INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[daskhan]

For everyone who is having personal troubles or family troubles I hope everyone gets better or everything gets better
For the next two days I'll be spending time with the future father in law he just got out and I've haven't seen him since I was eight so that's odd

 

[ellymayRans]

Oh and brought home the rescued muscovy drake last week. He's adjusting really well. I just think he's a beaut too!

 

[chisNchickens]

Hi folks, haven't been here for a while but thought I'd ask if anyone knows of any campine breeders in IN? I know they are endangered and ended up with two cocks that needed a home, as well as two araucanas. Not sure if I want to get some females of these breeds or just let these go if someone else might find them useful. The campines are much prettier than I expected.

 

[Faraday40]

Petty boys both.. Too bad they weren't hens, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I always get more roo's then hens. I often wonder if the old saying is true? ya know about a more pointy or oblong egg being Roo's. should try throwing those in the eating basket and hatching the rounder ones to see what happens. Maybe that can be a project next summer???

We actually tried hatching only rounded eggs & passing on the pointy eggs = found no difference. A hen that lays bullet eggs, always lays bullet shaped eggs. However, we accidentally discovered that some specific hens had mostly female offspring. One hen had 8 females & only 2 males from her eggs. We also had 2 other hens with 70% or more female offspring. From one of our favorite hens we hatched 2 females & 6 males. (And, her eggs are very round!) The remaining 3 hens were closer to the 50/50 or 60/40 that we expected. I wanted my daughter to continue exploring this, but she had other ideas. Also, our sample of 7 hens is not really conclusive of anything. (Could it be the specific hens, the egg storage, the breed, time of year, hen's diet, hen's age?) It's more likely just luck. I just noticed that we were one of the exceptions who always hatch more females than males. We often don't get 100% hatch rates, so perhaps all the ones that didn't make it were the males.

 

[daskhan]

Hi folks, haven't been here for a while but thought I'd ask if anyone knows of any campine breeders in IN?  I know they are endangered and ended up with two cocks that needed a home, as well as two araucanas.  Not sure if I want to get some females of these breeds or just let these go if someone else might find them useful. The campines are much prettier than I expected.

I'd probably take in the Araucanas if you need it but not so sure the ducks will fit in

 

[daskhan]

We actually tried hatching only rounded eggs & passing on the pointy eggs = found no difference.  A hen that lays bullet eggs, always lays bullet shaped eggs. However, we accidentally discovered that some specific hens had mostly female offspring.  One hen had 8 females & only 2 males from her eggs. We also had 2 other hens with 70% or more female offspring. From one of our favorite hens we hatched 2 females & 6 males.  (And, her eggs are very round!)  The remaining 3 hens were closer to the 50/50 or 60/40 that we expected.  I wanted my daughter to continue exploring this, but she had other ideas.  Also, our sample of 7 hens is not really conclusive of anything. (Could it be the specific hens, the egg storage, the breed, time of year, hen's diet, hen's age?)  It's more likely just luck.  I just noticed that we were one of the exceptions who always hatch more females than males.  We often don't get 100% hatch rates, so perhaps all the ones that didn't make it were the males.

Reptile offspring are determined by the temperature maybe some birds are too

 

[Faraday40]

Been busy living life, but here's my flock update:

Cuddles was very ill back in Sept. Never figured out if it was cocci, worms, or some other bug, but she' back to her normal self. Great to have my sweet girl entertaining again. She learned a new magic trick that we hope to have perfected by Thanksgiving. Also, her molt is finishing up, so she'll be looking beautiful soon.



With all the beautiful purebred Orps we raised, my son picked out a mix as his fav. At one point we had 30 chicks & he kept choosing the same one to play with. (a Coro Sussex x Lav Orp) Here is "Nemo," his pet chicken. She went on a bike ride with him 2 days ago. I wish I had the camera as I saw him riding down the sidewalk with a chicken on his handle bars.

Nemo earlier this summer






My daughter is the reason we actually have chickens. She enjoys hatching & always finds new science project ideas that of course require her to incubate more eggs. Since I'm the one buying the eggs, I tend to pick my fav breeds. LOL It's hard but necessary to rehome most of the hatch results. We hatched some beautiful, jaw-dropping orps from Kittydoc, but DD falls in love with a mix from our own flock. Here's Nemo's sister: Sweetie




For a few years my daughter's been asking for a Dominique but I haven't been able to find local breeders. We incubated 10 shipped eggs & got ONE Dom chick. DD also fell in love with a little Sebright, so we kept both to see how they'd turn out. Both are female. They are fun because they are so DIFFERENT from the flock.
When I call, they don't do the normal chicken waddle/run. They fly! I was afraid they'd be skittish & flighty, but they flt TO me not away. Because they are small, they don't bother scratching around on the ground with the other chickens. Instead, they fly up to a nearby branch (or sometime my shoulder) and demand to be hand fed. Technically, I only agreed to keep the Dom, but DD argues that the Sebright is so small it shouldn't be counted as a chicken.

 

[Faraday40]

Reptile offspring are determined by the temperature maybe some birds are too

I once thought about that, but in chickens you'd just get a poor hatch rate if the temp was not optimal.

 

[ellymayRans]

The male to female ratio is determined by the hen. So the accuracy of a specific hen producing more of one or the other is correct.

 

[daskhan]

I once thought about that, but in chickens you'd just get a poor hatch rate if the temp was not optimal.

I think in reptile it's like a difference of a fraction of degrees so like .5 lower then 100(random number not actual temp of a reptile) is male or .5 higher is female and I believe it's the temp of the mothers inside when the egg is fertilized. so the temp of incubation has nothing to do with it. one way to check this is put several hens in a temperature controlled room that is hotter then normal plenty of water though and several in another that is a bit chilly hatch eggs accordingly, record the outcome. although I don't know what the temps would need to be to actually affect the inside of the chicken

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