Keeping a few Cornish hens.................

[HomesteadNowhere]

Very interesting. Can't wait to see how it goes

 

[CNJ]

My white Plymouth Rock rooster's crowing was to loud. His neck skin was to thick to control the sound of his crow with a no crow collar. I live in a residential zone, so I had to send him to the soup pot. However, I can control the pitch of my dark Cornish crow, but because of their size difference, they seem to be having a problem mounting my Cornish x pullets. I see them falling off when they mate and one of my pullet's comb and head started taking damage. I had to put her in a separate cage.

I just let my Cornish x pullets out of their cages, but kept my dark Cornish locked up, and as soon as they got free, my Bresse rooster hopped on them. He does a better job, so I will be moving all of my Cornish hens in with him and I will move the older regular hens out.

 

[CNJ]

Very interesting. Can't wait to see how it goes

I have 3 fertile eggs from my cornish x that will be hatching in another 7 or 8 days, I just checked in on them and they looking good, but I not sure who the father is. I also found another 4 cornish x fertile eggs in another incubator, its on day 8. The father of all these cornish x eggs could be either a White Breese, Dark Cornish or White Plymouth Rock. I will know which one it is by the chick's leg color, black feather tell tale or a pea comb. It won't be hard to tell.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Great, keep us posted.

 

[CNJ]

The first 3 eggs in the incubator were fully developed, but they all died in their shell. I checked them 3 days after 21 days. I wonder what went wrong? None of them piped a hole in their shell. I did not have high hopes on these since the hens just started laying when I stuck the small eggs in the incubator.

Anyway, I have 4 more medium sized fertile Cornish x eggs going on lock down tomorrow. I am currently studying my temps and humidity on my lock down unit. I will keep the humidity at 65 to 75 and I will take .40 off Temp, outside was set at 100.40 and actual inside temp was 99F, so I will adjust it down to 100 outside.

I have another 3 medium size fertile eggs in another incubator and I just put in 10 more large cornish x eggs today, these look much bigger.

I hope I get some to hatch as the Cornish x hens are getting too big to carry their own weight. I feel like I am running out of time. I have 3 hens, but I find only one or 2 egg every other day.

 

[CNJ]

Finally, one of four just hatched, but the other 3 hasn't piped yet. I remember putting in a couple a few days latter and I see the memo on 2 marked eggs.

I hate when the first one comes out and rolls around the other eggs.

Interesting to note, the humidity went from 70 to 80 after it hatched.

 

[NatJ]

Interesting to note, the humidity went from 70 to 80 after it hatched.

It sounds like a wet chick is just as good as a wet sponge for temporarily raising humidity

 

[CNJ]

Yay, another one came out today, at least now they won't be lonely. Sunday will be the 21th day of incubation. Then I have another lock down for 3 more Cornish x and 2 pure Bresse eggs on 11/23. I will also candle 10 more Cornish x eggs to see if any are fertile on the same day.

The batch that is currently hatching has yellow fluff and yellow legs Some times Bresse chickens will have dark color legs and some times they start off yellow then turn blue after a week or two. The father will either be Bresse or White Plymouth Rock at this point. My Bresse blood line is really strong, it usually dominates all the crosses I have done thus far, so it won't be hard to tell.

I wonder if I can raise them all up together? It maybe possible since I will keep food out for them 24 hours a day up until one month. I should be able to tell the dinosaurs from the regular chickens by then.

I will separate all the dinosaurs and feed them once a day.

 

[CNJ]

Another one hatched on Saturday, so I got 3 out of 4. I'll give the last one up until tomorrow to pip. I will also lock down 2 Breese and 3 Cornish x eggs tomorrow.

I tested 10 Cornish x eggs on day 7 today and 10 of them show veins and movement. I am kind of surprised since I had to wait a while to collect 10 eggs. I get an egg every other day, but sometimes I get 2.

Anyway, its a good thing I started collecting as soon as they started to lay. They seem to be slowing down, I found 2 soft eggs today. I didn't think those small white looking rocks helped, I guess I was wrong. I put some out for them today, the bag say its for egg laying chickens..

At least, I got rid of my suspicion, I had two of the Cornish x hens in a separate pen and one of them has a large straight comb. I was thinking it was a male, but she laid one of the soft eggs.

I'm trying something new with my deep litter. I am using pine shaving, and peat moss and I mixed it with gypsum. I read that gypsum help contain the ammonia smell.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Fascinating!