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

[MontanaDolphin]

Oh man, he is beautiful. Too bad...to sad.. I remember...waaaaay back in the 60's, my little sis coming in with bloody legs. Yep..one of my grandma's roos got her. We were always careful when we went out to collect eggs for grandma, we would hurry and close the door to the big coop she had, lock him out, then gather the eggs. But one day, my little sis wasn't fast enough. My grandpa was faster than the rooster later on that day..with the ax! I can still see that roo sitting on the dinner table. I didn't like him much out in the yard, and I wasn't so sure I was going to like eating him, even though he was mean. Once I got started on him, thought, hey, this isn't bad at all! Mean ol boy that one.

His first attack was directed towards me...nothing painful, but still an attack. Over the past three months his aggression has gotten worse. First time he went after my 8 year old, my husband almost chopped his head off then. Well, he threw the hand axe at him cuz he couldn't catch him. Then he thought about it and said we'd give him another chance...after we taught our boys how to show Zeus who's boss. Since then he's had his 2nd chance...and his 3rd, 4th, 5th...you get the picture. I was hoping that with some positive reinforcements from me and my boys that he would calm down. Once one of us puts him in his place, he's good for a while...up to a week. Then he's at it again. And he likes to getcha from behind.

A month ago my mom and stepdad moved in. Apparently Zeus has made my mom his new target. He does NOT like her. She's put him in his place every time, but every day he goes at her again. Then last week I looked out the window and he was chasing my 8 year old who was running as fast as he could from Zeus' sharp claws!

That was the last straw. Zeus just is NOT gettin' it. I wish I could wait until he turns a year old...just to see if his hormones calm down by then. But I'm not risking one of my boys getting seriously hurt. They are short. And Zeus jumps feet first at them. That's all I need is for Zeus to take one of their eyes out.

So freezer camp bound he is.

 

[KristyAnn]

I'm thinking about doing the same thing. Sounds like a bad relationship.

 

[CackleJoy]

I need some great breeding mix ideas for my CL roo. He is just over 10 weeks so it will be at least another 2-3 months before I can use him. But since I lost his mate last night, I want to make the most of the opportunity and get some cool mixed chicks for a layer flock.
Females I have available for a mix are:
Barred Rock,
Dominiques,
Leghorns,
Red Star,
one white EE,
one blue EE.

I'd go for the EE's. EE's tend to be great egg layers and if you are selling chicks, the blue/green eggers sell really well!

 

[MontanaDolphin]

I'd go for the EE's. EE's tend to be great egg layers and if you are selling chicks, the blue/green eggers sell really well!

I'm replacing Zeus with an EE roo (see post above). My pullets are BR and Commercial Blacks (BR hatchery crosses). Once the EE roo fertilizes my girls...I will hatch some. What will they look like, does anyone know? What does a chicken that has a EE as a father and BR as a mother look like? Just curious Not sure what part of the forum to ask that question!

 

[Aphrael]

this is my momma hen and her chicks(my now hens) this last may and now she is sleeping under table that the bator is on, waiting for her grand babies to hatch lol she is full grown and weighs 2lbs and when the time came to move her babies outside my 100lb Rott was very curious and momma hen chased her off and for first week slept in their starter coop with them lol

That is so adorable! My chihuahua adopts all my baby chicks and ducks as well. She didn't go so far as to sleep in the coop with them (she would never give up her spot under my covers on my body pillow!

) But she loves to get in the brooder with them and she guards them, chasing away all the other dogs and cats. She won't even allow them in the same room as the brooder.

It is very cute.

just did my day 7 candle! 10/12 are showing development! 2 are clear. what am I gonna do with that many chickens? I even saw embryos in the light colored eggs

I think my humidity is too high, i traced the air cells and they still seem a bit small. ill let it go down and check again next week with the chart. 2 of my developing eggs have detached air cells tho

if I put them in an egg carton for lock down will that help? I still dont know what ill do with ten chickens! I hope i dont screw up now!

For detached air cells, they need to be in something that holds them mostly upright for the entire incubation so that the air cell is kept pretty much where it should be. An egg carton to hatch in as well is a good idea.

Added to what list? There's a list? I wanna be on a list! Wait...what's it mean if you ARE on the list???

Never fear! It is just the list of hatchalong participants.

Thank you I have sent messages out.

It is more likely to happen at the chick stage. It can happen at any age though. And I could see that she was growing slower than she should have been since week one. But I was giving her her own feeding and watering time 3 times a day once I mixed all the chicks together. I had another chick grow slower but she turned out fine and is now laying eggs every day. I guess I was hoping for that kind of an outcome. I'm typically hands off so I did not bring her inside or give her a special cage just made sure she had 5-10 minutes of time to eat and drink when I went out to refill the water each day.

That is really good to know! Thank you. So sorry for the loss of your pullet.

oh no i have 1 with viens and a ring around viens and then yolk ring and my twins got darker but nothing else im still thinking they didnt make it

That bottom one (the double yolker?) does look like blood rings to me, but I would wait until day 10 before culling it just to be certain. So long as it isn't smelly that is!

I found it...and didn't realize I had posted there back in February lol!

As for removing clears...day 10 will be Sunday for me. At last candle I realized I must have seen something that wasn't there in egg #8...it looks like a clear as well. So that makes 2 out of 10 that are duds. I see peewee kidney beans AND movement in all the other ones! I wasn't expecting so many to make it this far with me being a newbie...now all I can think of is "Crap! If they all make it, where am I going to put them????" LOL

That seems to be going around a lot!

Oh man, he is beautiful. Too bad...to sad.. I remember...waaaaay back in the 60's, my little sis coming in with bloody legs. Yep..one of my grandma's roos got her. We were always careful when we went out to collect eggs for grandma, we would hurry and close the door to the big coop she had, lock him out, then gather the eggs. But one day, my little sis wasn't fast enough. My grandpa was faster than the rooster later on that day..with the ax! I can still see that roo sitting on the dinner table. I didn't like him much out in the yard, and I wasn't so sure I was going to like eating him, even though he was mean. Once I got started on him, thought, hey, this isn't bad at all! Mean ol boy that one.

His first attack was directed towards me...nothing painful, but still an attack. Over the past three months his aggression has gotten worse. First time he went after my 8 year old, my husband almost chopped his head off then. Well, he threw the hand axe at him cuz he couldn't catch him. Then he thought about it and said we'd give him another chance...after we taught our boys how to show Zeus who's boss. Since then he's had his 2nd chance...and his 3rd, 4th, 5th...you get the picture. I was hoping that with some positive reinforcements from me and my boys that he would calm down. Once one of us puts him in his place, he's good for a while...up to a week. Then he's at it again. And he likes to getcha from behind.

A month ago my mom and stepdad moved in. Apparently Zeus has made my mom his new target. He does NOT like her. She's put him in his place every time, but every day he goes at her again. Then last week I looked out the window and he was chasing my 8 year old who was running as fast as he could from Zeus' sharp claws!

That was the last straw. Zeus just is NOT gettin' it. I wish I could wait until he turns a year old...just to see if his hormones calm down by then. But I'm not risking one of my boys getting seriously hurt. They are short. And Zeus jumps feet first at them. That's all I need is for Zeus to take one of their eyes out.

So freezer camp bound he is.

He is lovely to look at. But pretty is as pretty does, as they say. It definitely sounds as if he is going to remain unrepentant. You need to look out for your boys first of all. Plus, aggression can be genetic, and you don't want to breed that into any of your future chicks.

 

[BoereMeisie]

Oh my... I am 23 Pages behind and I don't have the energy to catch up. Did I miss anything important? I'm just checking in after tonight's candling and happy to report that out of the 5 RIR eggs set, 4 are jumping around in there. This is especially good news, since we had to cull the mean roo who is the dad, and his only hatchling from the last set of eggs was grabbed by a mongoose this week

So hopefully those four are his babies and not the babies of my randy Silkie, Frankie.

We'll just have to wait and see now won't we?

My 3 Blue Orpington eggs are clear unfortunately, but the Orpingtons are still young (and alive) so there is lots of time to set more!

I can't see too well into the dark shells of the 4 red sex-link's eggs (with the randy Silkie dad), but they seem to be developing as well

So far there are 4 definite clears out of 12 eggs set... Not toooo bad

Considering a few days ago I thought only 1 was developing....

 

[Aphrael]

I'm replacing Zeus with an EE roo (see post above). My pullets are BR and Commercial Blacks (BR hatchery crosses). Once the EE roo fertilizes my girls...I will hatch some. What will they look like, does anyone know? What does a chicken that has a EE as a father and BR as a mother look like? Just curious Not sure what part of the forum to ask that question!

It's hard to say because EE's can have many different breeds in the mix. So you never really know what might pop up in chicks. Unless you knew the exact mix used to make your particular EE, then you might be able to guess as to likely appearance of the offspring.

 

[CackleJoy]

I'm replacing Zeus with an EE roo (see post above). My pullets are BR and Commercial Blacks (BR hatchery crosses). Once the EE roo fertilizes my girls...I will hatch some. What will they look like, does anyone know? What does a chicken that has a EE as a father and BR as a mother look like? Just curious Not sure what part of the forum to ask that question!

There is actually a forum dedicated to the BR X EE experiment. Sadly it sees little activity. I wish it had more so I could learn! I have BR (like Zeus, he left the farm) over EE, opposite yours. The results were all barred of some form. I show 2 distinct differences here. A couple of my pullets have lovely facial hair and are quite spectacular. I'm guessing the barring is dominant.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

It's hard to say because EE's can have many different breeds in the mix. So you never really know what might pop up in chicks. Unless you knew the exact mix used to make your particular EE, then you might be able to guess as to likely appearance of the offspring.

Lol, figures. Hope they'll turn out purdy.

How long until Zeus' sperm is outta the girl's systems after he is replaced by the EE roo? I wanna know when I'm going to hatch next!!!

 

[MontanaDolphin]

There is actually a forum dedicated to the BR X EE experiment. Sadly it sees little activity. I wish it had more so I could learn! I have BR (like Zeus, he left the farm) over EE, opposite yours. The results were all barred of some form. I show 2 distinct differences here. A couple of my pullets have lovely facial hair and are quite spectacular. I'm guessing the barring is dominant.

Ooooo where can I find that part of the forum????