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

[MontanaDolphin]

Very raptor looking.

LOL you should've seen her when she was a baby! I swore she and her sister looked like hawks! That's what gave me the inclination that they were not pure Barred Rocks as advertised where I purchased them. After dozens of phone calls between the store and hatchery they came from, I found out they were Commercial Blacks...the store (Southern States) was TICKED that they were shipped the wrong chicks...they had a lot of problems with that hatchery last year, and will not be using them again this year. I'm not complaining about ending up with CB's instead of BR's, though...they are incredible layers. My first to lay out of the 6 was 16 weeks old when she popped out her first egg. The rest followed within 2 weeks. The one in the pic gave me double yolkers up until about a month ago...every two days like clockwork. I also got a triple yolker from her.

Here she is at a day old:

whats a commercial black?? ive never seen one of those before !!

Commercial Blacks are from Mt. Healthy Hatchery in Ohio. They are a cross between a Barred Rock hen and one of many roos. In fact, the owner of the hatchery could not even tell me what breed the roo was...he said they use all kinds of different breeds, and those breeds were of different breeds. So they are pretty much just...well...mutts.

Link to the breed: http://www.mthealthy.com/store/948458/product/CB-sr

 

[Frankie Ruiz]

LOL you should've seen her when she was a baby! I swore she and her sister looked like hawks! That's what gave me the inclination that they were not pure Barred Rocks as advertised where I purchased them. After dozens of phone calls between the store and hatchery they came from, I found out they were Commercial Blacks...the store (Southern States) was TICKED that they were shipped the wrong chicks...they had a lot of problems with that hatchery last year, and will not be using them again this year. I'm not complaining about ending up with CB's instead of BR's, though...they are incredible layers. My first to lay out of the 6 was 16 weeks old when she popped out her first egg. The rest followed within 2 weeks. The one in the pic gave me double yolkers up until about a month ago...every two days like clockwork. I also got a triple yolker from her.

Here she is at a day old:






Commercial Blacks are from Mt. Healthy Hatchery in Ohio. They are a cross between a Barred Rock hen and one of many roos. In fact, the owner of the hatchery could not even tell me what breed the roo was...he said they use all kinds of different breeds, and those breeds were of different breeds. So they are pretty much just...well...mutts.

Link to the breed: http://www.mthealthy.com/store/948458/product/CB-sr

thank you!!

 

[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.

I'm trying to be as hands off as possible this time so didn't candle to see internal pipping BUT two have already externally pipped

 

[JDchicks]

I'm trying to be as hands off as possible this time so didn't candle to see internal pipping BUT two have already externally pipped

Fabulous! Going to be a long night for you.

 

[FeyRaine]

I've got eggs to go into LD but waiting til tomorrow...fingers crossed on electric staying on...

We went from 51 degrees & raining to 34 degrees in 90m mins !!
Now we have a layer of ice, w/ almost 2 inches of wet snow on top and it is still snowing.
Tomorrow the high is predicted to be 11F w/ a wind chill of -15

I've got 3 small batches of eggs in the LD and right now I'm keeping them together so
if we do have an outage at least they have shared heat from each other for awhile.

My NYDH #47 & #15 are doing great, still need to do pictures, looks like tomorrow will be a good day for that ; /

Ya'll stay safe & warm!

 

[ronott1]

I'm trying to be as hands off as possible this time so didn't candle to see internal pipping BUT two have already externally pipped

You need to raise the humidity!

They take a long time from pip to hatch too. You really do need to be patient.

Ducks are going to hatch at your place!

 

[FeyRaine]

I've got eggs to go into LD but waiting til tomorrow...fingers crossed on electric staying on...

We went from 51 degrees & raining to 34 degrees in 90m mins !!
Now we have a layer of ice, w/ almost 2 inches of wet snow on top and it is still snowing.
Tomorrow the high is predicted to be 11F w/ a wind chill of -15

I've got 3 small batches of eggs in the LD and right now I'm keeping them together so
if we do have an outage at least they have shared heat from each other for awhile.

My NYDH #47 & #15 are doing great, still need to do pictures, looks like tomorrow will be a good day for that ; /

Ya'll stay safe & warm!

OR I could get that funny gut feeling & decide to candle eggs due Wed on Sunday at midnight b/f going to sleep,
find I HAVE AN INTERNAL PIP ALREADY ,
& now be waiting for the hatcher to heat up, yep that would be me now...

The peeping egg is a green (mutt EE pullet) under my CL Roo GoodKingHenry it will be a 1st for both of them if it hatches.

 

[ronott1]

OR I could get that funny gut feeling & decide to candle eggs due Wed on Sunday at midnight b/f going to sleep,
find I HAVE AN INTERNAL PIP ALREADY ,
& now be waiting for the hatcher to heat up, yep that would be me now...

The peeping egg is a green (mutt EE pullet) under my CL Roo GoodKingHenry it will be a 1st for both of them if it hatches.

EEs do like to hatch early. They are from a much deeper gene pool than some breeds and have a lot of vigor.

 

[FeyRaine]

EEs do like to hatch early. They are from a much deeper gene pool than some breeds and have a lot of vigor.

Yes, & this one is a small egg so I shouldn't be suprised.
Also I did nudge up the temp & add water last week so again, no big surpise really, just not great timing as
I'm about to fall asleep on the cat in my lap, having spent 10 hrs canning today, plus dealing w/ weather & trying to make a hard decision re: our much loved Farm Dog "Dew" who's declining health has taken a sharp downturn in the past 48 hrs <sigh> , he once risked his life going into the street in front of a car to heard a lost week old chick back to the yard...

 

[Pozees]

Quote:

Only bad thing about having dogs. Hope you got some sleep, didn't lose power, and your hatch goes well.