Jersey Giants.... I think anyway

[Athens Chickens]

This is my first time incubating eggs. I ordered (6) Black Jersey Giant eggs from Cackle. This is day 22. One broke through violently yesterday about 7pm and one emerged exhausted today at 4pm. I candled four today and two looked like store bought eggs eggs so I took them out. Two are still in. I don’t hear any chirps but I’m going to give them a couple more days. I guess my question is how long to wait and does this little guy look like a Black Jersey Giant?
Thanks,
Zac

 

[BirdLeaf]

I usually keep my eggs for 5 days after they were expected to hatch. As for if he’s a BJG, it’s hard to say with the lighting but it does look like one!

 

[Athens Chickens]

Well that’s encouraging. He just looked so much lighter than the chick pictures I’d seen online. I was expecting a chick with a lot of black hair and dark colored beak.

 

[BirdLeaf]

Mine are hatchery BJGs but they had a lot of white as chicks. Mine don’t look very uniform, some have black skin on the face with black beaks but others have yellow or red skin.

 

[Acre4Me]

We purchased straight run BJG from Eagle Nest Hatchery (Ohio). This is what ours look like on Day 1 (we picked them up from the hatchery). We purchased a few other breeds, too. The person at the hatchery told us the BJG have a somewhat bigger frame and weigh a bit more. I agree that their frame does seem larger, although they don't seem to weigh a whole lot more than the others. They are feathering out more slowly than some of the other chicks we got - but that might be typical of each breed. Their legs do seem overall thicker than many of the other chicks.

 

[Athens Chickens]

We had 2 hatch and the bigger, healthier looking of the 2 died sometime Saturday night. The lone survivor screeched continually so I bought 6 black sex link pullets from TSC to keep him company. They were the only chickens I saw that looked similar in size.

 

[Acre4Me]

We had 2 hatch and the bigger, healthier looking of the 2 died sometime Saturday night. The lone survivor screeched continually so I bought 6 black sex link pullets from TSC to keep him company. They were the only chickens I saw that looked similar in size.

Sorry your hatch success was limited! And then to loose one of the ones that did hatch! I'm glad you could get the BJG some company, though. Maybe someone sells BJG chicks in your area for a future purchase, or you can try eggs again from a breeder. I just posted in another thread about BJGs - the hatchery I used sells hatching eggs, but not sure if this includes BJG (as they are listed as limited availability for the chicks). But there is a fan club - maybe they list breeders, as well. ttp://nationaljerseygiantclub.com/index.cfm/home

 

[Athens Chickens]

I ordered (10) straight run BJG chicks from Rural King Sunday as well. I don't know what hatchery they use but I hope to have them this week. I really only want some BJG to mix and breed with my ISA Browns, but my wife was really worried about the little guy going a week by himself so I got the Black Sex Link pullets to keep him company. I figure anybody I know would be willing to take the Sex Links off my hands when I get my BJG situation under control.