6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[blackgoat]

A tailed Araucana would really work great for me. I want the Araucana blood but not to hyped on the rumplessnes with the ear whiskers, because of the fatal gene.

She also doesn't have the tufts. The tufted gene is the fatal one. She did come out of a nice blue egg! So, I'm hoping she's one of those "tailed and tuft-less" Araucanas, lol!

 

[Peep_Show]

HA!

"Was it good for you?"

MrsB

My, my, my.... Things have gotten sophisticated in the barnyard. I love the hen running away afterward, like "What the (rhymes with cluck)?"

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I've got hatching fever! But I am also doing real math on space and holy crap, I really hope the next two rounds of d'Uccles sell as fast as the first or I will be in big doo-doo when the dark cornish and friends get here cause I will be short on brooder space. Weather has gone sub zero here, so I think I'm going to take a break from hatching in Feb and do a batch of mixed up Easter Eggers for EHAL (those sold well last year, but they are more for the casual backyard chicken keeper where the d'Uccles end up going to people whose kids do 4H or those who have a farm where they have space for a bunch since I tend to sell them in multiples of 10). The mixed up EEs are so super cute and because they are mixed I sell them a bit cheaper so they sell well to the city crowd, though they sell a bit slower than the d'Uccles cause they usually go in batches of 5 or less at a time, I might do 2 rounds at the same time and fill both incubators

- don't tell my DH we are about to be drowned by chicken math! (It's partially his fault, he encouraged me to get some new fun birds for the black sex link project I wanted to try and the cornies are all his fault).

I just hatched some black sex links. The dot shows up clearly on the males. For this hatch I got half females and half males.
I'm not too sure what I'll do with the males.

 

[houdiniduck]

She also doesn't have the tufts. The tufted gene is the fatal one. She did come out of a nice blue egg! So, I'm hoping she's one of those "tailed and tuft-less" Araucanas, lol!

What is this "fatal" gene you are talking about?

 

[FuzzyHens]

She also doesn't have the tufts. The tufted gene is the fatal one. She did come out of a nice blue egg! So, I'm hoping she's one of those "tailed and tuft-less" Araucanas, lol!

What is this "fatal" gene you are talking about?

I was wondering the same question...what is the fatal gene with these chickens?

 

[bantambury]

My, my, my.... Things have gotten sophisticated in the barnyard. I love the hen running away afterward, like "What the (rhymes with cluck)?"

AHAHAH IK OH MY GOSH literally!

 

[ronott1]

What is this "fatal" gene you are talking about?

If they have two genes for eat tufts, 25% of the chicks die in the shell. It happens for different breeds too:

Quote:

 

[FuzzyHens]

If they have two genes for eat tufts, 25% of the chicks die in the shell. It happens for different breeds too:

Interesting, thanks for the info.

I have blue merle shelties and they run into the same issue...one merle gene creates the blue color and two merle gene creates dogs with serious eye and ear problems, if not fatal.

Are there other genes in the chicken world to watch for? Is there a good source for this?

 

[jbenson]

I just hatched some black sex links. The dot shows up clearly on the males. For this hatch I got half females and half males.
I'm not too sure what I'll do with the males.

I'm not super worried about what I'll do with the males. We have a large Asian population nearby that like to raise male bantams for eating, so when I get stuck with a whole bunch, I just fire-sale them via craigslist before they eat me out of house and home. I have never had trouble getting rid of large batches of roos, I just have to be willing to part with them cheap.

 

[Roan]

Yes! That was both misting and cooling down.

Some sources say to let the eggs dry off before closing the incubator--Supposed to help with bacteria forming. The broody often gets up for two hours hence the two hour cool down cycle.

So, now I'm wondering. The hen gets off the nest for ~2 hours per day. But, does she stay on the nest during "lock down?" If so, how does she know when it's time to do "lock down?" Could it be when she hears the first internal peep?

Chores don't take me two hours but in good weather watching the chickens might.

That's me all over! I can get the chores done within about 5 minutes but take 2 to 3 hours to get back to the house. lol

I hear you about the jar lid/water dish! It's not funny.... but it's kinda funny...

I put my little fluffs in the brooder at ~95 for the first week... It's down five degree for every week after that. So ~90 for the second week. By the third week, they should have some great feather growth and you can drop it to ~85. Fourth week, 80 degrees. Fifth week, they should be fully feathered-ish and can hang out in an ambient house setting.

Here it is all laid out:

Incubation = 99.5
Brooder, Week 1 = 95
Week 2 = 90
Week 3 = 85
Week 4 = 80
Week 5 & 6 = Fully feathered, only need a heat source if it's REALLY cold outside.

If you watch them as they grow, you can adjust your brood light based on how far/close they are to the heat.

Hope that helps!

MrsB

PS - Be sure to dip his beak in the water, so he knows what to do! ^_^

Very nice chart. If you don't mind, I'd like to use it in the Chicken Farm Worksheet Super Suite. (lol that's such a mouth full!)

I had a hatch last spring that was 12 cockerels and 1 pullet. I wondered at the time if the ambient room temps might have affected it, cause they sure affected my ability to keep good temp and humidity in the 'bator. Last year I found that I had higher pullet rates out of my earlier hatches where temps stayed more consistent.

I know this has been answered elsewhere throughout the thread but here goes again; temperatures have 0% affect on developing chicken embryo sex determination. Momma decides if she's going to throw daughters or sons.

So many cute chicks!!! No wonder it's called chicken math!!! Can't wait for EHAL!

Why wait for EHAL? Why not do a Valentine's Day Hatch-A-Long?

I finally got some pics of the lavender Marans. Their feathers are very pretty, a silvery grey.





The All - Fuzz - Butt Review!

Okay, when I saw that first picture, I thought you were showcasing some porcelain chick figurines you'd purchased somewhere! They are so gorgeous! That specular coloring on the wings! Wow! Just Wow!

I've got hatching fever! But I am also doing real math on space and holy crap, I really hope the next two rounds of d'Uccles sell as fast as the first or I will be in big doo-doo when the dark cornish and friends get here cause I will be short on brooder space. Weather has gone sub zero here, so I think I'm going to take a break from hatching in Feb and do a batch of mixed up Easter Eggers for EHAL (those sold well last year, but they are more for the casual backyard chicken keeper where the d'Uccles end up going to people whose kids do 4H or those who have a farm where they have space for a bunch since I tend to sell them in multiples of 10). The mixed up EEs are so super cute and because they are mixed I sell them a bit cheaper so they sell well to the city crowd, though they sell a bit slower than the d'Uccles cause they usually go in batches of 5 or less at a time, I might do 2 rounds at the same time and fill both incubators

- don't tell my DH we are about to be drowned by chicken math! (It's partially his fault, he encouraged me to get some new fun birds for the black sex link project I wanted to try and the cornies are all his fault).

Same here, I woke up yesterday morning to an outside temperature of 0 degrees!!! So I know it got down below that before I got my lazy butt out of bed at 7:30. My poor birds would not come out of their houses no matter how much I tried to coax them! The high only made it up to 11 degrees! Today, the low is supposed to be 2 degrees, so I'm wondering exactly how far below 0 we got this time.