Cream Legbars

[GaryDean26]

On hatching shipped eggs, I shipped one person 100 eggs this year. 50 eggs in the late spring, and 50 eggs in the hottest weather in August. Both shipments were split into two boxes with 25 eggs each and shipped at the same time. All four boxes were held for pick-up and all resulted in 65% hatch rates. A Genesis 1588 and Brinsea Eco 20's were used to hatch. All the eggs were set pointy side down for three days before put into the incubator. All the eggs were left pointy side down in the incubator for the first two days before egg turners were turned on. All the eggs were candled before they went into the incubator to establish the size and position on the air sac. Weekly candling was done to monitor the size of the air sac and humidity was adjusted based on the size of the air sac. After 7 days of incubation clear eggs and eggs with blood rings were removed. There were only an average of one egg per hatch that was lost after the 7 day candling. So...65 live chicks and juvenile birds are now running arround half way across the country from me. Thanks Arlene for all the great feedback and hatching wisdom on your 100 eggs.

 

[GaryDean26]

well my line is your founding stock lol. I don't know if you have ever seen one but i have 12 cockerels and only the one has it and none of the females have it so hes a 1%er.

I know...useless advice huhh??? I haven't seen any cockerels from my line since Febuary. I went for my Sweet 16 group of cockerel to the Elite 8 cockerels at about 6-10 weeks old. I don't remember much about the first 8 that left (rehomed to the Cream Legbar laying flock across the street). I am not remembering much more about the Elite 8 either. I know that my early favorite was from the smaller non-crested hen. He is below.



Later a cockerel that was about a month younger from the big, crested, really good colored hen filled out and became my favorite cockerel. I think he DID have a double tipped point on his comb, but I think he was the only on of the Elite 8 with a double tip. So...I think that possibly one in 10 cockerels were showing the double tipped points to the comb.

 

[CibolaChooks]

I know...useless advice huhh??? I haven't seen any cockerels from my line since Febuary. I went for my Sweet 16 group of cockerel to the Elite 8 cockerels at about 6-10 weeks old. I don't remember much about the first 8 that left (rehomed to the Cream Legbar laying flock across the street). I am not remembering much more about the Elite 8 either. I know that my early favorite was from the smaller non-crested hen. He is below.



Later a cockerel that was about a month younger from the big, crested, really good colored hen filled out and became my favorite cockerel. I think he DID have a double tipped point on his comb, but I think he was the only on of the Elite 8 with a double tip. So...I think that possibly one in 10 cockerels were showing the double tipped points to the comb.

definitely not useless advice. Ill remember it for sure when i start hatching eggs from him and raising up his offspring. I really don't have an option of not trying him. I'm hoping it wont pass along. I need to better my cockerels from this pairing. My other crested Cream male wont be producing any good males. I'm thinking im going to have to dbl breed next year then go back to a single breeding flock with the results then try and finish them off.

 

[ChicKat]

Well, broody Basque mama, while fine with eggs, is not interested in little squeaky things. So into a brooder they go, and she gets a leg band and a new home.

Banded my four pullets that are around 5 weeks old, the dark one is still noticeably dark compared to the other three.

At least you tried. It wasn't in her instincts.

Love your avatar with that FISH.

How cold is it up there now -- and what things do you do to keep them warm in the brooder? I'm thinking I would love a hatch before year's end...but I'm wondering if they would be feathered out in time to be outdoors...by the time they would outgrow my little brooding apparatus.

Everyone - Has ANYBODY seen or used that new Nutrina feed that is supposed to be for molting chickens? My coop looks like a feather pillow broke and feathers are ALL over the place. I wonder how far I would have to search to find that feed...and then how good it would actually work.

http://www.nutrenaworld.com/products/poultry/naturewise-poultry/feather-fixer/

whoops...had the wrong link in before.

ETA there is a $2 Cupon you can print from that link for a 40# bag...you must be connected to a printer and not a mobile device. Anyone used it?

 

[SallyinIndiana]

On hatching shipped eggs, I shipped one person 100 eggs this year. 50 eggs in the late spring, and 50 eggs in the hottest weather in August. Both shipments were split into two boxes with 25 eggs each and shipped at the same time. All four boxes were held for pick-up and all resulted in 65% hatch rates. A Genesis 1588 and Brinsea Eco 20's were used to hatch. All the eggs were set pointy side down for three days before put into the incubator. All the eggs were left pointy side down in the incubator for the first two days before egg turners were turned on. All the eggs were candled before they went into the incubator to establish the size and position on the air sac. Weekly candling was done to monitor the size of the air sac and humidity was adjusted based on the size of the air sac. After 7 days of incubation clear eggs and eggs with blood rings were removed. There were only an average of one egg per hatch that was lost after the 7 day candling. So...65 live chicks and juvenile birds are now running arround half way across the country from me. Thanks Arlene for all the great feedback and hatching wisdom on your 100 eggs.

I have the genesis 1588. I do candle before I put them in after they have been sitting in our basement. I was thinking 2 days of sitting before moving to the incubator, I will do 3 days instead. I plan to leave the turner off as you mentioned too. I have done that with other shipped eggs and it worked well. For the basing humidity on the candling, I have done that in the past so I will do it again. I typically pull clear eggs on day 7, mark maybes and pull from the maybes on day 10. Would leaving in a dud egg for 3 days cause issues?

 

[GaryDean26]

I have never had problems with dud eggs. I ussually pull duds at day 18 but have let just as many stay in through the whole hatch. I know some people have had dud eggs explode in the incubator but that has never happened to me so I mostly just pull dud eggs as a space saving option when I start putting hatching baskets.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I have never had problems with dud eggs. I ussually pull duds at day 18 but have let just as many stay in through the whole hatch. I know some people have had dud eggs explode in the incubator but that has never happened to me so I mostly just pull dud eggs as a space saving option when I start putting hatching baskets.

What do you use for hatching baskets?

 

[KPenley]

What do you use for hatching baskets?

Dollar Tree baskets, I think they're for cosmetics or art supplies, work well (the ones that have small openings in the sides) . I do not recommend making them out of poultry wire (as I've had chicks get stuck in or go through them before), but hardware cloth or even that plastic poultry netting (3/4" openings) would probably work well in circular or square shapes as little corrals.

 

[sweetdreaming]

I'm getting some shipped eggs from Ebay.  I think they will be here on Monday.  Anyone have some great hints for incubating shipped cream legbar eggs?  I guess a few people in my area have not had the best hatching results

Hi! My first experience w/ CLB was purchasing eggs off eBay, too. I "won" 12 from a lady in CA, and they arrived to South TX in 3 days. 14 eggs arrived beautifully wrapped and all intact. I let them sit for 12hrs (they said 24hrs but I was going out of town the next day and couldn't wait) and put them in the 'bater (I only had a Hovabater Genesis but had had some good hatches w/ local eggs). At 7 days: 10 out of 14! At 14 days: 7 out of 14. At 19 days: 5 for sure, 2 "maybe's. 4 pipped, only 2 hatched (but at least they were females!!) Don't really know what went wrong, but somebody told me that the germinal layers are like the rings of a tree and can get "scrambled" during shipping. They may be fertile and develop well in an "intact" layer, but as they grow into a "scrambled" layer, they may cease to grow and die. Makes sense I guess for the early losses, don't have a clue about the "pipped but didn't hatch" ones. The two girls I hatched are 20 weeks now, tho, and very nice and just started laying!! Yippee!

 

[lonnyandrinda]

What do you use for hatching baskets?

I have a cabinet incubator that has a hardware cloth lined lid to the hatching tray, so I cut the tops and bottoms off a few different sizes of empty tissue boxes, cut them down to fit the height of the tray, and then the weight of the lid holds them in place for hatching. I configure them in a row so I can use the space to the left and the right as an additional divided space. 2 long tissues boxes and one square tissue box give me 5 hatching slots. I hatch things together that I know I can't get mixed up- like Black Copper Marans in a big slot with Cream Legbars. I have to keep BBS Ameraucanas separated from Easter Eggers and separated from Isbars as they can all look similar at hatch.