Acres Poultry hatching thread with aliciaplus3!

[FortCluck]

Oh my goodness they're so cute! I had 3 chicks hatch out of my 4 eggs I put in to do an experiment. They're so cute and fluffy.

 

[aliciaplus3]

we have some duck eggs due i think the 24th ?? that were refrigerated first. DD put 6 in and 4 are still growing!
right before I went to bed last night I heard a baby SCREAMING so I went to investigate... huh it was coming from the wrong incubator? yup I forgot one of the lockdown eggs in the nr360.
it was almost out but the auto turner kicked in and it was yelling at it! lol got it rescued, a little light brahma, and it was running around in the brooder with the other 4 babies that hatched over night. so that makes 6 yellow ones a black one and 11 turkeys this batch.

 

[aliciaplus3]

a quick pic of the babies at the school. Still a couple ducks hanging out in the incubator. It looked like a couple more ducks would hatch so we will see tomorrow.

 

[FortCluck]

View attachment 2024917a quick pic of the babies at the school. Still a couple ducks hanging out in the incubator. It looked like a couple more ducks would hatch so we will see tomorrow.

Are these eggs from your flock?

 

[aliciaplus3]

Are these eggs from your flock?

yes! the drake and most of the hens are pekins, we still have a few magpies so a couple of the ducklings hatched out of green eggs(magpie) and have black markings.
got the call this morning all but 3 eggs hatched (one turkey and 2 duck) we candled and they were late quitters. I will have to do a final count (or have my DD) but by my math there should be 9 ducks(2 with black markings) 3? turkey and 5 or 6? chicks. whew!
they did a great job hatching out the ducks and not terrible with the turkeys. I think the chick numbers had more to do with where I got the eggs? some of them were from my flock but most were from 2 other flocks in my area. they did manage to hatch one light brahma and several marans! so not a total loss!

 

[aliciaplus3]

Set lockdown for the eggs due the 17th. Wow we had to use both the brinsea and the nr360 both are at almost capacity. I am hopeful for a good hatch! There are lots of duck Turkey and necked necks on this batch!

We rearranged almost all of the growouts into different pens tonight. Moved the pullets from September hatchlings over to the laying houses, 10 I think? Left the boys in the growout pen but only half the space they had before. Moved the November hatchlings over to the other half of the far growout pen, they seemed thrilled! That made room in the lean to for the December hatches to move outside. The turkeys that had been hitting their heads in the bottom brooder seemed almost upset that they got moved into the tv

One turkey screamed so long my son brought it to me so it could watch tv and calm down. Silly bird curled up on my chest and went to sleep.
Oh I gave in and stopped at the feed store in delta and picked up a couple Whiting blues/greens as well as a couple cream legbars and what I think is a bielfelder. The worker was very nice but not Really a chicken person, oh well they will be fun no matter what he sent me home with.he said they were 6 weeks? Ummm maybe? They had quite a few feathers, they are hiding amongst the turkeys.

 

[BlueBaby]

@aliciaplus3 You are getting quite a collection there. Do you sell some of those one's that you hatch, too?

I candled mine last night, and had to pitch a good deal of those shipped egg's, but the 13 that I had added from my own flock in there were all good. On a second note, one of my 3 Barnevelder pullet's layed her first egg today! My rooster Roger was in the nesting box with her while she was laying to make sure that the older girl's didn't run her out of it.

 

[aliciaplus3]

@aliciaplus3 You are getting quite a collection there. Do you sell some of those one's that you hatch, too?

I candled mine last night, and had to pitch a good deal of those shipped egg's, but the 13 that I had added from my own flock in there were all good. On a second note, one of my 3 Barnevelder pullet's layed her first egg today! My rooster Roger was in the nesting box with her while she was laying to make sure that the older girl's didn't run her out of it.

a good number of these will be 4h projects. the "fancy" chickens are for my pleasure as my DD's do not have much interest in the breeds I find most intriguing.
the oldest DD is taking waterfowl pekin ducks and american buff geese, and maybe a cross breed goose if we can hatch one?
the youngest DD is hatching black necked necks and black turkeys to take. she Might humor me and take a Dual purpose meat pen but its hard to say?
I would offer to sell chicks but if you can not guarantee only pullets then folks here are not interested. they want the fancy hatchery breeds but at lower prices... oh and guarantee the egg numbers to be 250 or better a year.

 

[BlueBaby]

a good number of these will be 4h projects. the "fancy" chickens are for my pleasure as my DD's do not have much interest in the breeds I find most intriguing.
the oldest DD is taking waterfowl pekin ducks and american buff geese, and maybe a cross breed goose if we can hatch one?
the youngest DD is hatching black necked necks and black turkeys to take. she Might humor me and take a Dual purpose meat pen but its hard to say?
I would offer to sell chicks but if you can not guarantee only pullets then folks here are not interested. they want the fancy hatchery breeds but at lower prices... oh and guarantee the egg numbers to be 250 or better a year.

I know what you mean about people only wanting the good laying pullet's, and to most people "a chicken is just a chicken", and it need's to lay lot's of egg's. That's what keep's the hatcheries in business with the breed's that will peter out on egg laying every 2 years or so. It's repeat business for them.

I used to sell the chick's, but now I just basically grow them out. I've been keeping the one's that lay the best shaped larger egg's, and sell the rest. I give my roo's away for free if I don't feel like culling them the other way. About a month ago a guy my neighbor know's was needing some roo's for adding new blood and took the 3 that I had. He got 2 roo's from me a few year's ago. Another one of my roo's got moved to another member here for some NN girl's she had gotten, and she wanted a nice behaved roo for them. She's happy too.

 

[aliciaplus3]

I know what you mean about people only wanting the good laying pullet's, and to most people "a chicken is just a chicken", and it need's to lay lot's of egg's. That's what keep's the hatcheries in business with the breed's that will peter out on egg laying every 2 years or so. It's repeat business for them.

I used to sell the chick's, but now I just basically grow them out. I've been keeping the one's that lay the best shaped larger egg's, and sell the rest. I give my roo's away for free if I don't feel like culling them the other way. About a month ago a guy my neighbor know's was needing some roo's for adding new blood and took the 3 that I had. He got 2 roo's from me a few year's ago. Another one of my roo's got moved to another member here for some NN girl's she had gotten, and she wanted a nice behaved roo for them. She's happy too.

I am a softy, if someone is looking for something i can be talked out of most of my chickens... that the main reason I went to Necked necks, not many folks around here want them, so I get to keep mine. The rest of the time I try to move the ones I REALLY want to a different pen, then I have to tell myself that they are in "my keeper " pen so they are not for sale. last year I did manage to grow out some of the production layers that I "saved" from the feed store so that I had a few pullets that I didn't feel bad about selling.