does anyone HERE know when pullets have viable eggs?

[chooniecat]

I have 8 6 month old black australorp girls and 1 same of boy. does anybody know WHEN appx. I could use a broody to try to hatch the BA eggs?(when is the male potent enough to actually fertilize the girls eggs?) and the girls have only been laying 1 month and their eggs are still smallish so I don't think THEY'RE ready. ??????? thanks.

 

[gryeyes]

Well, the easiest way to check for fertility is to break open an egg occasionally , for a meal, and look for the bulls-eye. If you go to the Incubating / Hatching Forum, there are "sticky" threads with information about telling fertilized from unfertilized eggs, with photos.

If you have fertilized eggs on these spot checks, more than unfertilized ones, then you can guess/hope the others are fertilized too.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Here is the link to the fertile egg pictures.

Fertile Egg Pictures
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008

The smaller pullet eggs are not big enough to contain enough nutrients for the developing chick to reach its full potential. What that means is that the chicks will be born small and will not have the strength and vigor that a chick that was hatched from a larger egg would have. The hatch rate is usually not as high as you would get from eggs from older hens. It depends on your goals and reasons for hatching. If you have a broody and want to try, you certainly can, but just realize you will probably get better quality chicks and probably a better hatch rate next time you try with eggs from older hens.

Good luck!

 

[chooniecat]

Thanks. I realize the young girls eggs are certainly not ready I am just being impatient because I put up an egg sign and am being bombarded with people wanting more and more and I only have 18 current layers(8 of those are the younguns) and the plan was,anyhow, to produce more layers from my black australorps. I could maybe try some of the hen/older pullets eggs but obviously they would be MUTT chickens and in theory not lay as well(so I have read). the plan was also to EAT some of the black australorp girls but if everyones wanting eggs then i don't want to eat any of the current girls and I don't think i can eat my older layers(various purebreds but,unfortunately, named and distinguishable from one another!)RAMBLE.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

My mutt chickens lay great! My main large fowl birds are heritage Orpingtons, but I have some hatchery chickens (Dels, EEs Cochins) who I cross with my heritage. The crosses lay great 5 to 6 eggs a week.



My cockerels from the crosses are freezer bound - something I decide before I started hatching - cause I also needed extra layers.


So I say - hatch, hatch, hatch away.

 

[chooniecat]

I was hoping to get encouragement to do mutts. the problem with that though is I won't know the cross I get(definitively) cause I have 10 older girls of 7 different breeds(oh man-this is math) and their eggs are here there everywhere in nests and I don't know who's laying what.will just be curious to know,if i get a good layer and its a cross,so I can say"oh yeh-my delaware/BA cross is a great layer"(just an example,of course). plan on separating the BA.s when the time comes to get some purebred babies. am I confusing????? yes. I KNOW the BA girls will lay purebred chix,cause I only have a BA boy,but I am worried the crosses may come out looking purebred I won't know whos who and......rambling again. sorry.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you can list your breeds, maybe some of us can tell you what the chicks will probably look like. The first generation is pretty easy, but the second generation of mutts crossed with mutts gets real confusing real fast.

With a BA rooster, most will come out black so you will not be able to tell which are purebreed BA's, but there are some combinations we could possibly help you with. For example, if he is mated to a barred rock hen, her son's will be barred but the daughters would be black. The same would be true of a Delaware hen since she has the sex linked barred gene. If you have some with different types of combs, that could help too. And while the theory says that certain crosses will be pure black, in actuality there is often leakage of the other colors. For example, this cockerel's father was a Speckled Sussex and the mother was a BA. In theory, he should be pure black. Hopefully you can see where the red came through. A pullet witht he same parents is pure black, however, no red whatsoever.

If you want encouragement to have mutts, I'm sure you know that all the red and black sex links are mutts, crosses between two breeds. They are known as tremendous egg layers. If you cross two good egg laying breeds, odds are you are going to get a very good egg laying chicken. It may even beat either parent due to hybrid vigor.

 

[chooniecat]

COOL. I have a bit of trouble absorbing the info(more of a screw up,learn the hard way person)so I guess what I HAVE gathered is it can be OK to have mutt layers but, once again, I won't know who does what as they all mingle. am trying to get 3 seperate penned areas together and maybe alter free ranging for the different groups so I WILL know whos doing who(as there will be at least 2 roos then)as far as the girls currently in residence 2 BO,3 EE,1 NHR,1 dela,1 SS,1 GLW, 1 SF, and obviously the 8 BA girls.(these initials threw me at first,surprised to understand em now) am going to go look up sex link info and try to absorb that. thanks again.(I just looked at what at what I wrote and I am wrong!) 2 of the young girls I have been referring to as BA's are actually 2 delaware pullets I got on spur of the moment from the hatchery as straight run and at least they've become girls. so have 6 ba pullets and 3 total delawares. man. anyhoo.....

 

[Ridgerunner]

With a BA rooster, the only ones I'll try are that the Delaware will give you solid black daughters but barred black and white sons, the EE's may or may not have pea combs, and the Salmon Favorelles will probably have feathers on their legs. I don't have a clue what will happen with the Gold Laced Wyandotte. The rest I'd expect to have black chicks with possibly some red or gold leakage, which means possibly some red around the neck or like my cockerel in the other photo, but likely pure black.