California - Northern

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
It takes three days of solid incubation before you will really notice it. The fertile "ring" gets bigger and bigger but no blood until 3 days. I have eaten them up to then, but I don't like them after that - it changes the taste and it gets fed to the dog.

 

[lawatt]

It is 19 on two of my thermometers right now. There was a frog swimming under the ice in one of my dog water bowls on the covered front porch. I haven't been out to the birds yet, but I'm sure the duck ponds are frozen...maybe all the way down. Yesterday it was only a couple inches. This is the kind of weather that culls the weak birds here.

Walt

back from checking on the coops -- water in black buckets had lots of crystals in it, but not frozen solid, but the nipples they drink through were -- glad i took a pail of WARM water down with me!

and interestingly, the 4.5-week-olds have two waterers in their coop, one inside their enclosed henhouse & the other down in the run -- the one in the run was frozen absolutely solid, but the one up with them didn't even have ice crystals in it! shows how much warmer being enclosed & with some body heat can be. all seven of them chirping loudly.

 

[chrissyr]

Children never listen to their parents!

Haha, I guess it's universal for humans and animals

It takes three days of solid incubation before you will really notice it.  The fertile "ring" gets bigger and bigger but no blood until 3 days.  I have eaten them up to then, but I don't like them after that - it changes the taste and it gets fed to the dog.

thank you ChickNmamma k,so that's the fertile ring just getting bigger- how long does it take for that to start? It just grosses me out. If that happens, does it affect freshness?

 

[ronott1]

Haha, I guess it's universal for humans and animals

thank you ChickNmamma k,so that's the fertile ring just getting bigger- how long does it take for that to start? It just grosses me out. If that happens, does it affect freshness?

The Embryo divides once or twice in the Hen and then almost stops after the egg is laid until incubation temperature is reached. I can't tell the difference if the eggs are refrigerated.

Veins appear after two days of incubation, so you have to get them daily if they are fertile and a Broody is setting on them.

 

[BCollie]

Henry just started laying and her eggs are much harder with a thicker shell&membrane than store bought eggs are, but I noticed they aren't as hard as the eggs my mom buys from her friend with backyard chickens. Is this because Henry just recently started laying?(note, her eggs are not soft at all, they're substantially harder than storebought eggs)


When I get a broody I want to hatch out some chicks. It probably will be quite a while because I have Andalusians, Sussex, and Brahma's. I only have one hen that has started laying, and it's an Andalusian which I've read hardly ever go broody. BUT when I do eventually get a broody girl(hopefully a Brahma since they're nice and fat, and can cover a lot of eggs

), I want to try having her hatch out some Blue Laced Red Wyandottes & Swedish Flower Hens. One of the dog trainers that I work with(I am a hobby dog trainer & Border Collie foster mom) has SFH's and will give or sell me some fertile eggs.

As I only want to keep a couple hens(probably one BLRW & one SFH) I will have a lot of extra chicks to sell. I am wondering how easy it will be for me to sell the extras? I imagine some breeds are harder to sell than others, so would it be easy for me to sell extra chicks from these two breeds or would it be difficult? How much would those chicks usually sell for?

Sorry...so many questions. If ya'll haven't noticed already, I'm a bit of a research freak!! I don't ever like to go into things unprepared!

 

[Happy Chooks]

It is so cold! At work until 9pm tonight and the drive home is probably gonna be so icy! Hope our eggs aren't frozen solid in the nest box! Had to break the ice out of the chicken, goat and cat waterers this morning.

Don't break it. That's what electric kettles are for. Pour it in and *poof*, nice warm water for the flocks. Easy peasy.

 

[chiqita]

Hens of any stripe are easy to sell. Roosters are impossible. So come up with a plan before you hatch.

You may or may not get broodies with hatchery chickens. It's less likely but not impossible by any means. Of my 4 hatchery girls only 1 went broodies in 2 years.

Each chicken will have different she'll thicknesses. Are you offering oyster shell? That should keep them nice and thick unless they have trouble digesting it.

 

[BCollie]

Hens of any stripe are easy to sell. Roosters are impossible. So come up with a plan before you hatch.

You may or may not get broodies with hatchery chickens. It's less likely but not impossible by any means. Of my 4 hatchery girls only 1 went broodies in 2 years.

Each chicken will have different she'll thicknesses. Are you offering oyster shell? That should keep them nice and thick unless they have trouble digesting it.

What do people usually do with roos when hatching out chicks? I assume I could probably find homes for most of the Swedish Flower Hens since they're so rare, but I don't know about the Wyandottes.

That is disappointing... I really, really want to hatch out some baby chicks with a broody hen - I don't want to go through the work of having to incubate, brood, and introduce a bunch of babies to my flock. Is there any way to encourage hens to go broody?

I'm not offering oyster shells, but want to. First I need to get some kind of small feeder to offer them in. Can't just put them on the ground because my Light Brahma likes to try to stand in anything she eats.

 

[chiqita]

What do people usually do with roos when hatching out chicks? I assume I could probably find homes for most of the Swedish Flower Hens since they're so rare, but I don't know about the Wyandottes. 

That is disappointing... I really, really want to hatch out some baby chicks with a broody hen - I don't want to go through the work of having to incubate, brood, and introduce a bunch of babies to my flock. Is there any way to encourage hens to go broody?

I'm not offering oyster shells, but want to. First I need to get some kind of small feeder to offer them in. Can't just put them on the ground because my Light Brahma likes to try to stand in anything she eats.

I process my extra roosters. You can sometimes get people to pick them up to process themselves but you want to be sure it's food not other activities.

 

[ronott1]

What do people usually do with roos when hatching out chicks? I assume I could probably find homes for most of the Swedish Flower Hens since they're so rare, but I don't know about the Wyandottes.

That is disappointing... I really, really want to hatch out some baby chicks with a broody hen - I don't want to go through the work of having to incubate, brood, and introduce a bunch of babies to my flock. Is there any way to encourage hens to go broody?

I'm not offering oyster shells, but want to. First I need to get some kind of small feeder to offer them in. Can't just put them on the ground because my Light Brahma likes to try to stand in anything she eats.

Some feed stores will take roosters.