Barred Rocks Good Shepard Poulty Ranch

[Chris Herzog]

We have this strain as well. We put 6 eggs in the 'bator last go round, just to check fertility. 4 out of 6 hatched last week. We consider that average to above average, especially for the dead of winter. Out of the 7 cockerels we got from KathyinMO, we saw enough variety that we divided them and started with two "families" immediately. We'll keep those two families apart for 6 or 7 years. Then, we'll add cross blood into the family lines. That's about all we can do.

Fred,
My birds came from 2 different people and I separated them to start 3 different families ( basically I have 3 pens going right now) I'm using my best roo in pen 1 and 2 and the only other roo that I have left in pen 3. I had culled down to 3 roos but lost one a few weeks back. Right now I only have one hen in each pen but I have 3 others that I can also use down the rd. if I need/want to. Counting the one chick from last night I've hatched 6 or 7 chicks so far out of just over 2 dozen eggs that have gone into lock-down. My RIR's and NH's are hatching out left and right with no issues. All of my breeders eat the same food but I'm going to up the Omega 3 in the food my BR's eat by using Cod oil and see if that helps.

The chicks in the un-hatched eggs are fully formed. Some peep but don't hatch and some don't break the shell at all. I did help 2 chicks out to see what they would do once hatched and they did fine. This is going to sound funny but it almost looks like the chicks are to big for the eggs and can't move to peep but I doubt this is the case. The one that hatched last night is huge compared to my German NH's and RIR's that hatched along side of him.

I'm sure that it's no big deal and I'll get it figured out eventually. I may just go and double the hens in each pen to increase my egg production or just shut these pens down for now and try again in a couple of months.

Chris

 

[Fred's Hens]

Chris, this is just an observation and don't post this as gospel, but we've seen these GSBR cockerels be "shy" about mating. I suspect and we certainly hope that when they are older cock birds, this activity and temp will pick up. We were so concerned about the lack of mounting, that we did the 6 egg hatch test. Since 4 out of 6 hatched, we figure, OK, it is happening.

Not horribly scientific, but just what we did to check on things. I am looking for an improvement with the longer light days of March. You'll be getting those days by the end of February, I should think. Until the daylight hours approach 13 hours, I'm just holding back a lot of firm judgements. This is all a learning experience for us here.

 

[FOGELLY]

Fred,
I have 7 GSBR. 3 cockerels and 4 pullets. They hatched last July, the pullets don't look anywhere close to laying yet. 2 of the cockerels are just starting to crow. The other one (huge bird) has been crowing about a month. They are currently in a large run we use for our laying flock. The 3 GSBR cockerels are the only males currently in this run. The bird who has been crowing for a month is VERY active breeding the hens in the run.

Now if only the pullets would get going.

Ron

 

[Fred's Hens]

Ron your birds sound on schedule to me. If your cockerel is a stud, at this age? He's probably gonna be a keeper, unless he's an ugly duckling of some kind. LOL
The pullets will NOT be rushed. Ours were hatched first week of April and began laying around Christmas. Yes, they just seem to take that long. 36-37 weeks to POL. We did not light them.

 

[Chris Herzog]

Chris, this is just an observation and don't post this as gospel, but we've seen these GSBR cockerels be "shy" about mating. I suspect and we certainly hope that when they are older cock birds, this activity and temp will pick up. We were so concerned about the lack of mounting, that we did the 6 egg hatch test. Since 4 out of 6 hatched, we figure, OK, it is happening.

Not horribly scientific, but just what we did to check on things. I am looking for an improvement with the longer light days of March. You'll be getting those days by the end of February, I should think. Until the daylight hours approach 13 hours, I'm just holding back a lot of firm judgements. This is all a learning experience for us here.

The eggs that went into lockdown were all good eggs with movement in them up until day 18. At around day 18 the egg is so full of chick it's really hard to see anything. After breaking open a few eggs that did not hatch....the chicks were fully developed inside the egg.

My birds have been under lights for a good month now. 13 - 14 hours of light is not a problem nor do I think are the two roos, they are both very active and the eggs are fertile.

Breeding pens....






Chris

 

[FOGELLY]

Fred,
He happens to be the best looking of the three! I am going to cull one of the other two, he is way to light colored.
I knew the pullets took their time getting started and am willing to wait.

Chris,
I was having a little trouble last year with fully developed chicks not hatching. Mostly from the larger breeds.
I changed a little of my incubating and hatching methods and this year no issues. Since November I have hatched 60+ chicks with only 4 of what went into lockdown not hatching.
For what is worth this is what I change, you may already do all of these.

First I change my two old Sportsmans to the electronic themostat. It allows me to adjust to 10th degree and hold temp rock solid.
I incubate at 100 degrees at 45-48% humidity until lockdown.
Then I move them to the hatcher, where the temp is 99.5 and Humidity is 65-68%.
I was told the lower temp helps them from growing to big in the shell. I was hatching at 100.
Also I now hatch with the eggs upright in trays. I think this keeps the chick from getting confused after being incubated upright.

You might try incubating the larger breed GSBR at 100 for the first 10-12 days then lowing temp to 99.5 for the rest of the run.

I can do this in my Sportsman by moving the eggs down a tray and still incubating at a 100 in the top tray.

Ron

 

[catdaddyfro]

The eggs being fertile is a pretty good indication the boys are good that is a given. The result of the embryo reaching this time frame and then quitting is an indication of a certain incubation problem either temps., moisture, nutrition/vitamin area.

There is somewhere an info sheet/charts on these problems and is broken down in the days and what goes wrong in each phase and some suggestion and info on what the cause of each is. Its been so long since I read up on it or where it is I don't recall much. But just going by my gut feeling and the time frame they drop the ball, I say it is a nutritional/diet thing that these need to thrive. This problem seems to be happening right at the point of 'yolk sack draw in' and 'blood draw in from the shell membrane' sounds to me like. So this is my theory on this and too just because the others are fine doesn't mean this breed is still getting all it needs to do good, it just goes to show all are not equal and the same. It probly has a lot to do with the sheer size of these guys. Heck banty babies from eggs on the same feed ration may come out of the egg and dry off, then be ready jump plum out of the 'bator' in just a few hours. I have witnessed this action before too with games, leghorn types too, just a difference in vigor at hatch compared to some of my bigger stocks.

Hope you get an answer for this soon I might need some of it myself as I plan on hatching me a passel of these guys too in the near future.

Jeff

 

[Fred's Hens]

Guys, this is just my farmer logic, do with it what you will. These birds are HUGE. We know that. We also know that they are slow to develop. We're gonna do a couple of things. First, we're not going to put smaller eggs in the incubator. Just not going to do it. With other breeds we have, a slightly smaller egg hasn't been an issue, but with these BR, we going to be a bit more selective on the egg size for hatching.

I do think there is a bit of a learning curve on the right temperature for these as well. If we all share what we're learning, it'll be a help. Once the broodiness kicks in, come June, we'll let the ladies do a lot of this for us. Kathy says they are a broody bunch, so we're gonna watch for that come late spring, early summer.

 

[Chris Herzog]

Ron,

First I change my two old Sportsmans to the electronic themostat. It allows me to adjust to 10th degree and hold temp rock solid.
I have not done this but would like to in the very near future.

I incubate at 100 degrees at 45-48% humidity until lockdown.
I do this to a tee!

Then I move them to the hatcher, where the temp is 99.5 and Humidity is 65-68%.
I'm with you here also.

I was told the lower temp helps them from growing to big in the shell. I was hatching at 100.
I have been wanting to do this and I may just try it here shortly. I have an incubator that I use as a hatcher that I will put them in and incubate at 99.5 for 21 days.

Also I now hatch with the eggs upright in trays. I think this keeps the chick from getting confused after being incubated upright.
Sometimes I do this but mostly I don't. I'll try it this weekend when I have some more going into lock-down.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff,
You kind of hit the nail on the head with what I have been leaning towards.....diet!

I'll make some changes and see what happens. My goal was to hatch and grow everything out together and at the same time (NH's, RIR's and BR's) but.....sometimes it does not go as planned. Either way, I will get this figured out, I'm not really worried one way or the other. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced any of this.

Thanks guys for all the suggestions!

Chris

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Fred,
He happens to be the best looking of the three! I am going to cull one of the other two, he is way to light colored.
I knew the pullets took their time getting started and am willing to wait.

Chris,
I was having a little trouble last year with fully developed chicks not hatching. Mostly from the larger eggs,
I changed a little of my incubating and hatching methods and this year no issues. Since November I have hatched 60+ chicks with only 4 of what went into lockdown not hatching.
For what is worth this is what I change, you may already do all of these.

First I change my two old Sportsmans to the electronic themostat. It allows me to adjust to 10th degree and hold temp rock solid.
I incubate at 100 degrees at 45-48% humidity until lockdown.
Then I move them to the hatcher, where the temp is 99.5 and Humidity is 65-68%.
I was told the lower temp helps them from growing to big in the shell. I was hatching at 100.
Also I now hatch with the eggs upright in trays. I think this keeps the chick from getting confused after being incubated upright.

You might try incubating the larger breed GSBR at 100 for the first 10-12 days then lowing temp to 99.5 for the rest of the run.

I can do this in my Sportsman by moving the eggs down a tray and still incubating at a 100 in the top tray.

Ron

Awesome information. Thank you for sharing! I am going to bookmark this page and use this when I get my hatching eggs!