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

[ChickenCanoe]

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Sorry - didn't mean to rub it in. These are my first apple trees, so I'm excited.

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- Ant Farm

No worries. After all this is Missouri so we are used to the craziest weather swings year long.
I remember when I was a kid and we were using spring water and waking to a thin sheet of ice on the spring IN JUNE!
One year the oaks had completely leafed out and we got a hard freeze that settled in the valleys one clear night. All the leaves froze on the bottom half of all the hills. It was strange to see the top half of hills completely green and the bottom half were brown for over a month. There was a distinct horizontal line halfway up every hill in the area.
That was in the Ozarks. Around the city, temps were a bit more stable due to the heat island. Losing fruit is becoming a yearly thing since we are only getting winter about every 5 years or so. I know it is anecdotal but when I was growing up, we always had at least a solid week of minus teens F. Plus, January and February were always the coldest and snowiest months. I made a living shoveling snow then. Our heaviest snow this year was 1" and it was only on the ground a day. I wore shorts 8 days this February and then last week was 6 nights of hard freezes.

I am most interested in blue eggs. They are within three weeks of each other in age.

That's close enough in age at this point. If you want blue eggs, only use birds that came from the bluest eggs as breeders.

It still wouldn't hurt to know which are built for production. It usually takes 2 people to do that job unless there is a clear and dramatic difference. I do it after dusk when they have just moved to the roost. Hold the 2 roosters and use your hand to see how many finger width there is between the back of the keel bone and the two pointy pelvic bones. That is an indication of abdominal capacity. Birds with little capacity never become or beget productive birds.

 

[The Duck Ladie]

What do you guys think? crested?

any opinions?

 

[duluthralphie]

No worries. After all this is Missouri so we are used to the craziest weather swings year long.
I remember when I was a kid and we were using spring water and waking to a thin sheet of ice on the spring IN JUNE!
One year the oaks had completely leafed out and we got a hard freeze that settled in the valleys one clear night. All the leaves froze on the bottom half of all the hills. It was strange to see the top half of hills completely green and the bottom half were brown for over a month. There was a distinct horizontal line halfway up every hill in the area.
That was in the Ozarks. Around the city, temps were a bit more stable due to the heat island. Losing fruit is becoming a yearly thing since we are only getting winter about every 5 years or so. I know it is anecdotal but when I was growing up, we always had at least a solid week of minus teens F. Plus, January and February were always the coldest and snowiest months. I made a living shoveling snow then. Our heaviest snow this year was 1" and it was only on the ground a day. I wore shorts 8 days this February and then last week was 6 nights of hard freezes.


That's close enough in age at this point. If you want blue eggs, only use birds that came from the bluest eggs as breeders.

It still wouldn't hurt to know which are built for production. It usually takes 2 people to do that job unless there is a clear and dramatic difference. I do it after dusk when they have just moved to the roost. Hold the 2 roosters and use your hand to see how many finger width there is between the back of the keel bone and the two pointy pelvic bones. That is an indication of abdominal capacity. Birds with little capacity never become or beget productive birds.

I would like to Question this statement, but I never do that anymore. All I know is I am 600 miles or more north of you and older than the hills and I remember a few odd snows in June (very few) but have never had ice on the streams up here in June....



The record low temps in Columbia ( which I know is not the ozarks but a tad north of it) kind of agrees with me:

JUNE - COLUMBIA WEATHER CALENDAR

SUN RECORD TEMPS NORMAL TEMPS PRECIPITATION RECORD PRECIP.
RISE SET HIGH YEAR LOW YEAR HIGH LOW MEAN MONTH YEAR AMOUNT YEAR

1 5:45 8:28 100 1934 43 1894 79 58 69 0.15 16.70 2.91 1902
2 5:45 8:29 98 1934 45 1956 79 59 69 0.31 16.86 2.06 1923
3 5:44 8:30 97 1911 45 1945 80 59 69 0.45 17.00 2.72 1965
4 5:44 8:30 97 1911 42 1897 80 59 70 0.60 17.15 2.42 1998
5 5:44 8:31 97 1911 40 1993 80 60 70 0.75 17.30 1.52 1943
6 5:44 8:32 96 1934 43 1894 80 60 70 0.90 17.45 3.21 1993
7 5:43 8:32 97 1934 43 1894 81 60 71 1.06 17.61 3.19 1945
8 5:43 8:33 95 1958 45 1930 81 61 71 1.20 17.75 2.82 1943
9 5:43 8:33 100 1911 45 1913 81 61 71 1.35 17.90 1.65 2004
10 5:43 8:34 102 1911 47 1913 82 61 72 1.49 18.04 1.92 2005
11 5:43 8:34 100 1918 43 1913 82 62 72 1.64 18.19 1.46 1985
12 5:43 8:35 98 1952 43 1903 82 62 72 1.79 18.34 1.74 1929
13 5:43 8:35 100 1953 42 1903 83 62 72 1.94 18.48 1.41 1927
14 5:43 8:36 99 1987 45 1945 83 63 73 2.10 18.64 2.54 1974
15 5:43 8:36 99 2016 46 1917 83 63 73 2.25 18.79 3.18 1898
16 5:43 8:36 100 1936 46 1917 83 63 73 2.40 18.94 2.07 1975
17 5:43 8:37 101 1918 47 1999 84 64 73 2.55 19.09 2.99 1985
18 5:43 8:37 100 1953 50 1999 84 64 73 2.70 19.24 1.15 1973
19 5:43 8:37 105 1936 48 1912 84 64 74 2.84 19.40 4.79 1928
20 5:43 8:38 98 1988 50 1976 84 64 74 3.00 19.55 2.07 1927
21 5:43 8:38 98 1988 47 1992 85 65 75 3.15 19.70 2.75 1981
22 5:44 8:38 100 1988 43 1902 85 65 75 3.30 19.85 1.72 1969
23 5:44 8:38 100 1988 51 1903 85 65 75 3.45 20.00 2.97 1940
24 5:44 8:38 103 1988 50 1974 86 65 75 3.60 20.15 3.27 1955
25 5:45 8:38 102 1988 50 1974 86 66 76 3.74 20.29 3.00 2003
26 5:45 8:38 102 1954 50 1974 86 66 76 3.89 20.44 2.33 1995
27 5:45 8:38 103 2012 48 1926 86 66 76 4.03 20.58 2.58 1909
28 5:46 8:38 107 2012 53 1985 86 66 76 4.18 20.73 3.46 1928
29 5:46 8:38 104 2012 51 1923 86 66 76 4.33 20.88 2.87 1909
30 5:46 8:38 103 1901 51 1943 86 66 76 4.47 21.02 2.02 1945

NOTE: The actual sunrise sunset times may vary by a minute or two from year to year.

 

[The Duck Ladie]

An update on the last ancona, still in the 'bator. Has a little bit of leftivers attached. She is calling for her siblings, I hope she gets done soon.

 

[dan26552]

Is it POSSIBLE?!?! Did my two crestless magpiesmake a crested magpie duckling?!?! Opinions?!

Looks like a crest to me. I'd sell it. In my opinion, one of your birds does have the gene but doesn't show it. Be careful with that, it's not the best gene in the duck world. Did your original birds come from a hatchery?

 

[The Duck Ladie]

Looks like a crest to me. I'd sell it.

In my opinion, one of your birds does have the gene but doesn't show it. Be careful with that, it's not the best gene in the duck world. Did your original birds come from a hatchery?

Yes they did.

 

[dan26552]

Yes they did. 

Ok. Which one?

 

[The Duck Ladie]

Ok. Which one?

Ideal poultry. They sell crested magpies...

 

[dan26552]

Ideal poultry. They sell crested magpies...   

Hey, I got my ducks there too!!! Yes they do indeed. So yeah I'd say one of your ducks carries it but doesn't express it.

 

[The Duck Ladie]

Hey, I got my ducks there too!!!

Yes they do indeed. So yeah I'd say one of your ducks carries it but doesn't express it.

Can I still mate them? (This stinks) and what about the uncrested ducklings, I'm guessing they carry it.