2014 breeding season begins, post your results

[KsKingBee]

So, FBC, or anyone else for that matter, how in the world do you keep track of the different birds while hatching? I understand about marking eggs and banding, but when they are popping out of the shells like popcorn I loose track.

 

[DylansMom]

So, FBC, or anyone else for that matter, how in the world do you keep track of the different birds while hatching? I understand about marking eggs and banding, but when they are popping out of the shells like popcorn I loose track.

I think those who have hatchers with different trays use those to separate eggs. We are small so I remove each one from the hatcher before the next one pops out they get a tiny colored rubber band on each leg, and go into the brooder to finish drying off. I also will try to set them in a way that will make it easier. Say India blues and whites only put in together then when they hatch it's pretty obvious which are white and which are IB, if you have all IB,s or birds with a lot of splits this can get tougher. All of my spaldings were easy, they didn't hatch so much as burst out of the eggs...very vigorous and much taller than the blue varieties. A notebook is a must, I recorded all live chicks as well as a description of them and what color band they were wearing, who their parents were, and anything else I could think of. The notebook was extremely helpful when I was selling chicks and needed to match up unrelated pairs for people.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

KsKingBee, I made my own hatcher specific for keeping like colored peachicks all together until I can zip tie their legs until I wingband them at about 1 month of age. Since we raise so many black shoulder colors unless we're here while they hatch to identify and mark each one,we would be waiting on some colors 4-5 months until we knew.I've came home one time only to find 6 yellow fluffy black shoulder peachicks from 4 diffrent colors.I started a thread on how I made this hatcher. It has a top slide out drawer that has dividers for 12 diffrent colored peachicks to hatch out in,while keeping them confined and not mixing with the other chicks.Under this compartmented tray is a slide out drawer the same size,just with no dividers. It will hold probably 200 eggs if both drawers are full. I might have $250 in this and two days worth of time but I couldn't find anything that would work for what I needed unless it cost thousands of dollars.

Here is that thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/780847/homemade-peafowl-hatcher-pics-galore

 

[casportpony]

Nice, I like it!

-Kathy

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I can build you one,How many do you need? ,I need to get mine out,dust it off,clean and disinfect and see if it still works. Merlot hatch-a-longs are getting closer.

 

[KsKingBee]

Thanks for the offer! My hatcher, a Hatchcraft, has drawers so all I need to do is make some dividers to fit in them. I am reading your thread for more details, thanks again!

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

I have started to think the father was splading cameo too, i'm sure his mother is spalding cameo but wasn't sure about his father, today pics taken by phone camera,





Do you think he is taller than regular india blue chicks?

 

[DylansMom]

I have started to think the father was splading cameo too, i'm sure his mother is spalding cameo but wasn't sure about his father, today pics taken by phone camera,





Do you think he is taller than regular india blue chicks?

All of my Spalding chicks are taller than my chicks from the blue varieties.
They carry themselves more upright as well, here is a spalding and an opal.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

All of my Spalding chicks are taller than my chicks from the blue varieties.
They carry themselves more upright as well, here is a spalding and an opal.

He looks a lot like yours, don't have an india blues chicks to compare right now, but i`m sure now the father was spalding too, thanks.

 

[PeepsCA]

Thought you guys might enjoy this cuteness. A sweet little IB PeaBaby and a tiny little Tuxedo Coturnix QuailBaby, both 2 days old (I hatched 3 new PeaBabies and 32 QuailBabies, same hatch day). Last pic really shows the size difference