4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[Bettacreek]

This will be my second largest hatch. My largest was 90, second largest (until now) was 60. Can't wait to see what I'll be doing in spring, since I'll still be hatching leghorns, cornish cross (from 11 hens), pekin ducks and hopefully turkey and coturnix eggs. Summer will be even worse, since there will be silkies and seramas and hopefully more OEGB to add to that list. I'm glad I bought my 1502 when I saw it on the classifieds, even though I didn't have any birds at the time!!!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

khaki campbells are not a dual purpose, they are a very light weight bird laying the most eggs of all breeds. When butchered they are a small table bird and it would take 2 or 3 feed a family (depending on size of family)

Dual purpose with high egg production would be Silver Appleyard (1) and or Welsh Harlequin(2)

 

[mrheinz77]

Holy crap. I just realized how many eggs I set for the NYD hatch. Is anyone else hatching WAAAAYYYY more eggs than they had originally planned?! I went from thinking that I'd have a dozen or two dozen eggs to actually setting 70 eggs.

Ummmm maybe.
I was planning on 80-100. Well, I have 6 turners full minus 3 spots (each holds 41) and 26 that need to visit the turner tomorrow. I was going to set some quail too but I'm not sure.

 

[Bettacreek]

And now on to other subjects.

My crazy houdini hens are out of the pen again this morning which means more eggs in places they shouldn't be! Maybe the dusting of snow we got last night will make her rethink where her eggs should go!

And I'm now thinking of adding in to my little farm some ducks! I kinda wanted a duel purpose duck such as a good meat/egg layer and was thinking of the khaki campells (I might of misspelled that). But I think the call ducks that folks have been posting on here are totally adorable!

I also like the runners especially blue ones but again I think they are more of a looks/maybe eggs instead of duel purpose?

So I will have goats, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and planing on getting a couple breeder heritage American Guinea hogs in the spring after my goats kid. I think that is going to be enough in the way of critters at that point!

Haha! Mine free-range all the time, though most are nice enough to lay either in their room or on our porch, so the easter egg hunt isn't TOO bad here. Of course, I say that now, until I find a nest with 50 eggs in it or something! Nice assortment too! We only have the birds, but we have a slight assortment here as well... Ameraucanas, cornish cross, leghorns, turkeys and ducks, plus hoping to add some scovy ducks, HOPEFULLY a pair of sebastopol geese, the silkie and serama eggs in the bator, coturnix eggs, then OEGB and button quail eggs coming at some point. I might end up getting rid of the layer flock (mostly leghorns), to make room for everyone else, because I can really eat any eggs that are laid, and I think I'll have plenty to eat, even counting sales and hatchings.

 

[tadpole98]

Quote:

i thought i set alot! then again i only have 26 spots in my bator..

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

still setting eggs over here. About to do a round up and set tonight

 

[Shelshanam]

So I was told about the tetris stacking last night (somewhere pages back in this thread). And while I think I get the concept of how to do it in a Hovabator 1588 (assuming egg cartons and stacking them up to the ceiling) I was wondering if anyone has pictures of how they stacked in a Genesis?

I've gone through the threads and I can't find an actual picture, I know that Daiseychick is suppose to be the queen of the stack

 

[Bettacreek]

khaki campbells are not a dual purpose, they are a very light weight bird laying the most eggs of all breeds. When butchered they are a small table bird and it would take 2 or 3 feed a family (depending on size of family)

Dual purpose with high egg production would be Silver Appleyard (1) and or Welsh Harlequin(2)

Pekins can lay pretty well too, and are supposed to have an okay carcass (number one meat duck, right?). Mine seem awfully small, but then again, compared to my BBW turkey hens and my cornish cross chickens, EVERYTHING here seems to be pretty tiny. When I first got my layer flock, I thought that my brahmas were big old hussies, but now, they're so small!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Pekins are commonly kept for meat because of the white feathers making a clean pluck. They dont lay as well as the SA do, and the SA give a nice table bird.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

Haha, that's like an easter egg hunt every morning!

Oh that's awesome on more animals... I wish I had a farm... One day. For now I'm allowed six hens. lol

ouch only 6? we only have 4 acres here but the house we are looking at is on 60. I will be soooo much happier on that much land