MARCH Hatch-A-Long 2015: Please Read the First Post to JOIN the H-A-L

[scflock]

well if you are hatching that many roosters - statistically it may be an anomaly, depends on how many you hatched out of how many eggs-and there is some data out there (but i havent looked into it fully) that a temp drop/spike at a specific time will result in a gender difference AT HATCH. note it wont change the gender of the eggs, just which ones survive to hatching. since this is a sort of holy grail for the industry and not much is spoken of it I suspect the claim is bunk. but since genetic gender is determined by which is the heterozygote, and in chickens that is the female...so it's your girls fault. if you could identify the hen(s) then you could exclude them from the breeding. i had thought recently that my one silkie hen (foundation hen for my flock) was producing more females than males, but when i did the numbers it was only out of 11 chicks i made the assumption and it was only one more female than male so ....if only the male was heterozygote then a centrifuge would work....

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a coincidence. I only let the broodies hatch, and I was about 16 for 23 roosters last year. I'm not quite ready to invest in a centrifuge yet. Those girls will sit on anything, and I have a friend that will take any unwanted roosters off my hands, so I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed this year

 

[mymilliefleur]

I keep wanting to candle the eggs, even though I know they're doing fine. So nervous about hatching ducks for the first time.

Yes me too! Today my incubator got down to 96F today. Not good. They're on day 15 so I'm super worried that something will go wrong. How could something so stress full and nerve wracking be so addictive??

 

[Varglet]

Quote: Hoping at least one of the two hatches. Would be great if both hatched, but if only one hatches I'm going to have to buy another one at a feed store to keep it company. With my luck none of the feed stores will have any ducks in when I need one.

 

[paris_r]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a coincidence. I only let the broodies hatch, and I was about 16 for 23 roosters last year. I'm not quite ready to invest in a centrifuge yet. Those girls will sit on anything, and I have a friend that will take any unwanted roosters off my hands, so I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed this year

if you arent squeemish (like i am) about slaughtering chickens-silkie chickens (Taihe) earn 3 times the price as meat birds since they are seen as 'traditional medicine'-try looking at the price for one of them at asian markets!

look at this 'discount' price!
http://www.exoticmeatmarkets.com/sichtch.html

and that is for a 1.5 to 2 pound bird!!

 

[scflock]

if you arent squeemish (like i am) about slaughtering chickens-silkie chickens (Taihe) earn 3 times the price as meat birds since they are seen as 'traditional medicine'-try looking at the price for one of them at asian markets! look at this 'discount' price! http://www.exoticmeatmarkets.com/sichtch.html and that is for a 1.5 to 2 pound bird!!

I'll process Marans all day long, but I can't bring myself to do that with a silkie. My friend loves them, but he is from further south than me. Much further south..,

 

[mymilliefleur]

if you arent squeemish (like i am) about slaughtering chickens-silkie chickens (Taihe) earn 3 times the price as meat birds since they are seen as 'traditional medicine'-try looking at the price for one of them at asian markets!

look at this 'discount' price!
http://www.exoticmeatmarkets.com/sichtch.html

and that is for a 1.5 to 2 pound bird!!

Wow! I would like to get some Silkies so I can use the hens as broodys and eat the extra roosters. Aren't their bones black too?

 

[paris_r]

Wow! I would like to get some Silkies so I can use the hens as broodys and eat the extra roosters. Aren't their bones black too?

yes the pigment migrates everywhere but the feathers, no matter what their feather colour the flesh is black. even my paint ones loose their skin spots after a while.

 

[Torch404]

A couple of questions. This is my first incubation and I have a couple questions.

First - Do you turn down the incubator a couple degrees at lockdown? OR are you suppose to do that once the chicks start hatching? Or not at all? I've just read a lot and am a little unclear on this.

Second - I made a home made coolerbator and I am wondering how many air holes I need. I have about 4 x1/4 in holes near the top and 4 more near the bottom. Is there some way to know if that is enough air?

 

[bekkanblue]

First one is out! Well, still has shell-shorts but working on it. Not due till tomorrow so not freaking out over the no action on the others. Have to go to work anyway so won't get to obsess. Much. This is so much fun!! Probably a good thing I'm still restricted to my Minis, at least until I start moving older chicks to bigger brooders! Like tomorrow. They're eating like pigs, cute feathered piglets! Ha!

 

[Amykins]

SHELL SHORTS! <3 Oh, you have GOT to take a photo, I wanna see, hehe! As for mine, I still have a week to go, but I candled them tonight and I can't even see in there anymore, they're all full up! I can't wait until my little duckie fuzzlets hatch!