Faverolles Thread

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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Welcome!

I don't know what kind of bags Dick uses, but I read somewhere recently that someone uses onion bags washed really well.

 

[faverolles]

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What I use is grapefruit mesh bags. Here when we go to the grocery store grapefruits come in mesh bags where I can put in a dozen egg egg carton. I take a regular egg carton, rip the top off and it fits in the bag. I have some cartons cut down to a four egg holder, six. eight and twelve which is a full carton. I save the wire ties from loaves of bread to tie up the bags around the egg cartons. It works for me.
Dick

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

That's a great idea Dick!

On another thread someone posted pics of suet holders in their hatcher to seperate chicks (the metal squares help keep eggs from being shifted around too much). The big ones would hold large fowl eggs/chicks, but the bags would work better for fitting more into a table top style incubator/hatcher.

 

[Laurieks]

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Nice!

Congratulations!!!

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

I have my first pip already!!!!!!!!!! It's in one of the buff eggs!

This is only the end of day 19.

And yes, I will post lots of pics!

 

[faverolles]

I will probably hatch 300 to 400 chicks this year. I have a 1202 incubator. Once my birds start laying I will put eggs in every 4th or 5th day all from different breeding pens. All the eggs are marked with pencil, I never use a black marker. I read somewhere that the marker can seep into the egg. That can affect your hatchability. On the 20th day I put the eggs in the bottom of my incubator in egg cartons and mesh bags. When chicks hatch I mark them with a colored marker for each different breeding. One breeding will have one blue stripe on his head, another 2 blue stripes, one red stripe, two red stripes, one blue stripe and one red stripe etc.etc. After about a week or two I wing band my birds. This gives me a chance to go over them again. The colors I have to be careful with are blue and green. Once I waited to long to wing band and I really had a tough time distinguishing between the blue and he green. My own fault. I have a 5 tier brooder and I mainly just use the top three tiers. I could have 30 to 40 chicks in my top tier, while I'm after I wing band I move them to the second tier. As more chicks hatch I will keep moving them down to the third tier. This gives me a chance to look the birds over again. The main thing in all this process is keeping good records. This is key. By wing banding I know which breeding pen they came from. When I put them outside I use the different colored wire rings. I have a bunch I had ordered with all the different colors. Each different breeding will get a different color which will be marked into my records. With all my young being mixed together I can tell the different breedings by their colored rings in this way I can compare the young from the different breedings with each other. Yes, it's a lot of work, but worth it in the end, keep good records and cull hard.
Dick

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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Wow - I can see how that will be alot of work for that many chicks! I so wish I had the room to hatch that many! I'm stretching my limits as it is. And naturally, I've already hatched more boys than girls!

I had a Dickey cabinet incubator last year and opted to sell it after I was disgusted by the sound of chicks peeping by the end of the season! HA HA Of course, now I'm back up to two table top incubators (both of which are at capacity now) and a third one for a hatcher...so, I don't really see what lesson I could have possibly learned!

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

MY FIRST F1 CHICK HATCHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's out of one of the salmon eggs. The buff egg is still pipped (that's the egg in the pic, LOTS darker than the salmon eggs) as well as at least one more of the salmon eggs!

 

[promiselandfarm5]

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I have to say that the Faverolles thread shares so much more personal info about their operator than any other breed thread. I have an old cabinet incubator that holds 160 eggs and is almost as old as I am. We have replaced several this on it over the years, but I would not trade it for any other bator. It is nice to get some ideas on how to keep birds seperated and better the breed.

Dick: How long does the marker stay on? Do you have to re-mark them?

 

[dandydoodle]

I think another one of my girls has started to lay eggs this week.