Eggs are candled in commercial farms to remove cracked eggs or those with blood spots. You don't have to do it. It's a quality control thing, and most people buying backyard eggs don't expect store bought perfection.
Nice! Lucky friend :) I don't keep boys long enough to be slaughtered. If I have a large batch I can usually always find someone to buy the lot to raise out for meat. I've done my own before but decided it's really not worth it to go through that process. It's cool that you do it though.
Both haha. I tend to keep more birds if they don't sell but a lot of times it's panic rushing to set them up in a bigger area. For some reason sales cut off realy sharply May/June (at least in my area). Last few years I was feeling optimistic from the spring rush and hatched a ton only to have a...
I second a necropsy. This sounds like it could be Avian Leukosis Virus. It seems to be a bigger problem with Legbars than other breeds.
Birds who have ALV typically die at point of lay. The ones that die are usually infected vertically (from the mother hen), which is why the rest of the flock...
I've never heard of this breed :oops: Posting your location might help! Would you be willing to share more info on them? Google searches aren't turning up much either.
It's a good egg! A blood ring would be around the width of the egg, not the height. Also, you wouldn't see any veins if an embryo died this early on, the breaking down of those veins is what forms the blood ring. That is a healthy embryo, the ring you are seeing is just the edge of the...
That's a good question, if he's a silver based bird (two copies of silver) I wouldn't expect any red. But silver/gold maybe it would come in later? Honestly not too sure.
Cockerel... a little hard to see in some of the photos but I'm pretty sure I can see 3 rows of peas on his comb, that's a good indication of cockerels in pea-combed breeds. Also the comb shouldn't be this red or large if he were a pullet.
At this age male feathers probably wouldn't be coming in...
Fun thread!
Mom thinks 200. Little sister thinks 350. I'm thinking somewhere in between?
Going to aim for 300. We'll see how it goes! Need to replace some of my breeding hens (Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons and Legbars), and RIR lay the best out of those three so probably going to be a lot...
I've sold "EE mixes" for $1.50 per egg. Olive egger with nice shades and from the BCM genes or speckles could be up to $3, I suppose. I've seen them go for more on eBay.
You could start at $2-2.50 per egg and see how many you sell. If you're selling out consistently, raise the price. Sounds...
I've had CL like that, and it's very unfortunate. The breeder I got them from had very nice birds and never ran into cream eggs, but it was apparent that somewhere up the line some of the birds were heterozygous. When I went to breed mine, I got pullets that laid cream eggs!
But like @NatJ...
Polydactyly (extra toes) is a dominant gene so they could still be crosses. Also, I can't see too well on the white one but I should think the beard would be more defined on a pure satin, though it could be a bit early. I would ask the farm owner if they are satins; if they are a satin breeder...
Silkie crosses, not pure. They're smooth feathered so that's how you can tell. But a lot of cute silkie features, like crests and feathered feet!
No guesses on gender yet, wait a few more weeks and look at the comb. Anything with silkie is harder to tell though.