BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[AnthNDacula]

I hatched 2dz from Trader Joes and 2dz from Whole Foods. The Whole Foods eggs were fresher--5 days old according to the Julian date on the carton. The Trader Joes eggs were 9 days old.

I was able to set 45--three were cracked and I hatched out 33. Not bad for store eggs!

The big lesson for me here is that refrigeration does not have to kill the embryo. On the rare occasion I gather eggs for hatching I am in the hen house 4 or 5 times a day trying to prevent them chilling. Maybe I can just chill out and collect them once a day.

 

[AnthNDacula]

By the way I'm setting Marans and MaransXAmeracauna eggs under a Marans pullet tonight. She only started to lay about 2 months ago but has been on a nest 3 days since I moved her to a broody apartment, i.e. dog crate with food, water, nest and dummy eggs. Any idea how many eggs she can handle? She's a big girl.

Also I've heard it should be an odd number of eggs. Something to do with the way they move when she turns them... apparently some hens study geometry and physics in chicken school. Any thoughts?

 

[ronott1]

The big lesson for me here is that refrigeration does not have to kill the embryo. On the rare occasion I gather eggs for hatching I am in the hen house 4 or 5 times a day trying to prevent them chilling. Maybe I can just chill out and collect them once a day.

Stored for about 10 days at room temperature as normal then about three more weeks in cold storage has the best hatch rate. Better than room temperature for a month.

Not that long term storage will have great hatch rates but a month on the counter and most fertile eggs will be duds.

 

[Kusanar]

The big lesson for me here is that refrigeration does not have to kill the embryo. On the rare occasion I gather eggs for hatching I am in the hen house 4 or 5 times a day trying to prevent them chilling. Maybe I can just chill out and collect them once a day.

From what I've read, getting cold won't kill them (all the time), but freezing almost certainly will. If there is a chance that they could get that cold, you should still be obsessive about getting them pretty quickly, but getting down to fridge temps for a short period of time won't hurt them. If you think about it, in the winter we only get about 8-9 hours of daylight, so if you grab the eggs when you put the hens to bed at night, the eggs will only be 9 hours old at the max and it probably takes about an hour for the nest and egg to cool down anyway especially if other chicken butts go in there to lay.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I'm going on a field trip to see if any grocery stores sell fertile eggs here in this part of Canada. I seriously doubt it, the vast majority of eggs at the grocery stores are from battery caged hens.

 

[LindaB220]

This is so interesting. I've never lived near a Trader Joe's before. I think I'll bring my new incubator back from my visit to La. in a couple of months. It'll take a while, even though I want it NOW. As least I hadn't gotten around to selling the 1588. Yea.

 

[stryker]

This is so interesting. I've never lived near a Trader Joe's before. I think I'll bring my new incubator back from my visit to La. in a couple of months. It'll take a while, even though I want it NOW. As least I hadn't gotten around to selling the 1588. Yea.

Congrats!!!

Does this mean the 10 day rule is out of the window for store bought eggs for hatching?

 

[Our Roost]

February 3rd today. I have started all my birds on breeder feed per Mr. Jensen's suggestions. It amazes me on how many people are crossbreeding and outcrossing different bird breeds. Some are actually using hatchery heritage breeds. Trust that I am not quoting anyone specific or trying to be judge mental. To me its all great excitement!
Living in Michigan, spring may come slowly but it will come! I only have 21 birds but definitely some good breeders in the mix. That's my call Mr. Jensen! I do my own evil eye evaluation with some noted data to help. Just joking of course. I always welcome criticism. I will definitely hatch out more chicks this year than ever before. Its a must do and I will definitely sell off some chicks in the process. Its time to start getting excited!

 

[dfr1973]

Some are actually using hatchery heritage breeds. Trust that I am not quoting anyone specific or trying to be judge mental. To me its all great excitement!

Heheheh ... I am the one committing that awful heresy!

This is the one thread where I expound on that - other threads I'm not so up-front and in-yer-face on the subject ... but some dual purpose breeds managed to get split into two subbreeds of a sort. The hatchery stock lays (perhaps a bit too well for the big picture) but lost size and in some cases even shape (as in, type!). Breeder stock has the size and shape, but too many lines lost the egg production, either frequency of laying or egg size or both. Another thing some breeder lines lost is rate of growth. Angela (neapolitancrazy) has some old Wyandotte literature that heavily criticizes breeders of a century ago for sacrificing growth rate for overall size, stating a Wyandotte cull cockerel ought to make a decent meal at five months old.

As for the current status of my "mad scientist experiment" here with the GLWs, I will be sorting out the October hatch pullets, and keeping the best four. Turns out I only have four cockerels total in that bunch. One (Bigfoot) I am growing out, two are already spoken for along with an extra Silkie cockerel, and one will be dinner here in the near future. Right now, Bigfoot still resembles a gold-laced ostrich. His shanks and legs now fit his feet (for now at least) but the rest of him hasn't quite grown enough to balance that out. One of the big things I will be evaluating the pullets on will be width through the hips. Saturday, I'll take the ten who don't make the grade up to the farm swap in the TSC parking lot, and if I have any left by lunch , those will go through the livestock auction. The lady I am buying my goat from is rather eager to see this group of pullets.

 

[DesertChic]

You guys are seriously feeding my "I wanna hatch some more chicks" feeling. But I really....really...can't. My husband is already overwhelmed by the number of chickens here, even though he really doesn't do anything to care for them. He made me promise not to hatch any more until I either cull or sell at least a dozen. *Sigh*