June Hatch A Long

[jolenesdad]

I ended up with a singleton. The other 5 eggs never hatched they were fully formed but were too big for their shell and couldn’t turn to pip my breeder friend told me.this is little patience

I’m so sorry you had a disappointing hatch. Do you have a way to get any friends for them?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I ended up with a singleton. The other 5 eggs never hatched they were fully formed but were too big for their shell and couldn’t turn to pip my breeder friend told me.this is little patience

I’m so sorry that more didn’t hatch! Yeah for tonight little Patience!!! Are you able to get it a friend, or does the quarantine situation where you are prohibit this?

 

[jolenesdad]

Hey do any of you guys have experience marking birds? Figured I’d ask here first with anyone that hatches a lot.


I’m wanting to turn out my Cornish cross with my other meat birds that are older but I’m going to lose which are which in a couple of weeks when they reach the same size. I really want to mark a couple so that I can easily track them for weight and body condition, etc.

If I use food coloring on the head I’ve read that it lasts a long time on the down, but not as long on feathers. How long would it last on feathers? A couple of days? I don’t mind reapplying to just a couple birds every few days. I feel that’s less time intensive than changing leg bands on the ever growing Cornish.

 

[dougieee]

Well, whoever is writing the SOP would definitely know better than I would, lol! I have always avoided any leg feathers personally and everything I have been told about English Orpingtons from breeders local to be that actually try to keep breed standards is that they shouldn't have feathered legs. So I guess even if it's permissible, if your goal is to breed more desirable Orpingtons long term then I would steer towards no feathered legs just from talking to my fellow English Orpington addicts locally.

Its weird that leg feathering is even a thing over in the states on orps, from my past experience and a quick look at chicken and egg sales no one would even bother trying to sell as a pure orp over here if there was any feathering on the legs. Wouldnt that point to a little brahma or coch DNA somewhere in the mix?
The buff orps i used to keep and breed were a beautiful golden colour and HUGE but no sign of leg feathering

 

[LuckyCluckyCA]

I’m so sorry that more didn’t hatch! Yeah for tonight little Patience!!! Are you able to get it a friend, or does the quarantine situation where you are prohibit this?

Quarantine area. NO. but luckily I'm in LA and nothing has been near us in MONTHS. state vet said I should hold off a couple more months to add to flock, they are still clearing some areas up when I wrote to ask if I could get one from outside the area and bring it in. - and technically I could but the amount of paperwork and biosecurity measures she said isn't really worth it for 1 chick. For right now, I have a little joey pouch I hang on my neck and it's down my shirt. LOL I don't want poop on my chest, I have to keep it warm, the ants have invaded it's brooder, so I'm doing like the marsupials do.
Here's a pic down my shirt. Yep, now you've all seen down my top!

Side note: how to get rid of the ants. She liked her little brooder until the ants took it over. the waterer is covered in them the food was. the trail looks like a sharpie has drawn on everything, they come from the ground up the front of the recycled dresser to the top and climb into the dog crate and cardboard/ foamcore box and they seem to enjoy the red lamp.

 

[Bookworm0124]

Go away for the weekend and I have over 100 posts to go through lol. But hey. All 4 of the duck eggs in my incubator have internally pipped and I see one external under my broody. She won't let me look too close. Grumpy girl. Saturday is day 28.

 

[LilyD]

Its weird that leg feathering is even a thing over in the states on orps, from my past experience and a quick look at chicken and egg sales no one would even bother trying to sell as a pure orp over here if there was any feathering on the legs. Wouldnt that point to a little brahma or coch DNA somewhere in the mix?
The buff orps i used to keep and breed were a beautiful golden colour and HUGE but no sign of leg feathering

I'll have to try and get a picture of it for you it's not very far down the leg like less than 1/2 inch and very scraggly. I saw it when they first hatched and it seems they have all fallen out and now they are all bare legged. Not keeping these guys for breeding to the SOP hoping to do this with my Creles but they are gorgeous birds and will lay beautiful eggs. I think the same can be said for the blue legs on lavender I have had just about everyone tell me that is not a good thing and you shouldn't breed them but then I see them all over the place with blue legs instead of pink.

 

[Kris5902]

Hey do any of you guys have experience marking birds? Figured I’d ask here first with anyone that hatches a lot.


I’m wanting to turn out my Cornish cross with my other meat birds that are older but I’m going to lose which are which in a couple of weeks when they reach the same size. I really want to mark a couple so that I can easily track them for weight and body condition, etc.

If I use food coloring on the head I’ve read that it lasts a long time on the down, but not as long on feathers. How long would it last on feathers? A couple of days? I don’t mind reapplying to just a couple birds every few days. I feel that’s less time intensive than changing leg bands on the ever growing Cornish.

my rangers outgrew the largest bands I had by 7-8 weeks, so I understand your delimma. I would think short term you could stencil a Blu Kote spot on them? Not sure if it would be any less labor intensive at all or how long it would last. Interested to hear more knowledgeable replies!

 

[Compost King]

my rangers outgrew the largest bands I had by 7-8 weeks, so I understand your delimma. I would think short term you could stencil a Blu Kote spot on them? Not sure if it would be any less labor intensive at all or how long it would last. Interested to hear more knowledgeable replies!

I use colored zip ties when I need to identify birds, I actually hate doing it because I am so afraid I am going to forget one and cause one of them to lose their leg. But with zip ties the advantage is that they can't out grow them, they even have zip ties big enough to to leg band a human. Although with chickens no matter how big they get the 4 inch zip tie works fine.

 

[Kris5902]

So, better late than never! Here are some of my babies... significantly grown up from hatching. All but the last pics (one of my BCMs) are my Olive egger over either a red layer or my Columbian Rock. Huge color variation, as you can see. And I’m seeing lots of little cockerels in here... sigh... so many boys, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s somehow me! Please excuse the mess, I’ve just gotten home from the long weekend and I’m going to be cleaning the brooder/barn tomorrow!

The one “with the makeup” a girl!

This handsome little gent might replace his daddy, but then again, daddy was quite sweet until 21-22 weeks too!

I’m pretty sure these next two are ladies as well, but the second might be a guy...

And my Marans are super small by comparison, but I think I might have two females.

As you can see they are getting quite adept at escaping when the brooder lid is up, time to build even more chicken tractors I suppose!

Don’t worry! I didn’t take pictures of all 29 of them... most follow these color patterns, some are clearly boys, others are still questionable on gender. They are now off heat, as DH gave up on maintaining my battery rotation for their plate. Lots to do now that I’m back home. DH managed to do an ok job taking care of all 67 chickens while I was away. I did lose one of my older rescues, but I’m not sure my being there would have helped much for her.

I’m probably going to do another order for chicks instead of hatching for July, (100 birds!), though I might do an August hatch if my luck with boys on straight runs holds true!

Thank you all again for the wonderful thread and all the support. I’ve gained a lot of confidence in my ability to hatch this time, and I credit my success mostly to all you awesome people that helped me out along the way!