Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[ochochicas]

Sorry you all are having bad hatches. My last hatch I had fertility problems. My fertility rate was only about 70%, but since I only had one rooster covering 18 hens I guess it was to be expected. The disappointing part was that the eggs I bought from a breeder only had 55% fertility. My eggs that were fertile had a 100% hatch rate. The purchased eggs were much lower and some of the chicks died after they hatched. The seller offered to replace the infertile eggs, but I'm not interested in getting more chicks from her stock.

I'm just using a cheap styrofoam incubator and I keep the center tray filled with water until lockdown. My hygrometer says the humidity is about 40 - 45 percent.

 

[Kev]

I think I found the reason why the broodies crack the eggs. I am not sure, so I hope you guys would tell me is that possible.
My grandma's dog died, so she had a lot of leftover bread so she gave it to chickens. They were eating it every day for about two weeks and then she set the broodies. I think that they were eating bread instead of their regular feed because they like it more, and that it made the egg shells thiner and weaker.

Interesting question.. I am not really very knowledgeable about nutrition for poultry. I admit to basically just buying the feed that's it...

However the peahens(female peacocks) had all sorts of egg laying issues, including some deaths when they were on turkey/gamebird feed, which was what every one had recommended at the time. Switched over to chicken layer feed and all the problems went away.. so their problem really was not enough calcium. Their eggs are huge and really thick shelled, plus they barely eat so their balance goes out really fast... Anyways this is the reason I tend not to give the chickens too much treats. Their eggs were always great- perfect and hard shelled) when they were totally free range(never cooped and slept in trees) and it was during the winter growing season(summers are dry and bare).

Try candling the eggs to compare between bread diet versus no bread diet and see if there's any noticeable changes...

 

[Kev]

Ok.the thing is i am.dry incubating:/ even tried using rice and silicone packets to get humidity down. it stayed down at least 30% for the first 18 days might have spiked a couple times but nothing to drastic. im thinking i just may have to wait till the summer dryness sets in? weve had an unusually wet spring.i live in texas. humidity hasnt been below 40 outside since spring started

Oh I remember this now, I have a bad memory my apologies. Drats, that idea did not work...

Real bummer to see so many incubation struggles going around.. I remember becoming so stressed and frustrated when the incubation did not go too well..

I wonder how a broody hen would do with eggs in your conditions?

 

[Kev]

There's a lot of wisdom in this post. I've only been raising chickens for a little over six months, but I've already experienced much of what you've described here.

It seems to me that chickens have individual personalities...just like dogs....just like humans. You can raise all of them the same way and yet some will be incredibly sweet and others will be nasty. The trick for me has been learning when to respect those differences, and when to just throw in the towel and cull. That BR rooster...I tried many techniques with him to no avail. When I went out to collect eggs four days ago and turned to find his spurs coming at my face I'd finally had enough. That wasn't charging but an all out assault for no apparent reason. He had to die. By comparison, I can do whatever I want to my black NN, Heisenberg, and he's never shown an ounce of aggression, but I would never dream of handling my NN "Goldie" that way. He doesn't bite or charge, but he's also not that affectionate. I'm okay with that. He respects me, never shows aggression towards me and takes good care of the flock.

I'm actually in the process of incubating some of my BR rooster's offspring. I'm curious to see what their personalities turn out like...if any of them will be keepers or if they'll adopt his temperament. I originally wasn't going to hatch any eggs fertilized by him but my own curiosity got the better of me (as well as my Psych degree). I want some first-hand experience with the nature vs nurture via and chicken world. All the books I've read, research I've done...it's all pedantic. Nothing can beat "living the experiment".

Ha, glad your chickens are not making a liar of me... It is obvious there is variety, so it makes me wonder a little bit about those who are quite confident that only one way works for all. Shrug.

As for the last paragraph, good for you! I'm the same way- had learned very early on that adults aren't infalliable.. can be wrong or off about quite a lot of things in fact... so I tended to take them with a grain of salt and tested things out for myself if possible. I had a huge interest in animal behavior as a kid- had rows of books on this subject. When we moved and got animals, I liked to watch them from this kind of perspective.. living the experiment as you said, perfect words!

 

[Kev]

The chicks are doing well! Including the chick that was walking funny, it's walking and going about normally. Guess it really was a bang to the head or something like that.

It did take some more than a day to get fully hydrated again. They are overall more nervous, even running away from me.. hiding under a weedy bush a lot.. the mother hen is still uncomfortable with large birds flying in her sight- shoots up and goes on alert to see if they are headed her way...

 

[jwells84]

I have no idea I wish they would sit but none have even attemped to.

 

[DesertChic]

I got my first egg from my NN pullets yesterday.

They literally turn 20 weeks old today, so I'm just tickled that they're laying. I was worried that our intense heat (heading for 103 degrees today) would cause them to delay laying, but I got lucky.

 

[Kev]

Congrats!

 

[Kev]

I have no idea I wish they would sit but none have even attemped to.

Probably have high laying and/or low setting lines.. Most of my NN 'like' to lay tons of eggs before showing any broody inclination. But once they start, they are very good at staying on nests.

NN crossbreeds generally have higher inclination towards broodiness though. Also great setters once they start.

 

[Phill98]

Probably have high laying and/or low setting lines..  Most of my NN 'like' to lay tons of eggs before showing any broody inclination.   But once they start, they are very good at staying on nests.

NN crossbreeds generally have higher inclination towards broodiness though.  Also great setters once they start.

Same here