You should still get splash but any hens they produce will probably lay lighter eggs. I would put a call out on the buy/sell/trade. People are always looking for good homes for their roosters.
How exciting! Are the two that hatched orps or Isbars?
I'm terrible about resisting! I always open the thing and then have to assist the rest because I shrink wrapped them. Sometimes I'm surprised how my birds survive despite all of my "helping".
X2, except I think 50% is really good for this time of year. My worst hatch ever was this time last year. The eggs were really cold when I picked them up from the PO, so I'm sure they were close to freezing at some point.
I couldn't ship a viable SLW egg at all last summer. I had 70% fertility...
I blew the first picture up and stuck my nose to the screen hoping it would be a girl... Shoot! I was really hoping you'd break the cockerel streak I had this summer.
If you decide you are ready, you could take your extras to Wisner's this weekend or next. They'll have a processing day as soon...
There are a couple of reasons your pullers could be skinnier. First is that they are just at the skinny "teenager" stage. I've not noticed it with the girls, but my cockerels appear a lot skinnier when they hit a growth spurt, height wise. Have your girls gotten taller recently?
Another...
Sounds like your daughter was really lucky, Bearchick! I know she doesn't want to be recuperating over the holidays, but faced with the alternatives...
So, you might have already posted this but my memory is gone. What kind of eggs did Greenfire send you?
Congrats on losing the weight...
If you breed lavender to lavender, you get 100% lavender. Lavender is recessive, so if you breed lavender to black, you get birds who look black but carry the lavender gene (Splits, or blacks split to lavender) When you start breeding splits it starts getting really crazy because you can get...
Mine are the same way! I should have gotten 25% splash with my orps but every single chick was black or blue until the last couple of hatches. Glad it's not just mine who don't obey the rules of genetics.
I was just playing. When you mentioned the thermostat it made me think of all of the times the costs of my projects skyrocket out of control at the end. So it's going to hold 80 eggs?
I love my Brinsea, but their customer service it terrible!
Chicklet,
The only reason I was promoting the idea of you working on lavenders is that I like the color. Also, you would totally have to set another pen and I LOVE encouraging others to join the craziness!
Cool incubator, Bairo!
So, by the time you are done, could you have bought a couple of Brinseas, cost-wise? That's how most of my hand-made projects work out...
Don't apologize!!! I am a big believer in free range time. Losing one every now and then just happens. I think that if the birds got a vote they would definitely take the risk.
I'd never thought about how expensive these pictures would have been in the old days. I would definitely be more...
ILT can't be passed through the egg. But, you know me. I like to be cautious. The danger would be that the virus is passed by being ON the egg, or the carton. That's why I'm out of the hatching egg business.
Here's how I would handle hatching eggs. I would dispose of the carton in a way no one...
Thanks guys!
@Jeremy, Blue (real name Albert) is from Joy. He has turned into the perfect roo. Last winter I had to take him out of the pen to give the girls a break because he was a little rough. This year I'll be able to leave him since he's mellowed out.
@aina, I'm really enjoying my blue...