Barred Rocks Good Shepard Poulty Ranch

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Stan,
After reading all 12 pages twice I have come to a conclusion. We are lucky if we hatch any birds at all with everything that can go wrong!!! So I guess we have been fortunate even with 50 percent hatches of these heritage birds.

 

[tigercreek]

Stan,
After reading all 12 pages twice I have come to a conclusion. We are lucky if we hatch any birds at all with everything that can go wrong!!! So I guess we have been fortunate even with 50 percent hatches of these heritage birds.

LOL, I have found that it is best to just not worry about 'em! I only get concerned with the humidity for the last 3 days. I do start them at 99 deg and increase to 100 for the pip and hatch. I just "set it and forget it".. I don't hav e enough hair that I can afford top loose any more worring about eggs hatching.....

 

[CC1892]

 

[dragonfly130]

Anyone with these birds having problems with them laying in nest boxes. Mine just started laying and are hiding eggs and not laying in the nest boxes. I do have one older hatchery type hen that should be showing them the ropes and at least is laying eggs in the nest boxes so there is bait eggs in there.

I'm wondering if their too big get up to them as their 2 feet off the floor and no ladder. Certainly never had this problem b4 and I don't believe they are that much bigger than birds I've had in the past.

 

[Fred's Hens]

We've also used "trainer hens" with great success, but it helps if this old hen is seen as a flock hierarch. Since we place our boxes quite low to the ground, we don't have this issue. You may well be on to something. Our boxes are set on half blocks, cinder blocks if you will. Being only 8" of the ground, we've never had to fight issue of laying elsewhere. The instincts of the birds seems suited to this. I dunno.

If something isn't working well, try something else.

 

[cbnovick]

Anyone with these birds having problems with them laying in nest boxes. Mine just started laying and are hiding eggs and not laying in the nest boxes. I do have one older hatchery type hen that should be showing them the ropes and at least is laying eggs in the nest boxes so there is bait eggs in there.

I'm wondering if their too big get up to them as their 2 feet off the floor and no ladder. Certainly never had this problem b4 and I don't believe they are that much bigger than birds I've had in the past.

I have 2 GSBR 10 month old pullets that started laying about 2 weeks ago.I had these shipped at pullets, so I did not raise them from chicks.They are going up the ladder to the coop nest boxes but generally make their nest out of hay next to the box. My top/lead hen lays in the box always...she is a very large coronation sussex (though not as big as these gals!). they do go to the coop/run and holler to get in if they are out free ranging too...One thing that is interesting is that they seem to do the 'egg song' before they lay instead of after. I realize they are just starting out, so perhaps they will get it all figured out. I try to keep mine in until early afternoon so that it reinforces them laying in the coop and boxes.
I have found them a delight to have in the flock. They are calm, slow moving birds and not noisy at all. When I need to handle them, they tolerate it quite well and do not struggle. They are simply gorgeous birds. They have made my 'must have in my flock always' list. (-;

 

[Westguy]

Purchased at the Stockton Show. Still quite young.

 

[Dirt Farmer]

Anyone with these birds having problems with them laying in nest boxes. Mine just started laying and are hiding eggs and not laying in the nest boxes. I do have one older hatchery type hen that should be showing them the ropes and at least is laying eggs in the nest boxes so there is bait eggs in there.

I'm wondering if their too big get up to them as their 2 feet off the floor and no ladder. Certainly never had this problem b4 and I don't believe they are that much bigger than birds I've had in the past.

Mine started by laying on the floor. I had them in with a couple Black Copper Marans which had been laying in the nests for a couple months earlier, but that didn't seem to do it. My nest boxes are about 18 to 24 inches off the ground, slightly lower than the roosts they were using. After about a week or two I was in the henhouse when one of the BR was hanging around oddly (all the others were outside). I picked her up and put her in the nest. When I came back an hour later I had my first nest laid BR egg. I haven't had a floor egg since.

 

[Chris Herzog]

Hey guys I have an interesting update for you all.

Friday I put a bunch of eggs into lock-down and in that group of eggs I had 4 BR eggs that went into lock down. As I have stated earlier, my New Hampshire and Rhode Island Red chicks are hatching out nicely (all of my birds are on the same feed and all the eggs go into the same incubator) but I have been having some issues with my BR eggs hatching for some reason. The chicks would peep and then do nothing and die or they would just do nothing at all and die inside the egg. Just this month I started adding fish oil to my BR breeders feed to increase the omega 3 but the only egg that the fish oil would have helped went into my big incubator just last night. So what I’m about to tell you is not because of the omega-3 those eggs that went into lock down Friday would have been no different than any of the eggs that went into the incubator since the beginning of the year. Anyway the only thing that I did different this time was that I put the 4 BR eggs in an egg carton with the bottom of each cell of the carton cut out. This way the eggs stayed up-right in the incubator while they hatched. As of right now, I have 3 chicks out of the 4 eggs that have hatched. The trend has been just the opposite in that 1 of the 4 would have hatched and the other 3 would have died.

Granted, this was not a controlled test but it’s the best hatch rate that I have gotten from my BR thus far this year. I have more BR eggs going into lock-down again this Friday and I plan on doing the same thing with them. I’ll let you know how it turns out but either way I’m kind of excited about this hatch!

Chris

 

[cbnovick]

Hey guys I have an interesting update for you all.

Friday I put a bunch of eggs into lock-down and in that group of eggs I had 4 BR eggs that went into lock down. As I have stated earlier, my New Hampshire and Rhode Island Red chicks are hatching out nicely (all of my birds are on the same feed and all the eggs go into the same incubator) but I have been having some issues with my BR eggs hatching for some reason. The chicks would peep and then do nothing and die or they would just do nothing at all and die inside the egg. Just this month I started adding fish oil to my BR breeders feed to increase the omega 3 but the only egg that the fish oil would have helped went into my big incubator just last night. So what I’m about to tell you is not because of the omega-3 those eggs that went into lock down Friday would have been no different than any of the eggs that went into the incubator since the beginning of the year. Anyway the only thing that I did different this time was that I put the 4 BR eggs in an egg carton with the bottom of each cell of the carton cut out. This way the eggs stayed up-right in the incubator while they hatched. As of right now, I have 3 chicks out of the 4 eggs that have hatched. The trend has been just the opposite in that 1 of the 4 would have hatched and the other 3 would have died.

Granted, this was not a controlled test but it’s the best hatch rate that I have gotten from my BR thus far this year. I have more BR eggs going into lock-down again this Friday and I plan on doing the same thing with them. I’ll let you know how it turns out but either way I’m kind of excited about this hatch!

Chris

Chris---this is good news! Hopefully it will prove out with the next successive hatches coming along...Thanks for the update!
Upright hatch may give those chicks better access to air cell for pip and zip plus perhaps upright position may make easier to get into position or orient themselves correctly since they are larger chicks?? My last hatch (not GSBR's) i did half incubated/hatched upright in cartons with hole in bottom and half traditional way incub./hatch laying down...rate was excellent and almost equal on both sets. had 1 that did not pip or zip in a carton...this hatch was with same shipped eggs, same bator. Good luck...would love to see pics of your chicks too.
Cindy in AZ