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

[chiqita]

Thanks. I did send my copy of the receipt to her...no reply and it says she has not picked up the money.
Guess it will work out one way or the other........
Thanks everyone for your help.............
Eggs will be toast if she sends them today or tomorrow.......
and sure don't want someone thinking I did not pay fro my order..............
Time to start cleaning, always takes my mind off worries..............

Recheck the address you sent it to. That sounds wonky.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

At our last meeting for the dUccle club, we discussed, heavily the fact that dUccles are getting way to big, which is a big concern, two of the breeders breeding for size and winning stated it was due to the amount if protein in all poultry feed. They have switched to a fine screened corn form the first 8 weeks going vitimans in the water and hay. Older birds get hay (winter and free range grass in summer) and scratch grains as they are lower in protein. They also get vitamins in water. Their sizes are coming down.

Good info. I'm constantly tweaking diets, whether it be for meat, egg or DP breeds. On the flip side of your situation, the birds I'm working with (and all the others with the same breed in the US) are a little on the light side. The hens are close to standard but the roos are a little light. For the near term I'm going to be starting them all on 22 % protein. At 8 weeks, I'm splitting the sexes and drop pullets to 16% till POL, I'll keep the cockerels on 22% till 12 weeks and drop them to 18%.

I'm fortunate to have a friend that wholesales a wide variety of feeds for all types of animals from parrots, to ferrets, to goats, to dogs, to fish.
Grower feeds are available in protein percentages of 16, 18, 22, 24 and 27. Layer/breeder feed in 17 and 20%. And now she has various types of organic feed.
She also has a 36% poultry concentrate and fishmeal that is about 65% protein.
I also get various types of peas, sunflower seed, wheat, barley, oats, flax and buckwheat. I both grow those and sprout them for chickens. Sprouting increases the vitamin and protein content of the seed/grain and reduces the digestive inhibiting mycotoxins that are present in most seeds.

Morning' fellow chicken addicts! I have a couple questions.
My hubs is an OTR truck driver so he goes all over. We live in rural Georgia so getting eggs, chicks, etc is pretty limited. If he were to pick up chicks and bring them home would they do okay? And if he's in y'all's area would you be willing to meet him? Since he obviously can't drive a semi most places not on a main road.

I've been trying to get a ride for a rooster from St. Louis to Ohio.
I thought OTR truckers could be a good option for transporting individual rare birds around the country.

If chicks are packed with sufficient numbers, like 20, they should be fine in the cab if it is comfortable for a person. In the back of the truck they might need a heat pack.

thank you! out of curiosity where did you get all your knowledge on nutrition for chickens? Im very into nutrition for my animals and have done lots of research on dogs and goats but have just started with my chickens because it seems more complicated than goats lol. Ill read those two links tho! and hopefully my one bag of layer pellets didnt over do it for my girls. from now on they will get a grower feed or an all flock feed because i will have roosters in there. I always thought it was interesting when reading the labels on the layer feeds that calcium was so high on the ingredients list. I even went to a local feed mill to try to feed my animals local feed but the chicken feed was just corn soybean meal and limestone. Considering im trying to stay away from GMOs and those are the two biggest GMO crops i didnt buy that feed lol but it was surprising to me that limestone would be the third ingredient but now i understand more. thanks again

I've been a nutrition Nazi most of my life which is the basis regardless of species. For poultry, I've done a lot of research, I worked in the commercial poultry feed industry, I've attended lectures by and spoken to poultry nutritionists.

As for your one bag of layer. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Danger of excess calcium is a cumulative issue, so feeding for a short period shouldn't have long term effects. To detox birds, changing the diet and plenty of water is the only remedy. You could try getting the grower now and mixing the 2.

last night it rained instead of snow and Power outage

omg i ran to my eggs as i got to them power came bacj on and now my bator is working better then ever lol ...that was a close 1

and im glad i remembered to throw someting on before i ran out to eggs in living room i had a house guest sleeping on couch as it was i scared him when i ran in and to think if i was naked too he might be blind LMBO

We've had a lot of cold, snow and ice. It may now hit 60 today but will be back in the teens by the end of the weekend with 4 days of rain and snow on the way. Winter is just starting. I just had my generator gone over and it got delivered today. I feel much better now that I'm prepared for power outages.

 

[KimberlyK0509]

Candled last night day 8. 2 of my 3 Tolbunt Polish are definitely growing. This is my first hatch and I am totally amazed by the little swimming of the kidney beans! My DH thinks I'm crazy because I talk to them while candling. the 3rd egg looks like a blood ring but the blood ring does not go completely around the egg, just a small ring on one side of the egg. Any thoughts here? both of my SFH are growing wonderfully, but too dark to see the "beans", and pretty sure both Jubilee Orpingtons are lightbulbs. None of them smell rotten, but smell more like the incubator itself. Do you have to remove them after day 10? or is there an ABSOLUTE cut off date?

 

[Aphrael]

Candled last night day 8. 2 of my 3 Tolbunt Polish are definitely growing. This is my first hatch and I am totally amazed by the little swimming of the kidney beans! My DH thinks I'm crazy because I talk to them while candling. the 3rd egg looks like a blood ring but the blood ring does not go completely around the egg, just a small ring on one side of the egg. Any thoughts here? both of my SFH are growing wonderfully, but too dark to see the "beans", and pretty sure both Jubilee Orpingtons are lightbulbs. None of them smell rotten, but smell more like the incubator itself. Do you have to remove them after day 10? or is there an ABSOLUTE cut off date?

I think you could leave them in there for the entire incubation so long as they are not getting smelly. I've read where some people never candle at all. They just leave all eggs in until whatever is going to hatch has done so.

 

[ronott1]

I am so excited! All 14 of my MFL are showing tremendous veining! As are the 6 mutts

The two EE's are further developed then any of the others. It's only those dumb CL's that just wouldn't grow. Makes me happy though, that all of the eggs from our chickens are growing.

Except to check the CL's on Sat, I won't candle until lock down. I'm already paranoid that just a little handling will somehow hurt them.

The veins were so clear though, all I had to do was hold the (modified) flashlight to the egg and I could see them. So it was a quick trip out of the incubator (steady, steady ) and back in. Then my knee bumped the table leg and I cannot believe how clumsy I am! Hoping that little jostle didn't somehow set them all off track. Looks like incubation is the easy part. Hatching has all those other variables though... (where is the little nervous, biting it's nails, icon?)

Candled last night day 8. 2 of my 3 Tolbunt Polish are definitely growing. This is my first hatch and I am totally amazed by the little swimming of the kidney beans! My DH thinks I'm crazy because I talk to them while candling. the 3rd egg looks like a blood ring but the blood ring does not go completely around the egg, just a small ring on one side of the egg. Any thoughts here? both of my SFH are growing wonderfully, but too dark to see the "beans", and pretty sure both Jubilee Orpingtons are lightbulbs. None of them smell rotten, but smell more like the incubator itself. Do you have to remove them after day 10? or is there an ABSOLUTE cut off date?

That is great news! congrats on the growing babies.

There is no cutoff but after day 10 clears are often easy to spot. Final pull is on day 18 when the eggs are set for hatching but even then leave them in if you are not sure and they do not smell.

 

[Chickencame1st]

Since I am new I missed what this really was, but by pure coincidence set 17 Crested Cream Legbars on December 11

I will post a photo later when I candle. Here they are resting after being shipped. This will be great!

 

[Nonyah Biz]

i was worried about my slow growing fridge baby but the cute lil bean is dancing for joy lol~oh and my twins i thought i may have lost has 3 (not 2) dark moving patches? ugh the suspense

lol

 

[ronott1]

Since I am new I missed what this really was, but by pure coincidence set 17 Crested Cream Legbars on December 11

I will post a photo later when I candle. Here they are resting after being shipped. This will be great!

I will add your eggs to the hatch rate contest.

 

[carriebain]

I had two early death I just opened. One was a early quitter and the other was a recent death, it looks like it stuck to one side of the shell and the air sack was over half the egg. I'm down to 7 marans eggs with growth,3 trader joes and 2 feed store. So 12 out of 50. The rest were all clears

 

[Penny Hen]

Morning' fellow chicken addicts! I have a couple questions.
My hubs is an OTR truck driver so he goes all over. We live in rural Georgia so getting eggs, chicks, etc is pretty limited. If he were to pick up chicks and bring them home would they do okay? And if he's in y'all's area would you be willing to meet him? Since he obviously can't drive a semi most places not on a main road.

I am only 10 minutes from I-65 above Nashville, TN. Currently hatching Olive Eggers to check their fertility/hatchability.