Cream Legbars

[normanack]

Sorry to monopolize . . .

Would anyone like to do a small egg swap this summer? I've never mailed eggs and don't currently have plans to sell them that way, but I would be interested in an exchange to see how well it works and avoid too much inbreeding from one hen and one roo.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Questions for you, and everyone:

1. How long do you wait before beginning to hatch pullet eggs? Do you go by egg size, a set amount of time, or a certain number of eggs? I need to get to a science library to see if there's any research on this.

2. What's the longest number of days you collect eggs before incubating them? I know there's research on length of waiting time vs. viability and will be looking for that as well.

3. Is it wise to hatch very small batches of chicks a week (or so) apart? I.e. if you had one hen and collected, say, 3 or 4 eggs over the course of a week. Would you wait for more eggs or just go ahead and set them?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.

This is all just my experience and method:

Pullet eggs- haven't had to decide this yet, All my layers have been adults and my first batch of saved babies will be laying this spring. I am interested to hear others' opinions on this.

Length before setting- from my research, the majority of eggs (your own, not shipped) are still viable for up to 3 weeks, but for optimum hatch rate you want to wait no longer than 2 weeks.

To make my life easy I am on a weekly hatching schedule- set eggs Sunday morning, so they hatch in 3 weeks and customers can come pick up chicks on Monday and Tuesday. I do plan on selling and shipping hatching eggs and chicks this spring, and this schedule allows me to save eggs for a week and then take all eggs and chicks for shipping to the post office on Monday, so they can arrive during the week and not get stuck at the PO over the weekend. I set 50 eggs yesterday (most I purchased to expand my own stock). Using this method I can set 90 eggs per week (my incubator can hold 270 eggs plus a hatching tray). My chickens are laying right at 2 dozen per week.

Now if I only had 3-4 eggs per week, I would wait two weeks before setting them. You could even try waiting three so you could hatch everything laid between batches. But with a small incubator I would not try to stagger hatch unless you have a second incubator for lockdown or an actual hatcher box.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Sorry to monopolize . . .

Would anyone like to do a small egg swap this summer? I've never mailed eggs and don't currently have plans to sell them that way, but I would be interested in an exchange to see how well it works and avoid too much inbreeding from one hen and one roo.

Absolutely. That is a fantastic idea!

 

[normanack]

Absolutely. That is a fantastic idea!

Cool! I'll let you know when my SLACKER HEN WHO HAS TRIED ON EVERY NEST BOX FOR SIZE ABOUT A THOUSAND TIMES BUT HAS NOT YET LAID begins to lay.

 

[blackbirds13]

this sounds interesting....

 

[KPenley]

Sorry to monopolize . . .

Would anyone like to do a small egg swap this summer? I've never mailed eggs and don't currently have plans to sell them that way, but I would be interested in an exchange to see how well it works and avoid too much inbreeding from one hen and one roo.

You know I'm in

 

[normanack]

This is all just my experience and method:

Pullet eggs- haven't had to decide this yet, All my layers have been adults and my first batch of saved babies will be laying this spring.  I am interested to hear others' opinions on this.

Length before setting- from my research, the majority of eggs (your own, not shipped) are still viable for up to 3 weeks, but for optimum hatch rate you want to wait no longer than 2 weeks. 

To make my life easy I am on a weekly hatching schedule- set eggs Sunday morning, so they hatch in 3 weeks and customers can come pick up chicks on Monday and Tuesday. . . .

Now if I only had 3-4 eggs per week, I would wait two weeks before setting them.  You could even try waiting three so you could hatch everything laid between batches.  But with a small incubator I would not try to stagger hatch unless you have a second incubator for lockdown or an actual hatcher box.

Very sensible advice; thank you!

 

[LONDON HENS]

These are my 2 girls from my hatch last September. Plus a Photo of one of the males! We have had so much snow in London the last few days. the chickens were not very confident about adventuring out today!
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[normanack]

London Hens, what a magnificent roo! I love that last picture. That tail . . . Wow.

 

[ChicKat]

Fabulous pictures London Hens....thanks for posting. I heard on the radio today that the snow caused flight delays in London.... That's pretty rare isn't it?