Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[HatchCraft]

You are living an interesting life. Are western breeds of chickens considered superior to the local chickens?

 

[ozexpat]

You are living an interesting life. Are western breeds of chickens considered superior to the local chickens?  

 

Local chickens are small in size and broody. There are many egg producers with battery leghorns that supply the supermarkets but not an abundance farmyard chickens of good size.

There is a market for breeding trios of "imported " chickens and cage free farmyard eggs.

I am mostly doing this for my family and staff. Anything else is a bonus.

 

[ozexpat]

We had a very quiet day here. The eggs seem to be going well. I will toss those that did not progress tonight.

Bernie, the gardener went home to the other side of the island yesterday and will be back tomorrow. We will start the coops on Sunday.

I am hoping to post some pictures tomorrow as I will be in an area with 3G phone service.

Time to settle down to a movie.

 

[ozexpat]

Sorry for the multiple post. The joys of super slow internet.

I culled 14 eggs that were not doing anything. One was a stinker. Yikes!

 

[bloonskiller911]

loving the story

 

[Sally Sunshine]

And research I did. I found this site. I read every single post in Sally Sunshine’s thread. I read and read. My ideas started to grow. I discovered that as much as I wanted my local Filipino chickens to give me lots of eggs they probably would never do so. This broodiness is in built. I needed chickens that would lay eggs year round. I then researched breeds. I discovered that good old Aussie Australorps are great egg producers. I learnt about Barred Rocks, Orpingtons and Wyandottes. I became fascinated with Silkies and Polish. I continued to research.

I looked in the classifieds in the Philippines. I could not find hatching eggs. I could not find chicks. I emailed hatcheries – they had meat chicks and leghorns. Leghorns would do – but I wanted more than white birds in my yard. There is also a market for these chickens.

My other issue was who is to hatch these guys? I had to teach Bernie the gardener how to use an incubator. Now Bernie speaks Visayan. I speak English. Most of the time we get ourselves understood but when there is critical specifics – well I get nervous.

I made a problem list
1. Getting eggs suitable for my needs in the Philippines
2. Teaching Bernie how hatch an egg in an incubator
3. Dealing with humidity
I developed the plan
1. Do a proof of concept hatch in Los Angeles – before I teach Bernie, I should have some experience.
a. Buy an incubator
b. Get some local California eggs
c. Hatch them
2. Replicate in the Philippines

How hard could it be?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I followed my learned instructions to the letter. On day 18 I candled and saw 18 of 18 viable chicks.
On day 21:
Egg ID

Initial Wt

7 day



12 day



18 day



Disposition

11/27/12

12/4/12​

12/9/12​

12/15/12​

12/18/2012
1

71.3

69.3

2.8%

66.6

6.6%

62.2

12.8%​

hatched

2

50.1

48.1

4.0%

45.6

9.0%

44.1

12.0%​

hatched

3

49.2

47

4.5%

44.7

9.1%

42.9

12.8%​

hatched

4

70.2

68

3.1%

65.4

6.8%

61.1

13.0%​

hatched

5

62.3

59.5

4.5%

56

10.1%

52.9

15.1%​

hatched

6

55.9

53.8

3.8%

51.4

8.1%

48.8

12.7%​

hatched

7

61.2

59.3

3.1%

56.7

7.4%

53

13.4%​

hatched

8

54.2

53.7

0.9%

51.5

5.0%

49

9.6%​

pipped/died

9

54.6

52.5

3.8%

50.3

7.9%

47.4

13.2%​

hatched

10

59.2

56.2

5.1%

54

8.8%

51

13.9%​

hatched

11

49.6

47.4

4.4%

45

9.3%

44

11.3%​

hatched

12

53.8

51.9

3.5%

49.5

8.0%

46.9

12.8%​

hatched

13

49.6

46.8

5.6%

45.7

7.9%

42.9

13.5%​

hatched

14

51.4

50.1

2.5%

44.6

13.2%

44.4

13.6%​

hatched

15

59.0

56.6

4.1%

53.8

8.8%

51.8

12.2%​

hatched

16

63.1

61.1

3.2%

58.6

7.1%

55

12.8%​

hatched

17

56.7

54.7

3.5%

48.8

13.9%

49.8

12.2%​

hatched

18

61.0

58.9

3.4%

56.4

7.5%

53.1

13.0%​

hatched
Average

56.8

55.3

3.7%

52.5

8.6%

50.0

11.9%​

94% hatched

I proved I could do it. I also found a home for all 17 peeps. OffGridMAMA from BYC ended up with 15 in an egg/chick swap.

OMG you are phsyco like me!!!! LOL LOVE IT!! Look at that hatch!!! FREAKING AWESOMENESS!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

An hour into the flight and the turbulence started. I began thinking about the horror stories of shipped eggs. Fortunately the special foam with cylindrical cut outs for eggs I ordered from Tx arrived at the last minute. My eggs were well protected. Twenty minutes later, the turbulence stopped. Save a few bumps when we landed in Guam and then Manila, it was one of the smoothest flights I have had across the Pacific. At 6:20am on December 24 I was in Manila. I obtained a customs quarantine permit to transport the eggs. Onto the domestic terminal for the last flight leg of my journey home for Christmas.



The domestic flight was a breeze. 55 mins later I was disembarking in Bacolod City – also aptly known as manokan or chicken country. The carousel started up. Out second was the golf bag – perfect. I just had to wait for my three boxes. They contained my two hovabators and the kids Christmas presents (as well as 2 trailer tires, a tow hitch, 18lbs of rat poison, computer parts and all sorts of other things that make living in a 3rd world easier). I waited some more. No boxes.

18lbs RAT POISON Holy CRud buckets and meal worms!!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

My wife had errands to run so we could not get underway until 1pm. At 9 am the typhoon winds knocked out the power. I kept thinking “I could not make this ^%$# up”. After an hour without power I carried the eggs in their bators down stairs, pulled a 600w inverter out of one of my boxes and set the foam boxes up in the car. Not being experienced at converting 12v to 110v, I ran the car for 15 minutes each our till we could leave to ensure the battery would not die.

At 1 pm we left to drive 75ish miles. The winds had died down to a safe level and the rain was just intermittent tropical dumps. Between Christmas and the storm, most of the sugar cane haulers were off the road and it was a slow and bumpy but uneventful ride home. I had a remote sensor thermometer in one of the bators and the temp was rock solid. In 24 hrs it had not varied more than 0.5F from 99.8F. The bators were set up in the living room with a splendid view of the Panay Gulf. I paused to think about what these eggs (and I) had been through. What were the odds of even getting 10% hatched?

sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lucky ducks, I mean chicks!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

It’s now New Years Eve. The sun had gone down in its brisk equatorial style. Day 6. Hatch day minus 15. I had to go to another family function back in Bacolod the following day so candling on day seven was out. One day earlier than planned I pulled out my 3watt LED flash light.


Eggs

Set

Veining at 6 days
Black Copper Marans

8

Too dark but good air sacks
Australorps

9

7 – 2 look infertile
Blue Laced Red Wyandottes

8

8 all good!
Lake Elsinore Mutts

18

15 – 3 look iffy – need time
OffGridMAMA Mutts

40

33 look great, 3 iffy 4 infertile

So I am looking at 53 developing, 6 unsures, 6 infertile and 8 mystery marans. I AM EGGSTATIC!!!
It looks like we better build some coops.

And oh by the way. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!