Barred Rocks Good Shepard Poulty Ranch

[catdaddyfro]

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 Herzog]

An up-date to my earlier up-date....

I now have 4 out of 4 that hatched! Today is day 22 and when I left home this morning I had 3 that had hatched along with a handful of some other chicks. My normal routine is to leave them in the bator until I get home then move them to the brooder. When I walked in the door this afternoon, number 4 was just coming out the shell.

So the only thing that I did different this time with my BR's was hatch them while they were in the egg carton. All the other eggs were set on there side in the incubator the normal way and they all hatched as well. This is crazy!!! Now I'm real interested to do this again this weekend and see what happens. It will be great if this is the only fix that I need to do!!!!

Chris

 

[DMRippy]

An up-date to my earlier up-date....

I now have 4 out of 4 that hatched! Today is day 22 and when I left home this morning I had 3 that had hatched along with a handful of some other chicks. My normal routine is to leave them in the bator until I get home then move them to the brooder. When I walked in the door this afternoon, number 4 was just coming out the shell.

So the only thing that I did different this time with my BR's was hatch them while they were in the egg carton. All the other eggs were set on there side in the incubator the normal way and they all hatched as well. This is crazy!!! Now I'm real interested to do this again this weekend and see what happens. It will be great if this is the only fix that I need to do!!!!

Chris

I have used that method and have the best hatches with it. The only thing I have to do is check for the oddly pipped egg. It will kill them, so I check frequently.

 

[desertmarcy]

Last week I butchered and processed my 10+ month old GS BR cockerel that had a split wing and sold him, ready to cook, to a lady. Here is the feedback she emailed to me last night:

my husband and I treated ourselves to a gourmet cooking feast in our kitchen tonight.

Of course your rooster was the main menu...we brined it for 3 days in a big pot with spices and veggies and roasted it in a pan for 2 hours in the oven.

It was a fabulous, delicious, a taste-bud dance chicken flavor.....my husband said, he never had such a delicious chicken.

Me on the other hand, get such chickens all the time when I am in Bulgaria for the summer....but he wanted me to tell you what a wonderful chicken this one was.

 

[FOGELLY]

Chris, it is good to hear of your success. Hopefully it is the start of a trend.
I just had my first bad hatch in a long time. But it is my fault. About a week and a half ago I added some eggs to my sportsman. I already had 9 RIR eggs incubating and I forgot to turn the turner back on. I noticed it 2 days later and turned it on. I should have moved the RIR eggs to lockdown, because 4 out of the 9 pipped on the wrong end and died. I am guessing that they became disorientated when I restarted the turner a few days prior to their scheduled lockdown.

Ron

 

[kaiwan]

when setting the eggs in a carton as chris did, which end goes up? And which end is the wrong end for them to pip?

 

[cbnovick]

when setting the eggs in a carton as chris did, which end goes up? And which end is the wrong end for them to pip?

largest end (where air cell is located) goes up in carton which is also where chicks pip

 

[Chris Herzog]

largest end (where air cell is located) goes up in carton which is also where chicks pip

Ditto!

I also make it a habit to always put eggs in the carton that way no matter if they are going in the incubator or a plate.

Ron, yea that sucks.....I've don that before myself. I find myself always running my hand down the back corner of my large incubator just to make sure the switch is in the down position, lol!

Chris

 

[dragonfly130]

I thought I'd add in here on taste of these birds as I butchered my cull rooster and he was roasted last night. Flavor is EXCELLENT. Never had a chicken taste that good and I can see why these birds won a taste test. I followed the recipe on Good Shepard site but think the temp is a little high as ours was done early. I'm thinking a little lower, slower in oven would be better.

I haven't started hatching yet and wanted to taste one before I committed to having a hundred of these birds to butcher next fall. No doubt's now!!!!
Probably start hatching in March.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Just received my eggs from Good Shepherd. I lost two of the 14 Barred Rock and 1 of the 18 Conish eggs due to shipping (too bad those numbers weren't reversed...lol). Anyway, the remaining eggs air cells look solid so I will be good to go for putting these in the incubator tomorrow!

Glad to see you got some eggs from Frank. I never in my wildest dreams would think that you folks would be getting eggs or chicks from them like this. It will be neat to see what other breeds look like when you hatch the chicks or get chicks from him. One thing he told me on the phone three years ago is he breeds the taste into these birds not the last month or so of secret feeding to put flesh on. So for taste these should be the top chickens in the USA to eat even over those famous feed store breeds we always buy that are suppose to be pure breeds. Glad you have them and they sure have nice color. Now a few of you have the real Barred Plymouth Rocks and not those make beleave one that thousands call barred Plymouth rocks.

This year the Rhode Island Reds are making a come back like the Barred Rocks have done in the last couple of years.