BCM Roo x Red Selinks - 3 generations and they're a new BCM?

[NTBugtraq]

I will separate the juniors and remove all roosters except the one that develops quickly into a meaty large fowl.

WalnutHill, do you use the pinch test to determine this? If not, do you just use comparative weight? I would love to cull before 16 weeks, and my customers would love to buy birds that are more like 1kg-1.5kg, but at 16 weeks they are more likely to process down to 2.5kg. Any suggestions you can offer to cull sooner would be appreciated. BTW, I cannot sell birds I butchered myself...they have to be "Provincially Processed".

 

[NTBugtraq]

FWIW, I have 86 project eggs in bators today, planning to do anther 96 when these sets are done. Just wanted to say the project continues. Oh, and I got 2 new "great lines" BCM roos today brought in by a friend from the States as eggs and hatched by her. I got them at 3 weeks old, and they look great. The funny thing is my 4 week old's have several that look nearly identical...so clearly the BCM is coursing in their veins. I plan to try and take pics when I have someone here to hold them.

 

[WVduckchick]

Interesting, I just want to follow along...

 

[NTBugtraq]

Going into lockdown today with my Hovabator 1588. Candled and weighed yesterday. I'm still questioning 1 egg, the shell is too dark and speckled for me to see in it. IMO there are at least 33 viable chicks in there, so that's a 94% viability rate at lockdown. My rooster's performance is also holding up, the fertility rate on this set is 90%, and the same is holding true of my Brinsea setting of 48 eggs. The styro ran a bit drier than it should have, so weight loss is slight above ideal. I bumped up the humidity yesterday (Day 17) to 65% to avoid exceeding the weight loss too much. Hopefully there will be something to take pictures of on Sunday.

My new purebred BCM roos have feathered legs, so that's cool. My mature BCM roo doesn't...

 

[NTBugtraq]

First hatch from my 3rd set. He's got 34 egg-mates in there that will hopefully hatch well. I like that fact he came on Day 20, whereas the first in my last, disastrous set, came on Day 19. Looks like this one will color out as a red sexlink.

 

[NTBugtraq]

62% success rate on hatching in the Hovabator, 21 new chicks. Last time hatching in Styro.

 

[NTBugtraq]

62% success rate on hatching in the Hovabator, 21 new chicks. Last time hatching in Styro.

Well, within 2 days 9 of the 21 chicks died. All that were hatched on Day 23, and a few from Day 22. Despite dipping all of their beaks into the water dish, and even feeding a couple water by hand via a syringe, they just seemed to fail to thrive.

Yesterday 7 hatched out of my 44 in the Brinsea...and then this morning 5 more hatches. I put yesterday's hatches into my brooder today with the 12 1-week-olds...they seem to be getting along fine. Lots of pips in the Brinsea, so things are looking up.

 

[sjturner79]

Please update when you can work out your brinsea hatch rate. Thanks.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Please update when you can work out your brinsea hatch rate. Thanks.

I got 19 hatched out of the Brinsea, giving me a 51.35% hatch rate. My roo's fertility was down this time, only 77.08%.

I learned a number of things with this setting. Firstly, I mucked up on Day 18, I thought it was Day 17 and did not make adjustments for lockdown till the next day. This led to early hatches on Day 19, something that has happened with all 4 of my settings. I've read about lowering the temperature by 1F for lockdown. A University of California publication suggested that for each 0.5F above 99.5F at lockdown causes the hatch to advance by 24 hours...which could explain why I keep getting hatches on Day 19. I think this is putting undue stress on the embryos in their final days, causing so many late deaths. Doing eggtopsies has shown that almost all that died died in the final days.

At the same time, I have come to realize I am not providing sufficient nutrition to my laying flock and roo. A couple of months ago I was convinced by the feed mill to switch from layer to scratch for my flock. I do supplement the scratch with a separate feeder of fermented black oil sunflower seeds and double cut whole oats, but its not enough. This too could be leading to poorly conceived eggs...eggs that simply can't make it all the way to hatch. If this is true, I will not see better results in my next setting of 90+ eggs.

So, more to learn, as always.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Just learned that my Brinsea's temperature sensor is out by 2F, as in 2F lower than it was telling me the temperature was. So not the worst thing that could have happened (e.g. it could have been worse if the actual temperature was 2F over what it was saying), but it probably had an impact on the hatch. Brinsea told me it could have been the unit coming into contact with magnets during shipping. Anyway, luckily there is a calibration menu so I can correct it.