5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[chicken pickin]

I know a lot of us are into chickens for Show purposes and I am too. I am also in it for the eggs.

This is my egg basket for the last two days--minus two that I used for Banana Bread(baking now--The baking smell is killing me--I want some now!).

I love the eggs in the basket, and such pretty colors.

Your lucky. Im getting 1 egg a day right now *sigh*

 

[ronott1]

I love the eggs in the basket, and such pretty colors.

Your lucky. Im getting 1 egg a day right now *sigh*

My OEs killed it yesterday too!

6 eggs from 7 hens.

 

[Aphrael]

I know a lot of us are into chickens for Show purposes and I am too. I am also in it for the eggs.

This is my egg basket for the last two days--minus two that I used for Banana Bread(baking now--The baking smell is killing me--I want some now!).

My OEs killed it yesterday too!

6 eggs from 7 hens.

What a lovely rainbow of eggs! I am wanting to expand mine to have such a lovely rainbow too. My DH doesn't understand it, cause he says they all taste like eggs. Which they do ... BUT all the pretty colors just makes me happy when I look at them.

Happiness is important. You're girls sound like real overachievers! I really wish mine would get done with their molting and get back to laying. I am lucky to get 1 egg every other day right now. From the big girls that is. The bantams are giving me 2-4 each day.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

ChickenCanoe, those pics are just heartwarming, all those beautiful, healthy chicks! Glad you had such a nice hatch - I notice there seems to be variation in how much yellow the chicks have on their faces, does that indicate anything about their appearance as adults?

I do not envy the weather you and others in that part of the country have to look forward to the next few days. Brrr! This morning when we got up it was 5 degrees, now it's 4.5, I am hopeful it doesn't go down much more. We got a few inches of snow yesterday and are glad for it, we need the moisture.

At least you don't have far to go to check on them for a few days

Ideally the light color should only be from the beak down and the whole underbelly. Some white wing feathers are acceptable in young birds but there shouldn't be any white on them after about 10 weeks. Those that have white around their eyes, on top of their heads or all white wings usually end up with some white on them as adults. The more white on the chicks the better chance there is of them being mottled as adults. All the hens that have mottling, aren't the right shape or lay a lighter egg are in the same pen. I'm not hatching any of their eggs except for the two that lay lighter eggs because they're unrelated to my birds. I'll take the chance on egg color to get fresh blood in the flock.
It's tough to weed out the culprits in the breeders. Making it tougher, the hens often don't show the mottling until after their first molt.
I'm not that patient and don't want this to take me forever so I'm planning on building 4 trapnests for the 2 larger breeding units, 2 other units are just for pairs and 1 for trios.
Now that I'm getting the bugs worked out of my incubator/hatcher and being able to pedigree the eggs should help me get their size, color, conformation, production, egg color, etc. under control a lot faster than just knowing what rooster they're out of.

Some of the forecasters are now saying this could be a record January snowfall for us. The last time it was this cold was 1989. These are heat hardy birds, now we'll see how cold hardy they are. A couple summers ago we had a month over 100.

Now all I have to do is make sure I keep the raccoons out of the basement. I may have to padlock it.

Marek's vaccine is best given at day old but can still be administered later. Its just that it is less effective every day that passes because it is in a race with Marek's in the environment to take over the bird. I think the vaccine is still only available in 1000 dose minimum, but it isn't that expensive.
On commercial farms Marek's vaccine is sometimes still administered subcutaneously in the back of the neck or intramuscularly in the leg. In addition to Marek's, they vaccinate against infectious bursal disease and some respiratory viruses as chicks. Then close to the end of rearing they give vaccines against things like egg drop syndrome and Salmonella. They are also starting to vaccinate for Coccidiosis.

More recently, intra ovo vaccination is common for Marek's, AI, ILTV, IB and Fowl Pox.
If not done in the egg, mass spraying for respiratory diseases and drinking water application are used especially coccidiosis vaccine.

http://www.positiveaction.info/pdfs/articles/hp20.5p15.pdf

Isn't it amazing the steps necessary to protect the food supply for the masses.

Here's another disturbing thing.
Depopulate 2.5 million birds using foam when there's an outbreak.

 

[itsbob]

Ducks in lockdown, 3 days 'til baby Khakis and Pekins.

I would check them for internal pipping. I have hatched pekin type ducks for others and they were early each time.

The eggs are rockin and rollin ..

 

[chickengirl1193]

They will be fine!

Definitely research and talk to others in your area.

My little OE chicks needed me last night. They woke up hungry and chirping--I had to turn the light on and let them eat!

They are going down stairs today. There is more light down there so they should be able to find the food if they need a mid night snack....

Silly chickens!

that is super cute!
thanks for the info!

 

[insanity]

Here is my new baby. Splash bantam x barred rock

 

[ronott1]

Here is my new baby. Splash bantam x barred rock

Gorgeous!

 

[JDchicks]

AWESOME!

Going to try to get a better look at her soon. Hoping her head is vaulted.

YAY congrats!!! I hope you share pics with us once mama shares with you.

My 11 yr old DD recently discovered showgirls and now she wants some, also Naked necks. DH isn't gonna be happy that I am passing my addiction on to our daughters. She even insisted that out of her Silkies that just hatched she NEEDS a rooster. DH told her if she could give him a good reason why she NEEDS a rooster then she could keep one. Her response- "I need a rooster so they can have babies and then I can sell the babies to have money to pay for the food" Sounds like something I would say. DH said "Good answer you can have one rooster".

Her response to me was "Mom you already have 4 roosters, So I need one too". LOL I couldn't argue with her.

She is an awesome mom. She pulls the feeder right over to her, she only does that after the chicks hatch. She will even let me move and dig under her.

I will try to get pics soon. Want to make sure I don't disrupt a couple eggs she still has under her.

 

[Aphrael]

Here is my new baby. Splash bantam x barred rock

What a cutie! It looks the same color as my Lavender Orpington chicks.