BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[CanadianBuckeye]

Yep, and mine are working their way up to Large/XL eggs as well - most are nice roundish or normal egg-shaped, but an occasional one will have a point on the end, and I was just wondering if that was harder for a chick to hatch out of...

- Ant Farm

They hatch head first out of the larger, rounded end, so a pointy opposite end tip probably doesn't matter as long as the egg is big enough. My dark cornish hatching eggs were like tops, very round at the air sac side and then they came to an abrupt point at the other end. The ones that were fertile developed had no problems hatching. Both ends of the torpedo shaped eggs are narrow, of the two I'd prefer the Cornish shaped eggs.

 

[NanaKat]

While I have breeding pens set up, I won't begin collecting eggs for hatching until the temperatures reach and stay above 40 degrees at night. We are simply having wild ranges in night time temps. Fertility in the cocks will be much more reliable.
That said, in the brooder room, I have two Bantam hens sitting on clutches of eggs. I slipped a few select eggs under them to go with their own...should hatch soon.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I'm trying to limit the number of hatches so I don't have a ton of mixed age chicks. How does everyone manage so many chickens that all hatch at different times? I only had 2 batches last year, and it took more than 6 months before everyone got along and I could integrate the flocks. Does everyone have a million pens???????? How are you keeping all those ages /hatches separate????

 

[ronott1]

I'm trying to limit the number of hatches so I don't have a ton of mixed age chicks. How does everyone manage so many chickens that all hatch at different times? I only had 2 batches last year, and it took more than 6 months before everyone got along and I could integrate the flocks. Does everyone have a million pens???????? How are you keeping all those ages /hatches separate????

They can be combined up to three weeks old or so and that will lessen the number of pens and brooders.

Do you have a large incubator? That can help, unless you are working on individual matings?

 

[draye]

I'm trying to limit the number of hatches so I don't have a ton of mixed age chicks. How does everyone manage so many chickens that all hatch at different times? I only had 2 batches last year, and it took more than 6 months before everyone got along and I could integrate the flocks. Does everyone have a million pens???????? How are you keeping all those ages /hatches separate????

I have several runs set up but I hatch about 9 weeks apart. Give or take a little. That is if I keep them all. I hatch monthly if I'm hatching for selling at the auction house.

I stop hatching if I run out if room. Otherwise I combine hens together as a group starts thing out ( predators and such) most if my hens I can tell apart, but lately I've started. Using zip ties to mark the hatch/mating.

 

[DesertChic]

I'm trying to limit the number of hatches so I don't have a ton of mixed age chicks. How does everyone manage so many chickens that all hatch at different times? I only had 2 batches last year, and it took more than 6 months before everyone got along and I could integrate the flocks. Does everyone have a million pens???????? How are you keeping all those ages /hatches separate????

I have a total of seven pens of varying sizes and some with their own runs, which has allowed me to house birds at different ages until they can be integrated, but...yeah...it's a battle. I'm at the point now of not being able to hatch out any more birds unless I make some serious changes to my property, or cull a bunch of my current birds. Once I cull the majority of the cockerels from my last hatch it will be better, but chicken math is a real killer no matter how hard I try to keep it under control.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

They can be combined up to three weeks old or so and that will lessen the number of pens and brooders.

Do you have a large incubator? That can help, unless you are working on individual matings?

I do have a large incubator, but I definitely need more pens. I have plenty of indoor space, but I need to build some tractors for summer. Letting them free range everywhere was a disaster, they scratched out pretty well everything they could and ate all my hostas :-/

 

[gjensen]

There are a variety of ways that breeders manage multiple hatches.

I do this by limiting hatches to larger hatches. I may only have two main hatches, but have a 80-100 eggs in each of those hatches. For misc. reasons, I will have some smaller hatches.

For a variety of reasons, I do not like mixing age groups while they are growing. I realize that some do, but I am not one of them. I do not mix sexes, and I do not mix age groups while they are growing. The exception here is in small batches hatched by setting hens. That is a different dynamic. I like comparing apples to apples, and oranges to oranges.

Egg shape does have an impact on hatchability, though generally, it is in lower %s. There are exceptions with extreme examples. Regardless, egg shape (quality) is not an example of beauty in variety. Maybe that could be said of colors. The point is the off shaped eggs should not be set in the incubator to begin with. An exception could be made for very rare birds in extreme cases. Then the goal is to move forward once the numbers are up.
Egg shape is difficult to recover when it is lost. The reason is obvious.

Interior and exterior quality matters, and more so in production fowl. The goal is uniform quality. Culling begins with the egg, and hens that lay off shaped eggs should be culled.

 

[dfr1973]

OK, 25 out of 30 eggs hatched in the Hovabator, and 4 out of 6 out with the Silkiebators. I toe punched the Wyandottes, but will need to check to see if any closed up. The web on the little Silkie feet just looked too small to my eye, so that will be even more fun next week when I steal them out of the nests at night to toe punch them as well (so I can see which cockerel throws the larger chicks). All 25 inside-hatched chicks are now under the Silkies - we have a freeze warning for tonight now!

The inside hatch.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

You can mark their heads with nail polish until they are big enough to band/punch.
Congratulations! Nice hatch.