Home Grown Chicks Question

[tigmata]

We have always bought Buff Orps chicks through a poultry supplier before so we've always raised 25 chicks at a time. We recently bought an incubator and have started hatching our own as we are now looking at just replacement chicks to keep the flock at a particular quantity. Yeah, we are doing our best not to do chicken math.

The first hatch gave us 9 chicks. These chicks are now 2 weeks old and they seem so much bigger than we remember the hatchery chicks being at 2 weeks. The home hatched group also seems to have more feather development at this age than the hatchery chicks.

We are raising these 9 chicks in the same crate that we raised the hatchery chicks. It is a very large rubbermaid tote without the lid. Are they bigger because they have more room from the very beginning? It seems to us that we didn't bring in more crates and start dividing the birds to make room until they (the hatchery chicks) were 3 weeks old. Feed and temperature control is the same for both the hatchery chicks and the home incubated chicks.

Does one get better, bigger chicks when there is more room? Is this a stupid question? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[sumi]

A friend of mine bought chicks from a hatchery. He raised them and started hatching their eggs when they were mature and laying. We were also surprised by the size difference. His home hatched chicks were bigger too. The conclusion we came to is that the hatchery/breeder must be picking out the best of the bunch for his breeding stock and selling the "poor" stock.

 

[suki'smom]

I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the quality of feed that the breeder chickens are eating. If they get a low quality feed the chicks wont be as healthy as the ones hatched out of eggs where the breeder chickens were getting a healthy, varied diet with lots of greens and protein.

 

[Vicky2479]

Can I ask where the the eggs came from? Are they from your own chickens and rooster or did you order them from somewhere else? If you bought them are they from the same place you got the chicks from?
It could be just that as there aren't so many they don't have to compete for the food so much or one other possibility is that you got very unlucky and just hatched out 9 Roos (I really hope not)

 

[tigmata]

The eggs are from our hens. The girls have a good crumbles feed (19% crude protein) available during the day, lots of clean water, pumpkins, melon rinds and seeds and the occasional gut sack from butchering our own meat rabbits and all the bugs they can catch. They also have grit and oyster shell available as well as the shells from the eggs we eat. The girls, and their rooster, are quite healthy so maybe I'm just getting better chicks. Not to say the hatchery chicks were from sub-par birds because the birds laying the eggs we hatched were the hatchery chicks all grown up.

Wouldn't be a big problem if the current chicks were all roosters... freezer camp awaits... we'll be pleased with what ever the chicks may be.

 

[Vicky2479]

In that case I would agree with suki'smum, it is probably the fact that your chickens are so well fed and taken care of