Major's Chicken Journal.

[Major_in_MS]

Today I started setting up another coop so that I can separate my orpington flock and my cochin flock that are currently together. I wasn't able to finish assembling it though because the state board of animal health testing agent came out today to test my flock for NPIP. She did a blood test on ten birds, and she did a throat swab on thirty birds. The start date of my NPIP agreement is March 1. She said they should send me my number and my login information for the state NPIP site soon. They will be testing my flock every six months.

 

[Happy hen lover]

Yesterday I processed some of my birds. I started with the three 8 month old Marans cockerels from the bachelor coop. Here is a picture of the first two.
View attachment 3738130
These long legged skinny chickens kept getting hung up in the plucker and I ended up having to put them in one at a time to get them to spin around and get plucked.

After those three, I moved on to the Cornish Cross that are 7 weeks old. I learned a lesson after the first two of the Cornish Cross.
View attachment 3738136

I learned that you don't scald these young chickens the same way you scald the old ones.
Those old ones had to stay in the scald water for almost two minutes to loosen up the wing and tail feathers. So I left those first two Cornish Cross in the scald water for the same amount of time and this was the result.
View attachment 3738140
They were seriously torn up. The other six Cornish Cross that I processed after these two only needed about 30 seconds of scald time and I got a perfect pluck without all the torn skin and dislocated joints. I was a bit worried that my Yardbird plucker was going to tear up the next two and I would end up hand plucking. I was quite relieved to find out that my over scald was the culprit. Oh, and these fat, round chickens rolled around in the plucker beautifully with two birds at a time.

Oh my the Cornish look half cooked! I would like recipe for pickled eggs please. Mine are starting to lay also.

 

[Major_in_MS]

Yesterday I finished the new cochin coop and got them moved into it. I'm guessing that in about three weeks it will be safe to start collecting eggs from them for the incubator. I'll be putting together the second new coop today to move the Marans into.

I would like recipe for pickled eggs please.

It was about 10 years ago when I made those pickled eggs. I'm afraid I don't remember where I got that recipe from. When I make some more in the future I'll have to find a new recipe, but if it turns out good I'll post it here, both so that I can look back on it later and to share.

 

[Major_in_MS]

Now I've got my Marans separated also.

 

[Major_in_MS]

I set 83 eggs today from my Wyandotte coop. These eggs were collected over the past seven days 2024-054 to 2024-060. This is my test hatch to verify fertility and test the genetics of my cockerels. Sixteen to twenty females from this hatch will be my sex-linked flock under my GLW cockerel. I will offer up the rest of this hatch for sale on my local chicken FB group.

This coop contains two Silver Laced Wyandotte cockerels and fourteen Gold Laced Wyandotte pullets. If my cockerels are homozygous for silver then this hatch should give me female chicks that are pure for silver and male chicks that look silver, but are split for gold. If I end up with any gold chicks in this hatch then at least one of my two cockerels would be split for gold.

My NPIP card arrived in the mail today and I also received an email with instructions on logging into the NPIP site to print the forms for shipping hatching eggs and chicks.

 

[Major_in_MS]

 

[Major_in_MS]

Today I got the first egg from my Black Jersey Giant flock! This flock is 21 weeks old today. First she removed all of the pine shavings from the nest box, and then she must have been standing up when she laid the egg because it cracked when it hit the plywood bottom. I had been checking the boxes every few hours today because for the past week the pullets combs have been turning red and I could tell that they have been investigating the nest boxes. I have one cockerel and eight hens in this coop.

Also, here are a few pictures of the Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks in my brooder pen that were hatched March 21, 2024.

 

[Major_in_MS]

I’m collecting eggs now for my next hatch. I’m planning on setting them on April 1 for an April 22 hatch.
I will be hatching eggs from all four of my breeding coops this time.

• Blue (BBS) Orpington
• Marans
• Cochins
• Silver Laced Wyandotte

These eggs are from my five Cochin Hens over the past seven days. Still hoping to get one more today. The numbers on the eggs are the day of the year. (Julian Date) I lined them up this way to show the colors variations between the birds. I don't know yet which ones are laying which eggs.

I’m going to have three incubators going this time.

 

[Major_in_MS]

April 1, 2024 @ 1730.

I just set 148 eggs across three Genesis 1588 Hova-Bators.

These chicks will be due to hatch on April 22, 2024, the day before the next full moon.

Here is the rundown of what breeds are in the incubators:

• Incubator 1
  • BBS Orpington, 21 eggs.
  • Marans, 18 eggs.
• Incubator 2
  • Cochin, 54 eggs.
• Incubator 3
  • Silver Laced Wyandotte, 48 eggs.
  • Black Jersey Giant, 7 eggs.

22 of these eggs are not in the automatic turners and will be turned manually until after the first candling when I remove any non-fertile eggs and make more room in the turners. If I don't have any clears to remove, I have another Genesis 1588 incubator that does not have a turner so I will probably just order another turner from GQF for that one.

The oldest of these eggs are 14 days old. This represents most of the eggs laid by all my flocks over the past 14 days. There were a few accidentally broken and a few double yolk eggs that did not make it to today. I also removed a few thin shelled or oddly shaped eggs.

The Black Jersey Giant eggs are the first few pullet eggs from this flock that just started laying. I'm really not expecting any of them to develop but I thought I would put them in anyway just to test them.

From this hatch, I'm hoping to increase the laying population of my BBS Orpington flock, my Marans flock, and my Cochin flock. I also have pre-sold about 28 of the Cochin chicks. The Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks will all be "For Sale" because I don't need any more of these chicks.

Incubator 1

Incubator 2

Incubator 3

Click here to jump to the Lockdown Post

 

[Major_in_MS]

XPO (formerly Con-Way Freight) delivered another Tractor Supply Coop to me today. Here it is still all wrapped up on the bolt on pallet forks on my tractor.

After putting it together tomorrow I will move the Black Jersey Giant flock out of the grow out coop and into this new coop.

After their move, the following list of all my chickens should be accurate.

• Coop One
  • One Blue Orpington Cock
  • Two Blue Orpington Hens
  • Three Splash Orpington Hens (F1)
• Coop Two
  • One Silver Laced Wyandotte Cock
  • 14 Gold Laced Wyandotte Hens
• Coop Three
  • One Partridge Cochin Cock
  • One Partridge Cochin Hen
  • One Black Cochin Hen
  • One Splash Cochin Hen
  • Two White Cochin Hens
• Coop Four
  • One Blue Copper Marans Cock
  • One Blue Copper Marans Hen
  • One Splash Marans Hen
  • One Golden Cuckoo Marans Hen
  • One Self Blue (Lavender) Ameraucana Pullet
  • Two Speckled Sussex Pullets
  • One Rhode Island Red Pullet
  • Three Splash Orpington/Marans Hybrid (F1)
• Coop Five
  • One Black Jersey Giant Cockerel
  • Eight Black Jersey Giant Pullets
• Coop Six
  • One Silver Laced Wyandotte Cock
  • One Golden Laced Wyandotte Cockerel
  • One Rhode Island Red Cockerel
  • Four Orpington Cockerels (F1)
  • Four Orpington/Marans Hybrid Cockerels (F1)
• Grow Out Coop
  • Currently empty
• Brooder Coop
  • 35 Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks (two weeks old)