EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[daxigait]

She's hanging in there. I'm almost out of the bute powder for her though... so I will either need to switch to asprin, or see how she does over the summer with out it.

My horse did OK on crushed asprin. Either one is hard on them eventually. I am sorry you have to go through this. The years my pretty boy were sick were so hard on both of us. The last two calls were by far the hardest thing. I hope that your horse gets better.

 

[daxigait]

My worst nightmare as a chicken owner has finally come true..... Poultry lice    I can handle blood guts puke poop sputum but not lice    I bought permetherin and Elector PSP even though it was ridiculously expensive. Tried the permetherin first but was gagging from the smell-just like gasoline fumes. Felt like it was an impossible project to tackle-mostly by myself and one handed. Came up with a system that made it a little more streamline but still disgusting. Laureen is in Vegas so i am hoping she will be back tomorrow and help me with whatever I cant do myself. The wrist say no more tonight so I will enjoy a bottle of wine and live to fight again tomorrow    any suggestions or treatment that have worked for any of you-please share. I am bat chit crazy right now with my skin crawling!!! 

There is a thread titled Permethrin spray. I did it for mites, but I bet it would work for lice. You can put it in those pump sprayers and spray the birds on the roost top and bottom.

I use it on my goats, but I pour on on them. You use a dish soap bottle and go down and back for an adult and just down for kids.

 

[BullChick]

awwwww makes me sing do you wanna build a snowman YOU NEED to do this if we get another good snow

Building a snowman is all she talked about today! Even when I was putting her to bed! We kinda made about ten today. Kinda because there wasn't much snow left.

 

[kwhites634]

Look Everyone TURD boy has clothes on!!!

Did you import all that snow just for the pictures? We haven't seen that much since last year.....or was it the year before?

 

[dan26552]

There are so many duckling in the incubator! There are 10 out, 8 other pips and 2 or 3 of those are zipping.

 

[BullChick]

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I know they say not to do pullet eggs, but let me tag some who can answer. Welcome!
@ChickenCanoe @Akrnaf2 @Sally Sunshine @BantyChooks

There are positive and negative things about hatching pullet eggs.
It is true that many people hatch from pullet eggs all the time with no problems.
It's also true that the smaller chicks from small pullet eggs may catch up in size by a year or so.
Albumen quality in pullet eggs is usually pretty good and better than older hens.

So what are reasons not to do it?
A chicken deposits about 2 grams of calcium in an egg - regardless of age. So a pullet egg shell will be thicker than one from a mature hen and possibly more difficult to escape from.
There is clearly less albumen and a smaller yolk. That means less nutrition. Mammal babies can get all the nutrition they need from the mother and the abdomen can grow to accommodate. Once that egg is laid, that's all the nutrition and space there will ever be. That last point can't be overstated if you think about the size a chick of that breed should be at hatch or that the more nutrition available, the better the hatchability and the greater the vigor of the chick.
I've had old timers tell me that continuing to hatch from pullet eggs will decrease egg sizes in subsequent generations.

IMHO it depends upon how big the egg is supposed to be based on the breed.
The following probably wouldn't matter to most backyard chicken people or even noticeable to those with multiple breeds. But since I've eliminated all other breeds, it's very noticeable to me. And since I'm breeding to a standard, egg and bird size is an important part of that standard.
Eggs from the breed I raise are supposed to be 65 grams or larger. I've always tried to set eggs that were 55 grams or larger.
Then I had a predator massacre and only 3 mature hens survived. The pullets had just started laying eggs so I decided to set every egg I could get, reducing my low weight limit to 45 grams. Now that those birds have matured, I see the results. Unlike past generations that started laying larger eggs by about 10 months of age, the eggs are still in the small/medium/large range rather than the XL and jumbo they should be by now.

I'm now paying much closer attention to egg size when I set and track results through adulthood and generations to follow.

ETA
Hoping to have hens laying in trap nests in the next month so my data keeping will get kicked up another notch or two.
I'll then know which hens are laying the darkest eggs, best production, largest eggs and then track their progeny.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15869849
pullet eggs

http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/4/959.abstract
This study corroborates what I wrote earlier.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15869849

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-635X2005000200002

 

[dan26552]

 

[BullChick]

Dan, why aren't you a GF?

 

[dan26552]

Dan, why aren't you a GF?

I was at one point.