Colorado

[wsmith]

Wsmith & Coloradogal- thanks for the elevation tips and the other knowledge too. I am trying to do the math on this now... Just figuring out how many chicks it would take to pay for the incubator at the moment...
Kmatt- who is Jax? Is he in the Denver area?

Well, in order for me to buy the incubator I want..... I would need to hatch and sell 200 chicks. Of course if I included feed and overhead, etc, to produce those eggs and also pay for the electricity to run the incubator, I would need to hatch out about 400-500. Thats selling each chick for $3.00.......

 

[coloradogal]

Very good article. AFter you and I talked last summer, we had the discussion on one of the Dom threads somewhere... anyway, we came to the same conclusions based on observations.

BTW, Dominiques, though not red or black sex-links, are sex linked. You can tell the gender as soon as they are dry.

If I didn't have my heart on my landrace flock, I'd be so tempted to get into Dominques. Not to compete with you but only because in knowing yours, I can understand completely what a great bird they are. From feed conversion to sweetness. My 2 little Doms are so incredibly gentle and so far, they seem consistent with their eggs. But my heart is truly in getting a nice flock of mutts.

 

[kmatt87]

Wsmith & Coloradogal- thanks for the elevation tips and the other knowledge too. I am trying to do the math on this now... Just figuring out how many chicks it would take to pay for the incubator at the moment...
Kmatt- who is Jax? Is he in the Denver area?

Jax is a ranch and home store. I know we have one in loveland and at least 2 in fort collins but i'm not sure where else the stores are located.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Very good article. AFter you and I talked last summer, we had the discussion on one of the Dom threads somewhere... anyway, we came to the same conclusions based on observations.

BTW, Dominiques, though not red or black sex-links, are sex linked. You can tell the gender as soon as they are dry.

Your doms are beautiful and I would love to buy extra hatching eggs off of you if you'd be interested. I just don't want to open the market too far with your babies and maybe mess up your sales. :/

It's good to know doms can be told apart, I hadn't realized that. I think you may have mentioned it before but I forgot.

 

[wsmith]

If I didn't have my heart on my landrace flock, I'd be so tempted to get into Dominques. Not to compete with you but only because in knowing yours, I can understand completely what a great bird they are. From feed conversion to sweetness. My 2 little Doms are so incredibly gentle and so far, they seem consistent with their eggs. But my heart is truly in getting a nice flock of mutts.

Hey, Mutts are cool!

And that's what Dominiques were, first and foremost. Mutts that bred true.

But I do understand.

 

[wsmith]

Your doms are beautiful and I would love to buy extra hatching eggs off of you if you'd be interested.

I just don't want to open the market too far with your babies and maybe mess up your sales.

It's good to know doms can be told apart, I hadn't realized that. I think you may have mentioned it before but I forgot.

Hmmmmm...

Tell you what...... Think about this....

My plan is to hatch out one week's worth before selling hatching eggs, because I want to know what kind of hatch rate we are getting...... How about I collect the first week and put them in the incubator, and you get the second week's eggs. Say... $10 for the week's yield? That "should" give you anywhere between 24-36 eggs. You would need to keep good records of humidity and temperature, and let me know which eggs hatched and the total hatch rate. Each egg will be marked so I know which hen it came from. If ou got an 80% hatch out of 24 eggs, that would be 19 chicks, and about 1/2 of them would be pullets. 9-10. The cockerels you could either sell or raise for meat.... If you were NPIP I would just take them back.....

Thoughts?

 

[suncatcher]

I am now rethinking some of my breeder pullet options, now that it looks like Abraham (aka Mr, Pig) may end up being over SoP weight. Unless I can put hiom on a treadmill and a diet....... If he is overweight by March, I will go with a couple of smaller pullets so the offspring is smaller. Of course, those big meaty Dom roosters are SOOOOOO yummy......

I think Abraham is perfect, and who knows he may be what the earlier birds actually were size wise. I would think they wanted them bigger for eating. I am really starting to have a problem with the show standards, if it is anything like the horse showing, the show people are ruining the horse breed by breeding good traits out, and "show" aka non usable traits in. Whew, thanks for letting me vent on that! lol

 

[suncatcher]

If I didn't have my heart on my landrace flock, I'd be so tempted to get into Dominques. Not to compete with you but only because in knowing yours, I can understand completely what a great bird they are. From feed conversion to sweetness. My 2 little Doms are so incredibly gentle and so far, they seem consistent with their eggs. But my heart is truly in getting a nice flock of mutts.

What are you using in your landrace flock? I had never heard of this.......but sounds intriguing!

 

[suncatcher]

woohoo Elizabeth is my stomping ground....I'll pray hard would love to have ya here!

Do you happen to know where Elizsbeth CC gets their chicks from???

 

[Chesterchook]

What are you using in your landrace flock?  I had never heard of this.......but sounds intriguing!

Lol just pm'd her about the same thing