BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[weavers rocks]

and length and width of back is a big improvement

 

[lpatelski]

DOH 4/28/16 - picture journal 5/2/16 for #115
3/4 Dark Cornish (Bob-50%DC/50%WCR & Marion-DC)
day 4

 

[gevshiba]

I've got them coming out my ears. Two are raising a group of chicks. There are still 8 broodies that I don't have eggs or chicks for and don't have enough broody breaker cages for.

I've got turkey eggs coming out my ears. 3 broody turkeys, incubators full. I need those other turkeys to go broody asap!

 

[lpatelski]

Okay Broody Betty is too heavy and clumsy to successfully hatch eggs. She has broken two climbing in and out of the nest. I thought I only put infertile eggs in her nest, but one of Pebble's first pullet eggs was developing. Not fun!!!

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

I feel your pain! I am trying to fill shipping egg orders and I have one pen with 5 broodies and there are only 8 hens total with a cock bird in there. Even if the other 3 want to lay they will not let them in the boxes so they just shut down. Some people love them and I hate the broody bixxxes. Thank God I have other pens.
Has anybody got an update on Hellbender?
Kurt

 

[bramblefir]

Okay, here's the weights for the American Buff goslings, Welsh Harlequin ducklings, and Hybrid Pekins:

I have 3 different age groups of goslings and didn't start tracking until last week. Goslings F and G are the oldest and are now primarily eating grass and showing some awesome growth rates. Goslings A and B are 2 females from Ideal - interestingly their 1 week weights were lower than those I hatched here. The final group is C, D, and E and they were bred and hatched here. Sorry to anyone with OCD about the lack of alphabetical order on this chart.

Now the Welsh Harlequins. This is a mix of male and female ducklings. The heaviest, G, is running about 10 ounces behind the lightest meat duck. The smallest, D, is quite runty.




And then the Hybrid Pekins. They're due to butcher out in 2 weeks at the ripe old age of 7 weeks.


Edit: Well shoot, the graphs didn't post the first time.

 

[Mini Meat]

I have 82 eggs in two incubators.

The break down is this

17 Bourbon red Turkey

My daughter wants to expand our layer flock so we drove 2 1/2 hrs. and picked up

11 Marans
10 f2 OE's
4 f1 OE's

The lady also had some Bresse eggs so

11 Bresse for the meat project

Well... that didn't fill 2 Bators so I grabbed 2 dzn. Whole foods fertile eggs.

And tossed in 5 DC eggs from my own flock.

Each bator has some of each kind of egg in case something goes south.
Today (day 14 for the turkeys and day 7 for the chickens) I pulled all the turkey eggs and half the chicken eggs out of one unit to start candling. All the turkey eggs from the first unit are developing well. The Marans are too dark to read and the OE's are apparently impenetrable to light. I could see development in some of the other eggs and some seemed clear but when I rechecked the "clear" ones I could see something the second time around.

My conclusion is that I am not skilled enough to candle a 7 day egg so I did not pull any more eggs. I'll try again in a few days to week.

But... all you good folks and your weighing and record keeping are inspiring me to do a much better job tracking the progress of this hatch. I hope I can manage to at least do weekly's.

 

[lpatelski]

DOH 4/28/16 - picture journal 5/3/16 for #115
3/4 Dark Cornish (Bob-50%DC/50%WCR & Marion-DC)
day 5

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Everyone your birds and projects are amazing! too many to respond to one by one so this is a group congratulations to all of you! Very, very well done. lpatelski pretty soon Cobb is going to want to hire you for their breeding programs.

Whole foods fertile eggs? What would they be, and be a cross of?

I am anxiously awaiting some pips, due very soon in my incubator. I have too many eggs hatching, what was I thinking??????????? Well that's what happens when you buy a used Sportsman and stuff it full. I don't know how many will actually hatch but at lockdown they looked pretty good ..........

 

[Beer can]

Went on vacation for a week, thought I'd have more fresher eggs to set when we got back, not many more, someone decided to quit laying. Ohh well, 19 white giants in incubator and 9 under 'miss growly pants'.
Darn pic won't load ?
Edit; scratch that, eggs in other coop are fertile, have my extra giant cockerel in there. Just added five white giant/silkie crosses and three giant/golden laced polish crosses to have a few white eggs to candle. So 27 in incubator .
Naked necks from Cackle supposed to be here in two weeks .