I am not sure if the temperature is accurate. at night it definitely was cooler.
I candled a few eggs at day 18 and 3 were empty, I could see it. the others were dark and heavy so it seems there were chicks inside. I am confused as I heard chirping twice (or I am getting crazy and started to hear voices, lol). it is the beginning of day 23 so I am going to sleep and see tomorrow.
I am not sure if the temperature is accurate. at night it definitely was cooler.
I candled a few eggs at day 18 and 3 were empty, I could see it. the others were dark and heavy so it seems there were chicks inside. I am confused as I heard chirping twice (or I am getting crazy and started to hear voices, lol). it is the beginning of day 23 so I am going to sleep and see tomorrow.
Have you incubated before or do you have a new/different incubator this time around? Do you have a calibrated thermometer? (Your temperature should be steady inside - it shouldn't drop unless something's wrong). What humidity did you run?
Check out the info and links in the first (or maybe it's the second) post on this thread - lots of info, INCLUDING what to do if nothing has hatched yet:
I have more photos - the hatch cohort that has the babies of Puppy and Snape (and one fully feathered one of Polly and Snape), as well as 5 babies from Goodwin x OE. The first two had the more brownish black down, the third was black, all are featuring in much the same so far. (They hated me getting these wing shots.)
Weights are a little bit less than the TANK-GNH hatch at this age. Then again, Tank was notable for fast early growth, while Snape was quite small as a chick, but had a really steep growth curve until he outgrew all the rest.
@Kev - Because I'm impatient.... Any ideas from this how the brown/black chicks will turn out? (Have you got that crystal ball available?)
I have more photos - the hatch cohort that has the babies of Puppy and Snape (and one fully feathered one of Polly and Snape), as well as 5 babies from Goodwin x OE. The first two had the more brownish black down, the third was black, all are featuring in much the same so far. (They hated me getting these wing shots.) . Looks like how my Partridges feather in. My are Mottled also. This in too.. Weights are a little bit less than the TANK-GNH hatch at this age. Then again, Tank was notable for fast early growth, while Snape was quite small as a chick, but had a really steep growth curve until he outgrew all the rest. @Kev - Because I'm impatient.... Any ideas from this how the brown/black chicks will turn out? (Have you got that crystal ball available?) - Ant Farm
I have more photos - the hatch cohort that has the babies of Puppy and Snape (and one fully feathered one of Polly and Snape), as well as 5 babies from Goodwin x OE. The first two had the more brownish black down, the third was black, all are featuring in much the same so far. (They hated me getting these wing shots.)
Weights are a little bit less than the TANK-GNH hatch at this age. Then again, Tank was notable for fast early growth, while Snape was quite small as a chick, but had a really steep growth curve until he outgrew all the rest.
@Kev - Because I'm impatient.... Any ideas from this how the brown/black chicks will turn out? (Have you got that crystal ball available?)
I'm starting to get more sure Snape is ER, due to how much red he has now plus how much brown those chicks are showing. E is pretty 'repressive' and limits color rather strongly. The first one *maybe* has Pg but might not show much of it or very well defined. Second one probably has Pg and Co- showing very minimal single lacing up on shoulders.. may be a little spangly or partially laced.. the pattern won't be even on the body. Third one, not sure if it;s in process of losing the color...? the crystal ball definitely needs a good shining, lol
The two wheatens I am pretty sure are a cockerel and pullet. Aside from the rose comb being so prominent already, he is showing a lot of black on the feathers already.
Haha they sure do hate having their wings messed with huh..
by the way your Tank chicks wow.. beautiful. However they are making me want to take a closer look at the NN cx crosses.. from memory the 4 wk weights are close. your two biggest are heavier actually, my pullets weighed more though- the top two heaviest are pullets, ha.. basically I am wondering why the cx hasnt seemed to help very much with weight gain..
I'm starting to get more sure Snape is ER, due to how much red he has now plus how much brown those chicks are showing. E is pretty 'repressive' and limits color rather strongly. The first one *maybe* has Pg but might not show much of it or very well defined. Second one probably has Pg and Co- showing very minimal single lacing up on shoulders.. may be a little spangly or partially laced.. the pattern won't be even on the body. Third one, not sure if it;s in process of losing the color...? the crystal ball definitely needs a good shining, lol
The two wheatens I am pretty sure are a cockerel and pullet. Aside from the rose comb being so prominent already, he is showing a lot of black on the feathers already.
Haha they sure do hate having their wings messed with huh..
by the way your Tank chicks wow.. beautiful. However they are making me want to take a closer look at the NN cx crosses.. from memory the 4 wk weights are close. your two biggest are heavier actually, my pullets weighed more though- the top two heaviest are pullets, ha.. basically I am wondering why the cx hasnt seemed to help very much with weight gain..
Thanks!!!! Looking forward to seeing how they turn out. I was pretty sure the little rose combed NN was a cockerel by stance and behavior (it was a gut feeling even from a day old) - had not planned to keep boys, but provided he turns out well, will maybe keep him (esp as he is full NN), as a potential future flock leader. (Snape is fine, but he keeps giving me the stink eye in a way that makes me think that he will cross the line sooner rather than later.) I really want to see what Snape x Mystique gives us, but she hates being mated and is pretty good at getting away (was raising cain about it this afternoon, squawking the chicken version of "No means no, you jerk!")
Tank had some pretty extraordinary early fast growth compared to the rest of his little hatchery cohort (which we can see in his offspring), but remember, as an adult he is only about 7 or 7.5 lbs, so it sort of depends on the goal (early fast vs slightly later large). Not sure if that's in his genes or something happened to stunt his further growth that I didn't see/missed. It it may depend on the right sire, and betting there's some "hybrid vigor" going on there as well. Tank has coloring almost identical to the GNH cockerels, so it's a nice clean color result so far. They also all have Tank's good sweet temperament so far as well, and run up to the side of the brooder for me to scratch their bellies and say hi. While I know I have the S&Gs coming, part of me wants to develop this line with Tank as the NN donor and crossing his daughters with their father and his sons with their mother, and then go from there (esp after I hatch more GNHs here).
As a reminder, here is Tank's growth curve - see it fall off, while Snape blows by him? (Looks like something happened to him, but I checked at the time and couldn't tell that anything was wrong.) Tank is the orange one that's way on top at first, but then dips. Snape is the light green at the top at the end. This is when they were 15 weeks.
Here they are the babies sunbathing from today (pre-brooder cleaning):
You know, DesertChic's crosses all have great size - the crosses may indeed lead to big birds. After all, you may be taking a breed adapted to grow with the "handicap" of growing out full feathered, and relieving it of that necessity allowing it to put that feather energy into growth...
I was looking at that graph again - there's a dip for another chick as well. These were fall babies - maybe a cold snap affecting the NN more than the Nn?
Hmmm.. Weights for the boys in this batch at 4 weeks are:
17.64
16.12
18.06
16.37
16.4
14.39
15.45
Girls are:
14.18
12.73
11.15
I'm feeding the same as I did last time - Dumor 20% chick starter (decided against the higher % protein). The only two differences from Tank and friends and these are:
- Hatched at home (though I drove to the hatchery to pick up Tank and friends, so they did not suffer shipping)
- Fall vs. "spring" hatch (if you count January 10 as spring)
- I gave this group Poultry ProVita for the first week of life (no idea if that matters, but it has probiotics, so, gut heath and digestion?)
