At 50+ years, I have been around birds most of my life on and off since age 4, upwards of over 2000 of them (not including the 10,000+ I have incubated) so you might say I know my stuff.
Last month I agreed to hatch some game chickens for a person and said I would do it for $2.00 an egg, then later agreed to the price of per live chicks as to be more fair.
As the week passed he gathered his eggs, the first setting was 32 eggs and candling resulted in 8 fertiles out of that 32.
Update 3 have hatched, 2 piped, 2 more slow to pip, and 1 looks to be DIS, so 7 if hes lucky......
On the 2nd batch, he gave me 40 more eggs to set, 12 of those were fertile, and at 2nd candling I ended up culling 3 more due to blood rings, so there are 9 survivors out of the 2nd batch. God knows how many of these piz poors will make it?
Neither setting is worth my time and electricity, but after the 2nd settings disaster, I went to consult him about his poor fertility rate, thinking he may have other issues, and he finally told me he was breeding a rooster that was 12 years old...and in my mind I was ready to pop as there are over 20+ other young rooster on his lot!!!!!
I dont mind incubating if its worth my time and good results, and out of his 20+ roosters I was under the impression that he would be giving me a good supply of fertile eggs from a variety of them. Turns out he is just wanting this particular roosters offspring as to save the line...
Had he told me that from the start, I would have known better and not negotiated such a cheap price due to the suspicion alone that there would have been a low fertility rate, but bumped up the cost to about $7.00 a chick.
Out of 72 eggs and a 6 mile drive to do him a favor and pick them up, there will be only 17 GD chicks (if all end up hatching) and I would love to pull every one of them from my incubator and drop kick them like a football right in front of him. But even a raw deal is still a deal!
rant out of my system now. Thanks yall.
Last month I agreed to hatch some game chickens for a person and said I would do it for $2.00 an egg, then later agreed to the price of per live chicks as to be more fair.
As the week passed he gathered his eggs, the first setting was 32 eggs and candling resulted in 8 fertiles out of that 32.
Update 3 have hatched, 2 piped, 2 more slow to pip, and 1 looks to be DIS, so 7 if hes lucky......
On the 2nd batch, he gave me 40 more eggs to set, 12 of those were fertile, and at 2nd candling I ended up culling 3 more due to blood rings, so there are 9 survivors out of the 2nd batch. God knows how many of these piz poors will make it?
Neither setting is worth my time and electricity, but after the 2nd settings disaster, I went to consult him about his poor fertility rate, thinking he may have other issues, and he finally told me he was breeding a rooster that was 12 years old...and in my mind I was ready to pop as there are over 20+ other young rooster on his lot!!!!!
I dont mind incubating if its worth my time and good results, and out of his 20+ roosters I was under the impression that he would be giving me a good supply of fertile eggs from a variety of them. Turns out he is just wanting this particular roosters offspring as to save the line...
Had he told me that from the start, I would have known better and not negotiated such a cheap price due to the suspicion alone that there would have been a low fertility rate, but bumped up the cost to about $7.00 a chick.
Out of 72 eggs and a 6 mile drive to do him a favor and pick them up, there will be only 17 GD chicks (if all end up hatching) and I would love to pull every one of them from my incubator and drop kick them like a football right in front of him. But even a raw deal is still a deal!
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