Cream Legbars

[duluthralphie]

I have 3 CL eggs set to hatch Friday....

I moved them from the incubator to the hatcher today. I think 2 will hatch. I have about a dozen eggs with them for company, but it is the CL's I really want. I am dry hatching my humidity has been 29% the entire time...

I have 7 other CL eggs in the incubator. My two CL hens are very unreliable layers I only get one egg every couple days. I know they are both laying as I did get 2 one day...


I am feeding them layer feed, but am thinking of switching to game bird layer....

Any Idea?

BTW GOOD LUCK ON YOUR HATCHES!

 

[dekel18042]

It may not have been anything to do with the carton per se.

I find any handling/candling in the last 3 days results in much poorer hatch of fully developed chicks.

I always hatch in paper cartons (they go in on day 18) and get great hatch rates.

From lockdown (day 18) on, it's strictly hands off. And with all the hatches I've done, the CL eggs were the poorest hatch. They had been packed very well but we had horribly frigid weather during shipping so that might have had an effect.

 

[dretd]

I have 3 CL eggs set to hatch Friday....

I moved them from the incubator to the hatcher today. I think 2 will hatch. I have about a dozen eggs with them for company, but it is the CL's I really want. I am dry hatching my humidity has been 29% the entire time...

I have 7 other CL eggs in the incubator. My two CL hens are very unreliable layers I only get one egg every couple days. I know they are both laying as I did get 2 one day...


I am feeding them layer feed, but am thinking of switching to game bird layer....

Any Idea?

BTW GOOD LUCK ON YOUR HATCHES!

Good luck on your hatch, duluthralphie!

Today is lockdown for me. I set 24 eggs and only had one bloodring at day 4--everyone else made it to lockdown. Not sure what I'm going to do if they all hatch!


I have been having some trouble with late DIS chicks. I think it may be a humidity problem, but not sure. I generally get everyone to lockdown then have a number of chicks that fail to completely absorb their yolks. I do a semi-dry hatch and track the moisture loss in the eggs. This go around they vary between 9 (too little lost) and 17% (ok)--my goal is a loss of 13-16% at lock down. I have had some hatch with over 20% loss. If I do a dry-dry hatch my water loss is invariably too high all 20-25%. I do have trouble holding my humidity up at lockdown and tend to run out of water in the wells after 2 days which leaves me with the quandary of whether to open the incubator near hatching or after they have pipped or try to raise it by dripping water onto the air diffuser shield. I have pre-placed some sponges this time in the divider area so we shall see if that helps out or not.

When I think that the girls are holding out on me, then I do an egg hunt. This is the latest cache I found yesterday:


There have to be 2 dozen eggs in there. If I remove them all, they will find a different 'safer' secluded area to lay their eggs in so that nasty human predator won't take their eggs.

I feed 20% layer pellets and they are pastured in my backyard so they snack on whatever green grass is available. I also toss them a small amount (more in the winter) of scratch twice daily. I like to see them up close to check for problems and they all come running for scratch. If I were not giving them scratch, I would feed a 16% layer ration. The 20% is formulated specifically for those folks who toss scratch out.

 

[dretd]

Here is a pullet that is roughly 7months old that I have been holding on to.


This is the pullet. Feel free to comment good and bad..

She is certainly worth a test-pairing. I do see what you mean about her longer beak--more prominent from the side view. I think her crest is a decent sized medium and in spite of that her comb is relatively straight with only slight wave in the front. I have found that the floppy hen combs, though allowed, lead to gigantic combs in the males. I prefer more of a medium-large comb, myself. She might end up producing some nice boys for you.

 

[duluthralphie]

dretd: I love this picture of yours:




That is so typical. I have not found any in an old bucket yet, but it could happen. I had 3 laying under an old BBQ grill, I removed the eggs, they have moved to another place Who knows where.

 

[chicken pickin]

Good luck on your hatch, duluthralphie!

Today is lockdown for me. I set 24 eggs and only had one bloodring at day 4--everyone else made it to lockdown. Not sure what I'm going to do if they all hatch!


I have been having some trouble with late DIS chicks. I think it may be a humidity problem, but not sure. I generally get everyone to lockdown then have a number of chicks that fail to completely absorb their yolks. I do a semi-dry hatch and track the moisture loss in the eggs. This go around they vary between 9 (too little lost) and 17% (ok)--my goal is a loss of 13-16% at lock down. I have had some hatch with over 20% loss. If I do a dry-dry hatch my water loss is invariably too high all 20-25%. I do have trouble holding my humidity up at lockdown and tend to run out of water in the wells after 2 days which leaves me with the quandary of whether to open the incubator near hatching or after they have pipped or try to raise it by dripping water onto the air diffuser shield. I have pre-placed some sponges this time in the divider area so we shall see if that helps out or not.

When I think that the girls are holding out on me, then I do an egg hunt. This is the latest cache I found yesterday:


There have to be 2 dozen eggs in there. If I remove them all, they will find a different 'safer' secluded area to lay their eggs in so that nasty human predator won't take their eggs.

I feed 20% layer pellets and they are pastured in my backyard so they snack on whatever green grass is available. I also toss them a small amount (more in the winter) of scratch twice daily. I like to see them up close to check for problems and they all come running for scratch. If I were not giving them scratch, I would feed a 16% layer ration. The 20% is formulated specifically for those folks who toss scratch out.

Good Luck with your hatch! I too have CL eggs going into lockdown tonight. I pulled one clear on day 10 , the remaining 36 are looking good. Fingers crossed they make it past lockdown to hatch day.

I will be watching for chicks pics so be sure to post

 

[ChicKat]

chicken pickin'

Yes, IMO your first pullet has a 'je ne sais quoi' to me too...there is something. BTW your rooster looks like he has been dubbed to be a 'game'. ;O)

 

[ChicKat]

Good luck with all your hatches everyone!!

 

[chicken pickin]

chicken pickin'

Yes, IMO your first pullet has a 'je ne sais quoi' to me too...there is something. BTW your rooster looks like he has been dubbed to be a 'game'. ;O)

I know, he does look dubbed! I really need to figure out better ventilation in my coops to see if I can avoid this next winter. I would like to be able to keep my single combed males with their combs left intact.

 

[ChicKat]

When I think that the girls are holding out on me, then I do an egg hunt. This is the latest cache I found yesterday:


There have to be 2 dozen eggs in there. If I remove them all, they will find a different 'safer' secluded area to lay their eggs in so that nasty human predator won't take their eggs.

I feed 20% layer pellets and they are pastured in my backyard so they snack on whatever green grass is available. I also toss them a small amount (more in the winter) of scratch twice daily. I like to see them up close to check for problems and they all come running for scratch. If I were not giving them scratch, I would feed a 16% layer ration. The 20% is formulated specifically for those folks who toss scratch out.

wooo Hoo -- at least you know that they are good layers. :O)