Crossing Cornish with others....

[pepper48_98]

dancingbear...

Where in Oklahoma did you find show cornish? I bought a roo and 3 hens of whites a few weeks ago and picking up a trio of red whitelaced today from a breeder of show stock but would like to find another souce.

 

[dancingbear]

Pepper, I don't have the man's permission to put his info on the web, but I'll ask him if I may pass along his info to you. He doesn't sell eggs, just birds.

 

[Agape Builder]

I would like the information as well, if possible, Jenny. I can email you my contact information and you can give it to him if he would prefer. I am not looking for show birds, but some good lines of white and dark cornish roos for cross breeding.

 

[dancingbear]

I've talked to him on the phone once, I don't have an email for him. I'll try calling him. He's sometimes hard to reach. When I find anything out, I'll let you both know.

You'll have to go to Oklahoma to get any birds from him, he doesn't ship them. That's the only reason I haven't gotten any yet, it's over 800 miles, and I haven't had the time or the money for the trip.

Something you might try though, is look at the APA website for a link to poultry show judges. If you can find a poultry show judge in your area, they may know of a breeder in your neck of the woods.

 

[Agape Builder]

Oh, HECK no! I am not THAT desperate to drive to Oklahoma. I would rather start out with some hatchery stock. Thanks anyways.

 

[dancingbear]

BTW, just a little aside here....when you buy fertile eggs and have them shipped, between the cost of the eggs, the shipping cost, and the often dismal hatch rate of shipped eggs, it's rare to save money doing this rather than ordering day-old chicks. The only reason I ever order shipped eggs is to get bloodlines and breeds that I can't get locally.

If you do order eggs, ask the seller how they pack them. Get details. If you're unfamiliar with the subject, go over to the BYC Incubating and Hatching Eggs section, and read all about it. Doing some research in advance can save you a lot of time, money, and frustration.

As an example, I recently got eggs for 2 hard to get breeds, at a cost of $27. I ordered 1 dozen eggs total, was sent 14. They were badly damaged in shipping. The seller very kindly sent me an additional 6 eggs at no cost. I set the whole bunch anyway, but not a single one hatched. This is not unusual, with shipped eggs. I have shipped eggs in the bator now, that looks like out of 15 eggs, I may get 5 chicks, if all goes well from here on out. 8 were infertile. Not damaged, but infertile, though the seller claimed about 85% fertility. (I opened the eggs when they still candled clear, when other were showing good development. I examined the germ disc on the yolk. They were NOT fertile eggs) 2 others started, but died early. So that leaves me 5, that look very good so far. By comparison, I have 3 eggs from my own hens in there, plus a dozen guinea eggs. All of those are growing, except 1 guinea egg, which was clear.

Sorry to stray OT, but ordering eggs has been mentioned as a way to save money over buying chicks. If you get lucky and get a great hatch, yeah, you might save some money, but not usually.

 

[pepper48_98]

what incubator are you using? do you have good hatching %

 

[Agape Builder]

Jenny,

I understand about how shipping is rough on the eggs and getting less than stunning hatching rates. It sounds like you got a crumby supplier as well. To illustrate a difference, I plan on driving about 45 minutes away tomorrow or Thursday to pick up 4 dozen Barred Rock eggs for a total cost of $12. The lady is a well known reputable local breeder with segregated breeds, and there will be no rough handling from shipping, so I expect a decent hatch rate.

If all hatch, then we are talking about a total cost of $0.25 per chick, or about $0.40 per chick when factoring in the cost of diesel fuel to go pick them up. Not too shabby when considering that my father live right around the corner and that I had to go there anyways.

Now, if I were to overpay for the eggs in the first place, get half broken in transit, and get lousy unfertilized eggs to begin with, then I would have to revisit the idea of skipping the incubatin process. I agree that buying eggs only makes sense in certain situations.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
If you can pick up eggs locally, then yes, that's the way to go.

One supplier on the 0% hatch is actually very good, sent me 6 extras later at no cost, and was careful in packing. But all the air cells were damaged in transit. Over half were ruptured, all the others were mis-shaped from being bounced around. And, who knows what temperature extremes they may have been exposed to. The person I bought them from has had very high hatch rates with some customers. It depends on what happens on your particular mail route, from Point A to Point B. When they get tumbled around with machine sorting, that's what happens.

The other, with the 8 infertiles, I won't get eggs from again. I'd bought from her last year, the eggs were badly packed, many broken, only 1 hatched. She sent these at shipping cost only, which was nice, but sent a bunch of infertile eggs. I can't say she did it on purpose, but I'd think she'd be aware of any fertility problems. I asked her to pack them differently, and she did, and this bunch arrived in good shape, but I think it made her mad that I told her her packaging wasn't as good as it could be. She claimed that she almost never got reports of broken eggs with the way she packed the first time, which I find hard to believe.

Another package I received had no damage, eggs in great shape, from all appearances, and I still only got 7 chicks. 7 exceptionally nice chicks, I might add, of breeder stock lines, not hatchery, a breed I want very much. That's the thing, some of the breeds I want are not that easy to come by. Many of the eggs in that bunch died early, or were fully formed and failed to pip. That may have been my fault, though, I had some temp/humidity issues with that hatch. I think if I got more from her later, I'd have a better hatch. But I have 3 males and 4 females, so I'll just breed my own, now, and later get a few from another source to increase the gene pool.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I have an LG, forced air, auto turner. With home eggs, I get a good hatch rate. About 85-90%. Shipped eggs, not so much. There are so many variables. Some of the shipped eggs, like another batch I got recently, I had 15 eggs to start, (red Dorkings, hard to find, from breeders) 8 turned out not to even be fertile, 2 died, (blood rings appeared) and there are 5 looking very good, strong veining, good movement, they should hatch next Monday.