Eastern Tennessee Thread

[itsthelaw37801]

Daphne, it always amazes me when you think you've got the most amazing picture and you hear the click of the camera, they bend over. It almost seems intentional.

 

[TNBarnQueen]

I think it would be a good thing to work with AJ also but I am going to wait and see how these mature out before I commit to getting rid of any of them. I think everyone on here can relate to letting go of their "extra" cockerels only to lose the one they kept to use. I want to keep at least 2 just in case something happens to one.

I would prefer to add some English pullets/hens to my group in either blue or splash. My very minimal understanding is you cross black to lavender then take the offspring and either cross them to one another or cross them back with a pure lavender. All of this is done to improve the lavender. I mean correct me if I am wrong but I do not need lavender in my mix but I would greatly benefit from English?

Maybe if AJ is still interested we can work something out once I see how these develop if he is still interested. And who knows I may get interested in the lavenders.

You are correct in breeding the lav to the black...but in order to breed your next generation you need chicks that are unrelated. Then....in the next generation you can breed hens back to you original roo. This is if you are line breeding to keep your colors from diluting and keep good confirmation. If you want splash you have to breed splash to splash.
As a general rule I have always read that it takes at least 6 months on some breeds and longer on others. When I had the orps it seems like it too almost a year before I could make a decision I was happy with. Hope this helps!

 

[TNBarnQueen]

Okay my pic day turned out to not be a pic day unless you wanted to see muddy, wet chickens! I did however get a pic of the egg I got yesterday and per usual my skills are poor and the lighting is florescent!

I think she's the one who laid the egg

her egg with the Orp eggs

She is beautiful!!

 

[bairo]

The new super-cooler-bator design with the help of someone that breeds snakes; I have modified it slightly for chicken eggs. Not done yet, but I wanted to share for anyone else thinking of getting into a more advanced design for cooler bators. Takes 72 hours to stabilize temp then holds 0.3 variance

PVC frame, heat tape, wire shelf


Shallow pans for water on top, another pvc frame on top of those


Ceiling light grates on top, 2 fans blowing across top of water pans to circulate both heat and humidity


water pans serve as a heat buffer and thermal mass more than they do for humidity. Fans are circulating warm air more than they are there for humidity.

Proportional digital thermostat not shown because I have not ordered it yet. That will be the biggest expense at between 85 and 110 dollars depending on the model I decide on. holds 6 dozen eggs comfortably with manual turning.

 

[hobbychicken]

Well I candled my eggs that are suppose to hatch on Christmas eve. None of the call ducks did anything but almost all the chicken eggs have babies in them. Say some moving around. Either my drake is no good or is there a secret to hatching call ducks. This is my first time ever using a incubator so any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Talbott Poultry]

The new super-cooler-bator design with the help of someone that breeds snakes; I have modified it slightly for chicken eggs. Not done yet, but I wanted to share for anyone else thinking of getting into a more advanced design for cooler bators. Takes 72 hours to stabilize temp then holds 0.3 variance

PVC frame, heat tape, wire shelf


Shallow pans for water on top, another pvc frame on top of those


Ceiling light grates on top, 2 fans blowing across top of water pans to circulate both heat and humidity


water pans serve as a heat buffer and thermal mass more than they do for humidity. Fans are circulating warm air more than they are there for humidity.

Proportional digital thermostat not shown because I have not ordered it yet. That will be the biggest expense at between 85 and 110 dollars depending on the model I decide on. holds 6 dozen eggs comfortably with manual turning.

Looks awesome. Here's to great, big , large hatches.

 

[Talbott Poultry]

Well I candled my eggs that are suppose to hatch on Christmas eve. None of the call ducks did anything but almost all the chicken eggs have babies in them. Say some moving around. Either my drake is no good or is there a secret to hatching call ducks. This is my first time ever using a incubator so any advice is greatly appreciated.

Sorry no experience with ducks.
Might check with Grawg.

Good to hear about the chicken eggs.

 

[littlechicklet]

She is beautiful!!

You are correct in breeding the lav to the black...but in order to breed your next generation you need chicks that are unrelated. Then....in the next generation you can breed hens back to you original roo. This is if you are line breeding to keep your colors from diluting and keep good confirmation. If you want splash you have to breed splash to splash.
As a general rule I have always read that it takes at least 6 months on some breeds and longer on others. When I had the orps it seems like it too almost a year before I could make a decision I was happy with. Hope this helps!

Thank you she is my favorite (I guess I shouldn't say that out loud for fear of something bad happening to her)

I will hopefully be breeding more this spring.

I agree with the time it takes Orps to mature out. I think a year or more is not an unreasonably long time to wait. I have a blue male that is almost a year old and it has taken him a long time to start looking like anything. He is a nice, though not exceptional, representation of the American lines IMO. If my other males are too young come Spring I may have to use him with the 3 unrelated girls I have (I have a 4th but she may be too young).

Also splash offspring can be achieved by breeding blue to blue (25% splash), splash to blue (50% splash) and splash to splash (100% splash). And of course to get 100% blues its splash x black.

Thanks for your help. I am just a newbie at this so I have a very long way to go & it will be years before I begin to make any progress with my Orps.

 

[littlechicklet]

bairo-

 

[tennesseeckn]

Cool incubator, Bairo!

So, by the time you are done, could you have bought a couple of Brinseas, cost-wise? That's how most of my hand-made projects work out...