California - Northern

[Hangtown Farms]

I picked up two Cream Legbar chicks from John Brekken in Loomis yesterday. It was a convenient detour from I-80 while I was driving from Lake Tahoe to the SF Bay Area.

He is a very nice person to deal with. He gave me a tour of his pens and discussed some of his philosophies and policies on raising, breeding, and selling chickens. He also talked to me a bit about the chicks I was buying. The pictures on BYC are great, but it was nice having a hands-on demonstration and explanation.

He usually lists on the Sacramento Craigslist, but has a posting in the Bay Area region today. I haven't seen the varieties he is offering at the Los Gatos hardware store, at Pollinate (Oakland), or at TSC (Gilroy): (Icelandics, Marans, copper and birchen, Lavender orpingtons, Brabanters, Swedish Flowers, Jubilee orpingtons, Norwegian Jaerhons, Creme Legbars)

John is a good guy

 

[CackleJoy]

When is lockdown usually?

Somebody is getting anxious?

 

[CackleJoy]

In the finch world there are theories gender control by the hen. It is said not to be pre-determined as the hen grow, but that she determines the gender of the chicks in each clutch she lays. Some people seem to take that to me that she is making a consious decision about the sex of each individual chick but it is really more that her body is determining what sec chicks have the best chance of making based on conditions. If food i abundant and the right level of protiens available, themperatures and humidity right, etc they will produce more female chicks. If conditions are less idea; then more male chicks will be produced.

I have really enjoyed all the response to my question.

Thank you everybody!

This answer is very interesting to me! Our breeders have unlimited access to food and water (unless one runs out - of course) so I don't think that would be a problem. Also, Ron's comment about 100% hatches is intriguing. The dog ate too many of our chicks from the 100% hatch we had - so I don't know how that would have turned out. Most of our other hatches have been much less due to shipped eggs.

Here is the real reason for the question. We have been trying and trying to get Brabanters. Brabanters are VERY rare and hard to find good stock. So we ordered eggs. We knew that as a breed it was cockerel heavy but it is very surprising to see that in action. We have a Brabanter cock and I recently hatched a pile of EE's off of him. The EE hatch was pretty good. Maybe 2 out 16 eggs didn't hatch. Anyway, the amount of boys off of that hatch was tremendous. I sold all but 6. My remaining 6 are all boys! I've talked to 2 customers and now know of a couple pullets, they each have 1 pullet from their straight run purchases.

Poor people. Poor me.

I offer a pullet protection policy because I have a pen that I can house all the returned cockerels and then get rid of them. They only get a credit towards the purchase of sexed birds (which obviously cost much more than straight run) and sometimes they have to wait. Since this hatch I will be rethinking my strategy. Biosecurity is not a problem because I've got the space and the cockerels can go in a completely separate part of the yard. It's just that I kept 6 birds and have nothing to offer ...

Since that Brabanter EE hatch, I have hatched a bunch of Blue Wheaten EE's (same hens, different cock). I'm interested in the boy/girl ratio. If it is still bad, I may quit gathering eggs from those hens!

 

[ronott1]

I have really enjoyed all the response to my question.

Thank you everybody!

This answer is very interesting to me! Our breeders have unlimited access to food and water (unless one runs out - of course) so I don't think that would be a problem. Also, Ron's comment about 100% hatches is intriguing. The dog ate too many of our chicks from the 100% hatch we had - so I don't know how that would have turned out. Most of our other hatches have been much less due to shipped eggs.

Here is the real reason for the question. We have been trying and trying to get Brabanters. Brabanters are VERY rare and hard to find good stock. So we ordered eggs. We knew that as a breed it was cockerel heavy but it is very surprising to see that in action. We have a Brabanter cock and I recently hatched a pile of EE's off of him. The EE hatch was pretty good. Maybe 2 out 16 eggs didn't hatch. Anyway, the amount of boys off of that hatch was tremendous. I sold all but 6. My remaining 6 are all boys! I've talked to 2 customers and now know of a couple pullets, they each have 1 pullet from their straight run purchases.

Poor people. Poor me.

I offer a pullet protection policy because I have a pen that I can house all the returned cockerels and then get rid of them. They only get a credit towards the purchase of sexed birds (which obviously cost much more than straight run) and sometimes they have to wait. Since this hatch I will be rethinking my strategy. Biosecurity is not a problem because I've got the space and the cockerels can go in a completely separate part of the yard. It's just that I kept 6 birds and have nothing to offer ...

Since that Brabanter EE hatch, I have hatched a bunch of Blue Wheaten EE's (same hens, different cock). I'm interested in the boy/girl ratio. If it is still bad, I may quit gathering eggs from those hens!

When you get the Barbanters going, nest trap and identify the hens that are laying the female eggs more and use them for the next breeding cycle. If you work at it, over time you can change the gene pool to have more females hatch.

The finch story has many elements of Naturalistic Magical thinking in it.

 

[EZFarms]

Is it normal to not hear anything from eggs on day 20

 

[ronott1]

Is it normal to not hear anything from eggs on day 20

Usually you will hear cheeping. It is hard to hear though if the incubator has a fan.

I hope you see a pip soon!

 

[BCollie]

Quote:
x2

Good luck!

 

[BCollie]

Wow, am I really close to 1,000 posts already? I just had a few hundred a couple weeks ago! Almost all of my post count is from this thread. Maybe I've been spending too much time on BYC...is that even possible?

I don't think it is.

 

[EZFarms]

tHree are in a bator tge others are under a broody >·< im anxious

 

[QueenBubbles]

HI Colleen.  What kind of Brahma do you have and is it a breeder or hatchery stock?  This matters because hatchery stock is smaller than breeder quality.  Dark Brahma's are also smaller than lights.  So if you have hatchery Dark Brahma's, the 1 ft high is fine.  If you have breeder lights, then you might want to expand the size of the box.

I have a Light Brahma that I got from Western Supply Feed Store. Probably hatchery stock. At 6 weeks now, she has well defined breasts and weighs at least a pound, but I don't have a scale. She is about 3 times the size of my same age EE, but some of that might be her fancy feathers. How does an 18" height x 24" deep x 12" wide on the nest box sound?