The 8th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!!!!

[NotAFarm]

Hiya Mary!

And welcome to everyone joining us!

Quote: HI, Kelly and Kim!

 

[jbenson]

This will be my boys first breeding season so fingers crossed all will be well with him. He does sometimes make a hash of the job with the girls but the few eggs I have checked so far look fertile

Hi Mary! Spring Woot Woot!

Lovely breeds there!
That's a really short window to get the eggs!
Sounds like a plan, good luck. Love the white faced Spanish, so different to look at. I have several polish still on strike but I'm hoping they will get their act together soon. What colours do you have in polish?

I have white crested black, buff and buff laced for female and my males are a gold laced and a splash. The splash was a surprise in a batch of white crested black that I ordered two years ago. But it's been fun crossing him with the white crested blacks to get blues. I would have more, but I had horrid luck with last year's polish that I bought from the local farm and garden. Out of 5 gold laced, 3 were male (supposed to have been sexed 90% female), only 1 of 3 buff laced survived and one of my white crested hens passed during the summer as well (she was egg bound). All of the blues I hatched out last year turned out to be male, but I sold them to a local family for their farm cause they were pretty. I'm hoping they start laying soon because I desperately want more polish and I can't afford to keep buying chicks at $4 a pop.

I do love my Spanish. They are bantam and sooooo tiny. The only thing I wish is that the males would get their white faces faster. My roo is 2 years old and has finally got almost all of the white face. He is so handsome. I'm glad that I have been able to breed them though. They were hard to find from a hatchery and they are insanely fragile as chicks. I lost half of what I ordered within a couple hours of them arriving. I lucked out that I ended up with 4 hens and 1 roo and then was able to breed a lot of them last year (my roo is a lady's man so nearly every egg is fertile and the ladies will lay every day for me if they have a light on a timer and don't run out of food or water.) I also like that they are easy to sex early. At about 3 weeks, it is clear as day who is male - the comb development is earlier than anything I have ever seen. That made it easy for me to select hens to keep for myself last summer. I kept just 3 because I wasn't sure I was going to breed this year. I probably should have kept more.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

HI, Kelly and Kim!  

Love the egg Mary!

I have white crested black, buff and buff laced for female and my males are a gold laced and a splash. The splash was a surprise in a batch of white crested black that I ordered two years ago.  But it's been fun crossing him with the white crested blacks to get blues. I would have more, but I had horrid luck with last year's polish that I bought from the local farm and garden.  Out of 5 gold laced, 3 were male (supposed to have been sexed 90% female), only 1 of 3 buff laced survived and one of my white crested hens passed during the summer as well (she was egg bound). All of the blues I hatched out last year turned out to be male, but I sold them to a local family for their farm cause they were pretty. I'm hoping they start laying soon because I desperately want more polish and I can't afford to keep buying chicks at $4 a pop.

I do love my Spanish.  They are bantam and sooooo tiny. The only thing I wish is that the males would get their white faces faster.  My roo is 2 years old and has finally got almost all of the white face. He is so handsome. I'm glad that I have been able to breed them though.  They were hard to find from a hatchery and they are insanely fragile as chicks. I lost half of what I ordered within a couple hours of them arriving.  I lucked out that I ended up with 4 hens and 1 roo and then was able to breed a lot of them last year (my roo is a lady's man so nearly every egg is fertile and the ladies will lay every day for me if they have a light on a timer and don't run out of food or water.)  I also like that they are easy to sex early.  At about 3 weeks, it is clear as day who is male - the comb development is earlier than anything I have ever seen. That made it easy for me to select hens to keep for myself last summer. I kept just 3 because I wasn't sure I was going to breed this year. I probably should have kept more.

Wow that was rotten luck on all those males in your polish Sorry to hear you lost a WCB. How old were they when 90% sexed? I had a splash roo but I found selling just blue quite hard work and people wanted more variety in colours. I too also had a lot of males in the blues and being polish there really was not enough meat on them to warrant growing on them on but I did find homes for a few of them. One of my gold lace hens went broody and even she managed to hatch 3/4 males from her clutch!
Fingers crossed your polish start laying soon and you can get some eggs set

The Spanish sound lovely and especially as you can sex them early! Have you found the ones you hatched yourself easier to care for or are they still fragile chicks to rear?

 

[mlm Mike]

Good luck to everyone hatching!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

    Good luck to everyone hatching! 

Hi Mike!

 

[summerb123]

My hens are laying again!!!!!!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

My hens are laying again!!!!!!

That's wonderful news and just at the right time

 

[Chicken5555]

I won't be part of this Hatch Along

But, that's only because I'll be setting eggs every four weeks on a schedule until it starts getting cool next Fall (here in SC that will actually be more like January).
GOOD LUCK to everyone!!!!

 

[summerb123]

That's wonderful news and just at the right time

yep!! good girls! after a 5 month wait we got eggs!

 

[myfivegirls]

I'll be joining. Doing a test hatch now & just separated a few more breeding groups last night. Maybe by then, I can separate more if the weather cooperates.