Hiya Ive been incubating for a while now (few years) and was speaking to a breeder who is a young 73 yo. When I told him I had some 10 weekish pullets he made the comment " gee you started hatching early. I wouldnt its not a good idea" and when I asked him why his reply was "you'll find out the hard way" ???? no idea what he meant, he wouldnt elaborate. Had no issues to date. Im im australia (I know different country) but im seaching abroad for answers no one Ive spoken to here seems to know why other than heat being an issue in the incubation process (my bators are indoors and so are chicks for the first part of their lifes) Does anyone have any idea what this could mean?
My mother In law hatches this time every year so there ready for xmas so i wouldnt listen to that comment, he obviously dosnt have a clue what he's talking about.
My chickens hatched in September (in the US, so comparable to hatching in March in Australia). They've just started laying. The breeds are not very prolific layers, average calculation says I should be getting 7.5 eggs a day from 14 birds (as according to how many eggs a bird of the specific breeds should lay a week). I am currently getting between 9 and 11 eggs. So there's that theory out the door, at least for my chickens.
I don't know why you are breeding them or why he might think you are breeding them. I also don't know how you manage them. But I'll throw out some random thoughts. If you are breeding for show, they might not be a good age when show time comes around. Or if you are selling breeding pairs, the market may not be as good. If you don't have a cool place to store eggs for incubation. they can start to develop in the heat. I know, just store them inside, but maybe his concern came from before air conditioniong. If you eat them, you may wind up feeding them more before you can process them. I did that last year and feed cost was higher than normal. They could not forage as well as spring chicks. It was kind of cool when I processed them too. It's possible they can wait longer to start to lay. I don't use lights in winter and I've had some start laying just before the winter solstice, but some seemed to take a bit longer than normal to start laying. Sometimes roosters lose some potency in severe weather so your hatch rate may not be quite as good as normal. Hens don't do as well either. I usually think about this happening in winter, but maybe it happens in the summer. That's all I can come up with and some of these are a stretch. I've hatched in the middle of summer and done OK, but maybe my goals are different than his or yours. I really don't have a clue.
