- May 19, 2009
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Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread
- Thread starter Robert Blosl
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Do you mean space to grow out the chicks or space on the chart?
I have five pens set up right now from a total of 16 pens planned into the Fall. I am breeding two pens of Cochins, Black over White and then apen of Blue Cochins. There are two pens of Columbian Wyandotte over CW, and CW over F1 Blues and Blacks. Then I have a pen of F1 Birchen over F1 Birchen, Black and F1 Blue Wyandottes.
The toe punch chart is very useful. A pen of clean leg and a pen of feather leg pairings can be toe punched with the same pattern even though they come from different pens because the leg differences distinguish the pairing. I also leg band the roosters.
The pens were set 12/17 and eggs have been collected and set is a cool room in an auto egg turner until going into incubator trays. Like Robert, I mark the collected eggs with pen number and date.
Usually I don't have broodies in the winter but our temperatures were so weird this year I had 6 hens go broodie and Wyandotte and Cochin girls don't break off easily. I ended up with all six setting on eggs I selected to go under them. One on Bantam eggs gave up her eggs on day 18 to a persistent Australorp. The Aussie is rearing the four chicks that hatched. A CW is rearing two Silver Blue CW/Cochin pullets. Four clutches will hatch in January...a mixture of pure Cochins and pure Wyandottes. These will be punched according to the pen pairings on my chart.
Record keeping is essential to keeping pairing straight. I keep a notebook with each pen identified along with pictures of the parent stock...noting strengths and weaknesses as well as my goal for each pairing.
Incubated hatch will go into brooders set on shelving in my brooder room with lamps set for heat that will be adjusted 5 degrees every 5 days. I keep infrared lights in the combined hen house and brooder room to keep the inside temps about 35 degrees to keep waterers from freezing.
My layer flock and any hens with early chicks freerange every day. When brooder chicks reach three weeks, they are on the floor in the brooder room with a native dirt dusting boxes available filled with wood ash, fine Oklahoma clay, sand and poultry dust.
When they go to the floor, there is always one of my best momma hens in there too. Nasty Nesty Nellie or Lucy adopt any chicks as if they were their hatch and are great foster moms. These old girls then take these chicks to the outside grow out yard when the chicks are four to five weeks old.
While this has worked for me, I'm always open to new strategies and appreciate all the sharing of ideas.
I have five pens set up right now from a total of 16 pens planned into the Fall. I am breeding two pens of Cochins, Black over White and then apen of Blue Cochins. There are two pens of Columbian Wyandotte over CW, and CW over F1 Blues and Blacks. Then I have a pen of F1 Birchen over F1 Birchen, Black and F1 Blue Wyandottes.
The toe punch chart is very useful. A pen of clean leg and a pen of feather leg pairings can be toe punched with the same pattern even though they come from different pens because the leg differences distinguish the pairing. I also leg band the roosters.
The pens were set 12/17 and eggs have been collected and set is a cool room in an auto egg turner until going into incubator trays. Like Robert, I mark the collected eggs with pen number and date.
Usually I don't have broodies in the winter but our temperatures were so weird this year I had 6 hens go broodie and Wyandotte and Cochin girls don't break off easily. I ended up with all six setting on eggs I selected to go under them. One on Bantam eggs gave up her eggs on day 18 to a persistent Australorp. The Aussie is rearing the four chicks that hatched. A CW is rearing two Silver Blue CW/Cochin pullets. Four clutches will hatch in January...a mixture of pure Cochins and pure Wyandottes. These will be punched according to the pen pairings on my chart.
Record keeping is essential to keeping pairing straight. I keep a notebook with each pen identified along with pictures of the parent stock...noting strengths and weaknesses as well as my goal for each pairing.
Incubated hatch will go into brooders set on shelving in my brooder room with lamps set for heat that will be adjusted 5 degrees every 5 days. I keep infrared lights in the combined hen house and brooder room to keep the inside temps about 35 degrees to keep waterers from freezing.
My layer flock and any hens with early chicks freerange every day. When brooder chicks reach three weeks, they are on the floor in the brooder room with a native dirt dusting boxes available filled with wood ash, fine Oklahoma clay, sand and poultry dust.
When they go to the floor, there is always one of my best momma hens in there too. Nasty Nesty Nellie or Lucy adopt any chicks as if they were their hatch and are great foster moms. These old girls then take these chicks to the outside grow out yard when the chicks are four to five weeks old.
While this has worked for me, I'm always open to new strategies and appreciate all the sharing of ideas.
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Thanks for the info on shipping started birds. I am still working on finding a breeder.
I did speak to a man in CA tonight who had a breeding pair, his last of the season (and the very best of his lot, for sale). He was asking $125 for the pair, and that is just a bit out of my reach, plus shipping or driving to pick them up.
I am probably going to need to find some hatching eggs and roll the dice with them.
They tell me breeding good birds is all about a good eye and patience. While I am developing my 'eye', I will also improve my patience, as I wait for the right opportunity to come to me.
I have spent the past 2 and a half years learning how to raise hatchery chickens, successfully. Now that I am ready to commit to good stock, I have confidence the right birds will make themselves available to me, in a manner I can afford.
Thanks again for taking the time to share the information with me.
I did speak to a man in CA tonight who had a breeding pair, his last of the season (and the very best of his lot, for sale). He was asking $125 for the pair, and that is just a bit out of my reach, plus shipping or driving to pick them up.
I am probably going to need to find some hatching eggs and roll the dice with them.
They tell me breeding good birds is all about a good eye and patience. While I am developing my 'eye', I will also improve my patience, as I wait for the right opportunity to come to me.
I have spent the past 2 and a half years learning how to raise hatchery chickens, successfully. Now that I am ready to commit to good stock, I have confidence the right birds will make themselves available to me, in a manner I can afford.
Thanks again for taking the time to share the information with me.
- May 19, 2009
- 8,453
- 3,394
- 512
ask him if he will take payments. Perhaps he will hold them for you until they are paid for. Not unheard of . What have you got to lose? Offer him free eggs or chicks back .
Karen
Very cool stuff!It has been studied a few times and eggs cockerel eggs(sounds wried) are able to stand higher tempatures better. so if you are getting 77% cockerels i would think that
a) turn the temp down might help
b) 77% of your hens lay eggs with a higher percent of being cockerels.
some more information on statement b for those that don't know.
In avian species it is the hen(or goose,duck you get the idea) that determines the sex of the offspring. Some ____(s) are more apt to produce eggs that have a higher change of being one sex. It's not allways a 50/50 when they say 50/50 raito these are with large numbers of chicks where factors such as hens being prone to producing one sex more than the other are essentially eliminated.
I have been doing a rather small study these past few years. I pre-incubate eggs before setting.
People say shipping hatches eggs is a gamble. I truly don't belive that. To me it would seem like them being wraped in a layers of plastic would not allow cells to breath and this could explain why majority of eggs do not hatch. Now with detached air cells or broken eggs this could not be used.
My theroy (before you say off topic just listen) egg weight(g)/3.3g = hrs of preincubation. allowing for the internal mass of the egg to warm up and to give the cells a boost start. I have not yet shipped any eggs just done it in home. However i have been looking at storage times.
Eggs have been out of the same lot. devided in half, same incubator different trays. And in storage times < 1 week i have seen an incressed percentage hatched vs non pre incubated.
Now i got this idea after thinking about broody's they don't lay all there eggs at once and some times wait upwords of two weeks before setting i knew there was something i have had to miss. And i ploted the diferences and simulatires out. There are two differnces i have come across, storage length, storage temp.
We all know a broody hen (even one that is not setting yet) tipaclly stays on the nest longer than one whom just lays her egg. So assumeing that a hen lays 12 eggs than sets, the first egg could have been sat on for a total of 12 additional hours. Now 12 days is past the 7 day mark where 'fertillity drops quickly". The only conclusion i can draw is that the hen setting on the eggs after she lays them jolts there devlopment. but after she leaves they cool down. Preserving the embro in a sate that of suspend animation for lack of a better word.
Now this relates to hirtage poultry because in the past farmers had relided on these breeds to raise there own. And natural selection would have advanced these traits that maybe we don't see over time.
Anyways still have to this years study and hope somthing good comes out!
They are his 'top end' show birds and he's going to take them to two upcoming shows, and sell them there.
But I appreciate the idea. I had forgotten about the possibility of a little 'horse tradin' ".
Thanks, again, Karen!
I'm still searching...
call ducks,
I use a number of methods for identification, I learned a long time ago to never rely on just one way.
I use toe punch and wing bands together.
If you do try toe punching don't waste your money on one of the cheep toe punches (pic1) get a better one like (pic2).
Pic1
pic2
Both pictures are from http://www.twincitypoultrysupplies.com/store/
Chris
I know their 'could be' something to the effect of incubation temperature affecting the sex of the chicks. We know it happens in some reptiles, which are somewhat closely related to birds in that evolutionary tree (depends on what you believe about that). And I know in discussions I have had with those that raise 'real' jungle fowl in the US (Red, Gray, Green) that in certain warmer years they 'report' that they 'seem to' have hatched more males than females. This may just be a numbers game with not a large enough sample size, I don't know.
However, despite the efforts of many researchers in scientific situations it has never been shown that you can effect the sex of the day old hatched chicks by altering incubation temperature. If this was possible there would be HUGE economic benefits. Companies in the egg production business would love to have more females hatch and and those in the business if meat production would love to have a higher percentage of male chicks hatch. It would be awesome to be able to manipulate this and it has been tried many times at various locations around the world and still no conclusion that it can be successfully and routinely done.
Having said that, it never hurts to try, if you have the eggs and the space and ability to test this yourself. Ya never know!!!
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Zanna
Songster
I know of a few Oregon/Washington people going to Stockton who might be able to bring them home for you if he was going to that show. PM me, I'm out for most of the day but will get back to you this evening.
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