells. They will tell you what you need to know about humidity. My hygrometer read on average about 40% last hatch running dry in the incubator. It's not calibrated so I'm not positive, but I don't worry because I let the air cells guide me.

Hmm...I might have to try that. Do you have any info on how the air cells should develop? Can it work with duck eggs too? Or do they really need the humidity? Thanks!

 

[poult]

I've got one black hen who's a mix of who knows what. Lol She's very broody, hatches me 3-4 batches of chicks every year, but lays really well when she isn't broody. Only thing that makes her a not quite perfecr chicken is her personality and her size. I like good sized birds so I can butcher the extra rooster chicks. And she gets super aggressive when she has chicks. When she isn't broody, she's super flighty. I have her and her two pullet chicks, who are half Phoenix. They're my only mixed breeds except for some hatchery Ameraucanas. This spring I plan on breeding her to my Lavender Orpington rooster to add a calmer personality and more size to her chicks. Then I'll breed her chicks to my unrelated black Orpington rooster, or possibly my Ameraucana rooster. Should be fun!

Also, what is dry incubation? And how does it work? Thanks!

Welcome! Love your flock!

Some of my most favorite chickens, (and best layers), have been barnyard chickens!  Will try to get some pics next week and post them.  Too cold this week.  But very thankful there is no snow to accompany this cold and wind.  

Yes picture love them! I love taking pictures of the flock but the mud here is killing me!

My mother and I currently have 2 barnyard chickens. One is a little white female we rescued from family that moved into a place that once had chickens. The owner moved out and just left their flock behind. She was the only one that survived. She is bigger than a silkie, but still little. She is all white with yellow feet, which are currently being treated for bumble foot. She pulled her out of a snow bank, and have decided to call her Elsa, because she is white and was living in the snow.

Our other barnyard is a male we have named Frankenchicken; Frank for short. We call him this because he has silkie hair, 7 toes, very small wings and a short but solid body. We have no idea what he is, but he is powerful and mean, so we put Elsa in with him, mostly because we have no space for quarantine, he is protective of his ladies, and we are kind of okay if he gets something from Elsa. We don't want him dead, but out of our whole flock, he is the one would would be the least sad to go.

Those two aside, we have 21 more chickens. 1 We think is a cuna cross. She is black, big and lays large brown eggs, but was sold to us as a cuna. She has the beard so we are sure there is some in there, we just don't know everything. Another girl is pure cuna. She lays pale green eggs, is red and thinks she is an eagle. We then have a little cuna girl we rescued because her flock was pulling out her tail feathers. Have had her for months, still no tail feathers. We think the follicles might have been damaged, and we do not think she will ever grow her tail back. She is blakc, and seems to be an easy keeper, as she always feels fat when we pick her up.

We have two Copper Meran boys we got with the little cuna without a tail, they are big and beautiful, but one is mean and almost killed his brother, so we had to separate them. The one we took out, We have named him Captian Morgan because he likes to put his foot on the foot and water dishes, we are looking to get rid of. He does not attack people, and is pretty tolerant with pretty much anything you do. That being said, he has to be the only roo in an area.

Captian's brother, Riko Suave, Is more mellow than his brother and likes to strut around like he owns everything. He is a bit of a pansy, when it comes to the girls as they often beat him up, but we are hoping he will be a good protector when we cycle him into our flock.

Onto our babies, lots of info I know, but I feel the need to explain everything since I have no pics. Our babies are cunas and Cuku merans. We have one Meran boy, he is large with a big attitude. He does not like to be picked up, and can never follow through any of the fights he picks with the smaller cuna boys. We have George, my personal pet roo. We thought he was going to be a girl and I was gunna name him Gerogina, but he turned out to be a he, so Gerogina, became George. He loves people and will often jump on someone just to get a rid around. We got him a 3 days old with all the rest of the babies, and George has loved being held since day one. He even fell asleep in my hands a few times as a chick. George has a brother that looks like him, but in all dark colors, and this roo does not have a name. We are looking to get rid of him since he is aggressive toward the other boys, but he is okay with people. Seagull is another cuna boy we are keeping. He is tolerant of people and does not try to kill the other boys. He got his name because he looks like a seagull. The last boy is Acroma. He is like Frank and is just a jerk, so we are looking to get rid of him as well. We might give Frank up, but we wont give our boys to anyone wanting to use them for meat birds. They are breeders for layers only, as we love our chickens, even if they are jerks.


Finally we have 17 girls. Many of our babies have begun laying, so we are getting a mix of eggs from pale green to olvige green speckled to look camo, and light brown eggs to darker with lots of splotches and spots.

Welcome! & wow lots of info! I am glad to hear you rescue that really makes me happy it's so sad when animals are neglected!

I've just about had it up to the top of my snow bank with Elsa and her mood swings.

LOL & Welcome!

I do the dry incubation and I like it a lot better. Basically if your incubator can hold 20/25% humidity w/o any water in it, you run the incubator dry the first 17 days and you monitor the egg's air cells (or weight, I do air cells) to make sure that your humidity levels are alright. (You should monitor air cells either way you incubate.) As long as your air cells are growing at the right rate, you don't worry about changing the humidity. (However if they are growing too big too fast you need to add some water to higher the humidity so the loss of moisture slows down.) Then at day 18 when you go into lockdown you up the humidity as you would with a standard hatch. (I prefer my humidity to be around 75% at lockdown/hatch.)  The key though is watching (and marking) your air cells. They will tell you what you need to know about humidity. My hygrometer read on average about 40% last hatch running dry in the incubator. It's not calibrated so I'm not positive, but I don't worry because I let the air cells guide me.

Interesting! & good to know! I watch air cells always as well they are doing good right now too! My humidity is at 50-55%

 

[poult]

Hmm...I might have to try that. Do you have any info on how the air cells should develop? Can it work with duck eggs too? Or do they really need the humidity? Thanks!

That humidity is way too low for duck eggs they have to be misted as well daily.You should buy these books: Storey's Guide To Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow(great author & owns a big farm!) & Storey's Guide To Raising Ducks by Dave Holderead(owns a gigantic waterfowl reserve!)
I personally recommend those books to everyone here! It has lots of information on how fast air cells should develop in both books for both species & practically everything you will ever need to know I need to revise them again!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hmm...I might have to try that. Do you have any info on how the air cells should develop? Can it work with duck eggs too? Or do they really need the humidity? Thanks!

From what I understand duck eggs need a higher humidity. I have no knowledge whatsoever where ducks are concerned. For chicks this is one of the pictorials I share:

If you monitor your air cells you will know if the egg needs more or less humidity. If your air cells are too big, too much moisture is being released and can cause shrink wrapped chicks, in this case you need to up the humidity so that moisture loss is slowed downed. If your cells are not growing big enough (at the right rate) you know that your humidity is too high and this can drown your chicks so you would decrease the humidity so that your egg will loose more moisture and your air cells can grow.

 

[kit carson]

Wow! You are obviously a person who knows what they want! Good luck with that!

I'll just be happy if I keep getting more pullets than cockerels and if they look pretty and/or lay bonny eggs, that will do for me. Unfortunately I don't find the grey barred birds particularly attractive, so either Tasha will have to find herself a new man (the barring is coming from Handsome Harry the cream legbar) or be content with raising other hens chicks in the future.

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Someone in my area made a Craigslist ad for hatching eggs. Maybe when everything calms down around here I'll get some. I only have one known remaining pullet, a bunch of Roos, and some unknown that could be roos. So I don't want the pullet to be lonely...

This is what the ad said:

I have quite a few breeds of hatching eggs available. All my chickens are free range, good layers, and overall healthy birds.

Super Blue eggs layers: $12 doz, $8 for a 1/2 dozen
Brahma: $6 dozen, $4 for a 1/2 doz
Polish (solid black): $1/egg
Americauna: $12 dozen, $8 for 1/2 dozen
Heritage Meat Breed: $8 dozen
Barnyard Cross (Australorp, RIR, Sex Link, Laced Wyandette, Icelandic mixed with any roo. No guarantee on what you will hatch, but they are all great egg laying breeds. Also have Bantam and Silkie cross. Fun, but not great egg layers.): $6 dozen.


So tempting, especially the SBEL's, Brahmas, and the mixes.
Actually they are all tempting

Then someone on the other side of the state has Olive Egger chicks and hatching eggs. For really cheap, I wounder why.

Dang it. Now I feel like hatching. Why does it have to feel like spring?

I emailed the person who has the parents. I asked for pictures and what the Bantams where.

And this is what I got this response:
I ordered the meat breeds from a hatchery last year. I have 2 breeds, but I don't know their breed names. I just know they are heritage meat breeds. The two hens are brown, and the roo is the white and brown one. They are NOT Cornish X.

The Bantans are Cochin. I don't have a straight Bantam roo. But i do have a smaller Bantam X roo. If you wanted me to seperate and breed the Bantys with him i could do that. Right now the Bantys just live with the rest of the flock, including a few different roos.



The pics are in this order:
Brahma roo.
Meat hen
Meat roo
Super blue roo (hen is all white like him)
Bantam
Bantam
Americauna (orange-ish)
Americauna (black)
Last is a bantam mix roo that i could breed with the bantams, if you wanted.

















These obviously are not in order, but this is how I got them

Now to figure out which is which....

 

[poult]

That's interesting...

 

[kit carson]

Speaking of hatching eggs, will fertile eggs that have been in the refrigerator for a week or two be able to hatch if placed under a broody hen? She's been broody for a month, so I decided to go ahead and try, since I have so many eggs in the fridge.

 

[poult]

Welcome! & this thread should answer your question Good luck!

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