Barnevelder breeders lets work together and improve the breed

[ke5hde]

After reading up on Barnies for a while we started looking for some....and found them. Picked up these 3 at the Finger Lakes Poultry Show yesterday. Should have been 5 but someone helped themselves to 2 of them. I'm thinking all 3 may be girls from the length of the wing feathers.
My next step is contacting Fossil Rock Farm, who is local to us, and get some eggs.

 

[juststruttin]

I don't agree, respectfully - I have two pullets that hatched out of monster eggs and are bigger than the boys 4 months later - where did you hear that?

When I asked about pullet eggs and chick size, I was referring to eggs laid by young pullets not pullets that hatch from the eggs. LOL

From my experience, the chicks that hatch from smaller pullet eggs hatch out smaller than chicks that hatch from larger hen eggs. Ultimately both grow up to be the same size.

I have Cream Legbars that have been laying for a couple of months and they are still laying fairly small eggs compared to my hens. The eggs hatch fine, but the chicks are definitely smaller than the chicks that hatch from the full sized hen eggs.

 

[juststruttin]

I think juststruttin means that eggs laid by a pullet are smaller and the chicks are smaller, compared to eggs laid by an older hen. Not the gender that actually hatches. Okay re-read, and now not sure if the meaning is what you said or what I originally thought, LOL

Sorry, if I confused everyone.

I was referring to the size of the eggs that pullets lay are smaller than the size of the eggs hens lay. I have found that the chicks from pullet eggs hatch our smaller than the chicks that hatch from hen eggs. Yes, both ultimately grow up to be the same size.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I purchased three barnvelder chicks- one didn't make it and I tried so very hard. I finally had to decide that I was prolonging its suffering and let it go. Anyway here are my other two babies hatched May 7th. They both have tail feathers, and shoulder feathers, and look very similar except one is darker brown and the other is light. Muffin is the light one. Chocolate is the darker. What do you think? Both girls?

Neither of them look like pure barnevelders. It looks like you got Welsummer/Barnevelder crosses. The lighter one could be pure welsummer.

My first try at incubating didn't go so well. Out of 36 fertile eggs only 8 barnies and 4 silkies hatched. They were packed very well so I'm sure it's my fault, but I don't know what I did wrong.

I put in18 eggs from Trisha, 18 silkie eggs from Catdance (my daughter's project), and 6 eggs that turned out not to be fertile, but he is sending more. When I candled at 15 days I pulled out some that were obviously not developing or had an obvious blood rings. So I went into lock down with 12 barnie eggs and 15 silkie eggs. Eight of the barnie eggs have hatched and look fabulous, but only four of the silkies have hatched. That's still only 44% of the barnie eggs and 22% for the silkies. I'm sad.

I have a genesis 1588 with an auto turner. Temp was steady at 100 +/- 0.5. I candled at day 7 and 15 and didn't open it or touch them in-between. I tried 'dry hatching' so humidity was around 30%-35% most of the first 18 days. As low as 22% once, and as high as 42% a few days. At 18 days I raised humidity to 65% to 70%. The ones that have hatched started Thursday night or early Friday morning and continued throughout the day yesterday. Last hatch was around 9 pm last night. Nothing since them - no sound, no cracks.

I did quickly take the hatched chicks out about half an hour ago and moved them to the brooder, and they are doing well. I have one splash - hope it is a pullet. I know with the blacks and blues the chest color gives a good clue for gender. Is it the same for splash?

Anyhow, any advice on improving my numbers next time would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,
Shanna

edit: I'm pretty sure the one I thought was a splash barnie is actually a silkie. Of the 8 barnies, two have very dark chests, two have very white chests, and the other four are various shades of cream.

The best thing I ever bought for incubating is the Brinsea Spot Check thermometer. It's super accurate. I bet your temps are off.

 

[mountainvieworchards]

Neither of them look like pure barnevelders. It looks like you got Welsummer/Barnevelder crosses. The lighter one could be pure welsummer.

The best thing I ever bought for incubating is the Brinsea Spot Check thermometer. It's super accurate. I bet your temps are off.

Ah don't be so hard on yourself Shana. I had a similar experience with my first hatches from shipped eggs. I felt the same way you do, and the guy I bought the eggs from said I probably had not done anything majorly wrong, which made me feel better and he said 50% hatch from shipped eggs he considered to be a good hatch, and it is often lower. Many hatches of shipped eggs later and many more of home raised eggs later and I would agree with what he said to me. On another of my first hatches that was my Johan line Barnevelder eggs from the man himself, I hatched only two out of 16 and though it seemed like a bust at the time they were two of my favorite chickens ever and became the foundation of my flock.

In hind sight I was more careful in my first hatches than I am now. I watched over them too much and worried about the temperature too much, sort of like you do with your first kid. Now I have confidence in my incubator. The ride, flight, ride, sorting bin drops and who knows what temp extremes happened on the way it is a miracle any of the eggs hatch. Chicks that survive that just plain tough so you start out with vigorous chicks by default.

While I mostly hatch my homegrown eggs now, I still occasionally buy some that have to be shipped. If I get "some" to hatch from shipped eggs I feel pretty good. Sure I am happy with high percentage hatches but honestly they don't happen too often for me with shipped eggs, and they do all the time with homegrown "non-shipped" eggs and I am convinced shipping makes all the difference.

A good thermometer is helpful as is a good hygrometer. How often you have to check it depends on your incubator and the temps- humidity of the room you hatch in. I run hovabators with both electronic thermostat and also with the wafer model and I find both of them very good. I find that I check the wafer thermostat more often but rarely do I have to touch it.

So enjoy the chicks that hatched and better luck next time.

Andy

 

[RachaelS]

Okay everybody.....I've taken some pics of the Barnevelder eggs that I hatched.....trust me.....if they are Barnevelders......they are definitely crossed with something! Actually they are sorta cute...but just don't know what they are.....LOL! Only 2 of the chicks have yellow legs! The others are slate gray. The black and white ones may be a cross to a Plymouth rock? Don't have a clue where the Gold and Black came from. I'm just chalking this one up as "I got Jipped!.....Don't trust everybody on eBAY!" They will make somebody a pretty flock of egg layers....LOL. Here I come Craigslist!











THIS ONE MIGHT BE BARNEVELDER?

THIS MIGHT BE TOO?







Discuss amongst yourselves.....LOL

Wow, yep, these are some crosses! Not even sure what, LOL! Dang so sorry this happened. The two you said may be Barnies, could be but their lacing is really bad. Reminds me of one of my first sets of Barnie eggs, got some really ugly ones. They are gone now, LOL! Thanks for posting the pics, hope you get some better eggs soon.

 

[bonnylass79]

I purchased three barnvelder chicks- one didn't make it and I tried so very hard. I finally had to decide that I was prolonging its suffering and let it go. Anyway here are my other two babies hatched May 7th. They both have tail feathers, and shoulder feathers, and look very similar except one is darker brown and the other is light. Muffin is the light one. Chocolate is the darker. What do you think? Both girls?

It could just be me, but the light colored one looks an awful lot like an Easter Egger or Ameraucana.

 

[bonnylass79]

How do you account for egg size? Are you only measuring chicks that hatch from the same size egg? Pullet eggs/chicks are going to be smaller.

There are some who argue that pullets shouldn't be bred to eliminate early mortality in some birds. I don't like to hatch eggs until they are full sized. I find that hatching eggs from young hens usually means more leg problems and vitamin deficiencies.

 

[juststruttin]

There are some who argue that pullets shouldn't be bred to eliminate early mortality in some birds. I don't like to hatch eggs until they are full sized. I find that hatching eggs from young hens usually means more leg problems and vitamin deficiencies.

I have never had any problems with pullet sized eggs. I don't set them when they are first laid but some breeds take much longer than others to get full size.

 

[bonnylass79]

I had a lot of problems with the first set of Easter Egger eggs I hatched. The hens had been laying for a couple of months, but the babies had a lot of leg problems. Some of that was also vitamin deficiency, but since they're on the same feed as my older hens, I'm assuming their age also had something to do with it. Hatched another set of their eggs a month later (the eggs were considerably larger by that point) and those chicks came out fine.

The reason I'm thinking of waiting to hatch my Barnevelders (granted, they're only about a month old right now) is because there have been issues with early mortality in this breed. Waiting to breed them will hopefully eliminate any birds who may have issues that would cause an early death. I know this was a topic of discussion further back in the thread, but I can't remember who was talking about it.