B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[Rockashelle]

when were they hatched? my sandhill chicks are starting to show improvement, they were hatched april 7th or so. my older sandhill line chicks (mid march) are starting to actually LOOK like dorkings now. LOL

They were a few days old when I picked them up the weekend before Easter. Whew... That makes me feel better. I'll cross my fingers that next month, I'll start to see them body up!

 

[vnsseed]

Looks like I will be purchasing an incubator and building some brooders then. Hmmm? Any suggestions on incubators? (Smaller models)

How small? If you want to do 24 eggs at a time I wholeheartedly recommend the Brinsea Eco 20 with turner... it's a little pricier than the foam bators, but light years better in my opinion.

 

[ki4got]

Originally Posted by Rockashelle

Looks like I will be purchasing an incubator and building some brooders then. Hmmm? Any suggestions on incubators? (Smaller models)
How small? If you want to do 24 eggs at a time I wholeheartedly recommend the Brinsea Eco 20 with turner... it's a little pricier than the foam bators, but light years better in my opinion.

any incubator will work, but some require more supervision, tinkering, and practice to find the method that works best in your area/house/room/etc. even in different rooms of the same house you might get fluctuations in temp and humidity using the same incubator and breed of eggs.

I personally use the Hovabators, but it did take several hatches to get my method down for maintaining temp and humidity but the last 3 hatches have been rock solid for me. 90% of the eggs i put in lockdown hatch. that has been as low as 0%, but i figured out what the problems were and adjusted to compensate for the next batches.

the Hovabator Genesis with auto egg turner will hold 42 chicken eggs and is about as reliable as you can get for a styrofoam incubator.

 

[vnsseed]

any incubator will work, but some require more supervision, tinkering, and practice to find the method that works best in your area/house/room/etc. even in different rooms of the same house you might get fluctuations in temp and humidity using the same incubator and breed of eggs.

I personally use the Hovabators, but it did take several hatches to get my method down for maintaining temp and humidity but the last 3 hatches have been rock solid for me. 90% of the eggs i put in lockdown hatch. that has been as low as 0%, but i figured out what the problems were and adjusted to compensate for the next batches.

the Hovabator Genesis with auto egg turner will hold 42 chicken eggs and is about as reliable as you can get for a styrofoam incubator.

No argument here. We have friends that swear by their Hovabators and LG's... personally I swear at them (the incubators, not the people

). We found that the Eco 20 is truly set it and forget it. The temp stabilizes in a couple of hours and humidity stays pretty constant. Although we have outgrown it (our son inherited it for his flock) and now use a Dickeys 2x2... does 200 eggs at a time...and we LOVE it.

 

[Rockashelle]

No argument here. We have friends that swear by their Hovabators and LG's... personally I swear at them (the incubators, not the people

). We found that the Eco 20 is truly set it and forget it. The temp stabilizes in a couple of hours and humidity stays pretty constant. Although we have outgrown it (our son inherited it for his flock) and now use a Dickeys 2x2... does 200 eggs at a time...and we LOVE it.

Did you have the Eco 20 advance or just the regular set? I am just afraid of being able to control the humidity. Easier is definitely better for me. I am gone from the house 12 hours a day being that I work 55 miles away. Obviously, I would prefer the most reliable unit for less than an outrageous price for a small batch of eggs at a time. My guess at this time is that 20 eggs will be more than suitable.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

We use GQF's, but I swear there truly is nothing like a broody hen. Indeed, if I can work out the details, we'll move to exclusively natural incubation next year for on farm chicks and only use the incubators for chicks meant to be shipped. Beyond any incubation benefits, I find that a well managed hen-reared chicks just come out better than chicks artificially brooded.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Wow April! When you get this all processed out... you're going to have to do a LOT of explaining for me.

I am familiar with horse colors as you are with Lab colors. I have a ton of homework to do. My first goal is body type even though my CD's are getting very vivid colors. My birds appear to be a little too leggy. They all have the cinder block shape with a few differences in overall size and I was able to pick up two more pullets. One CD & one SG. I'm hoping that they will be a little on the shorter side. So, I am assuming from reading all of the previous posts, my best bet would be to cull for shorter legged larger bodied chicks and work the color issue out after I am satisfied they are closer to the standard.

I will be breeding on a small scale as I can't facilitate a larger operation. My birds are young still, is it possible that they go through what would appear to be a leggy stage??? When breeding horses, foals go through a leggy stage so I hope it doesn't sound too silly.

I still have 4 cockerels to choose from at this point and can't make my mind up on how many to keep so that I may rotate them into my program for diversity. After I select for best body type, would I then make a selection on legs?

In what order do you look at first to cull from your stock? Feet, Body, height, combs, color??? I know there is more to keep track of down the line such as productivity, fertility, broody, etc. I did read the article that was recommended by Don Schrieder and I am still in the developing my plan stage. Being that my birds are still very young, I have some time. I don't have an incubator which I realize will slow down my production as well since I will be relying on my hens to hatch. I may need to just break down and make the investment with only 3 pullets to work with. I'm just not confident that I will be very successful at it and know my hatch rate might be better as long as my girls have their natural instincts.

Thanks in advance....
-Amy

Hi Amy,
There's a great recommendation on culling Dorkings written by Joseph for the Dorking Breeders Club. Here's the link: http://dorkingbreedersclub.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/394434-culling-for-faults

I totally agree about the "leggy" stages. When it comes to youngsters growing, I always say that every body part grows on its own schedule. One day they're too tall and thin, one day their head's too big, on day they're tripping over their feet because their toes grew all at once. But it all evens out in the end, just as long as the right side and left side grow together. For this breed it seems like everybody recommends a final evaluation at 16-20 weeks before making culling decisions, but for some birds with promise I get the impression that there can be improvement even later.

Also, a huge Thank You to Karen for sharing your research on the complexities of color in this breed. I feel like I have a much better understanding of the breed, and what to look for, long down the line, when my breeding program has consistent conformation, production, feet, comb, etc, and I can start working on color patterns.

--April

 

[Rockashelle]

Hi Amy,
There's a great recommendation on culling Dorkings written by Joseph for the Dorking Breeders Club. Here's the link: http://dorkingbreedersclub.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/394434-culling-for-faults

I totally agree about the "leggy" stages. When it comes to youngsters growing, I always say that every body part grows on its own schedule. One day they're too tall and thin, one day their head's too big, on day they're tripping over their feet because their toes grew all at once. But it all evens out in the end, just as long as the right side and left side grow together. For this breed it seems like everybody recommends a final evaluation at 16-20 weeks before making culling decisions, but for some birds with promise I get the impression that there can be improvement even later.

Also, a huge Thank You to Karen for sharing your research on the complexities of color in this breed. I feel like I have a much better understanding of the breed, and what to look for, long down the line, when my breeding program has consistent conformation, production, feet, comb, etc, and I can start working on color patterns.

--April

Awesome.... Thanks!

 

[vnsseed]

Did you have the Eco 20 advance or just the regular set? I am just afraid of being able to control the humidity. Easier is definitely better for me. I am gone from the house 12 hours a day being that I work 55 miles away. Obviously, I would prefer the most reliable unit for less than an outrageous price for a small batch of eggs at a time. My guess at this time is that 20 eggs will be more than suitable.

We have 2 of these (with the turner). My son uses them now for his Nankins. Humidity remains pretty constant.

http://www.brinsea.com/products/octagon20eco.htm

 

[vnsseed]

We use GQF's, but I swear there truly is nothing like a broody hen. Indeed, if I can work out the details, we'll move to exclusively natural incubation next year for on farm chicks and only use the incubators for chicks meant to be shipped. Beyond any incubation benefits, I find that a well managed hen-reared chicks just come out better than chicks artificially brooded.

That's awesome. My son let his Nankins hatch out their own this Spring,, and they are much easier to take care of... as the momma hens do all of the work. Keep me posted, I would love to know how this works out for you.