Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[chickengr]

here in greece it has been a bad hatching year.. not even half of eggs hatch and there are more cockerels. this does not happen with the chickens only but with the other birds as well.

I remember that long time ago I heard this is a bad sign. the upcoming year will be hard to survive and whether will probably be hot and dry.

 

[Phill98]

@Skink, I am a bit late, but I love that white chick! I love white chickens and rose combs and that combination can't be wrong!

 

[draye]

WOW!! What a haul LMAO! How many did you set? I must have missed it

Sadly the scaleless that hatched this morning has died... Nothing wrong with them physically, but the hatch was so immensely exhausting and under the worst conditions possible. They didn't recuperate like they should have and exhaustion/stress did them in. Very sad... I haven't lost a chick like that before. I did have two more naked necks manage to hatch though! ... both sex linked roosters. SIGH. That makes 6 out of 15 boys for sure so far.

Sorry about your little ones.

I set 133 originally, pulled the clears and was left with 96.

 

[DesertChic]

WOW!! What a haul LMAO! How many did you set? I must have missed it

Sadly the scaleless that hatched this morning has died... Nothing wrong with them physically, but the hatch was so immensely exhausting and under the worst conditions possible. They didn't recuperate like they should have and exhaustion/stress did them in. Very sad... I haven't lost a chick like that before. I did have two more naked necks manage to hatch though! ... both sex linked roosters. SIGH. That makes 6 out of 15 boys for sure so far.

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that! It's so hard when chicks die, but easier than having to cull them when they obviously have serious issues. I speak from experience.

Every hatch I've ever had, including from broody hens, has always resulted in more cockerels than pullets...sometimes significantly so. At least you'll have a nice selection of cockerels to select your breeders from. And if you butcher your extras like I do, you'll have some pretty amazing meals too. This is one of my extras that I culled just yesterday:



He weighed out at just over 5 lbs and is currently resting in a brine in preparation for roasting.

 

[DesertChic]

Sorry about your little ones.

I set 133 originally, pulled the clears and was left with 96.

The number of chicks you hatch every year amazes me! Congratulations on another successful hatch!

 

[DesertChic]

here in greece it has been a bad hatching year.. not even half of eggs hatch and there are more cockerels. this does not happen with the chickens only but with the other birds as well.

I remember that long time ago I heard this is a bad sign. the upcoming year will be hard to survive and whether will probably be hot and dry.

I sure hope that's just an old wive's tale, because I consistently hatch out far more cockerels than pullets every single time. Then again, every year where I live is hot and dry.

Hmm......now I'm wondering if there really is a correlation.

 

[Kassaundra]

I don't remember where I heard it or how accurate it is, but have heard male embryos are more hardy, so more will survive to hatch if any conditions aren't great during incubation.

I find it hard to believe the sperm that haven't been made yet, can forecast weather that hasn't happened yet and won't happen for months after they are made, used and dead.

 

[Kev]

here in greece it has been a bad hatching year.. not even half of eggs hatch and there are more cockerels. this does not happen with the chickens only but with the other birds as well.

I remember that long time ago I heard this is a bad sign. the upcoming year will be hard to survive and whether will probably be hot and dry.

Interesting. Early on in the year the hatches did seem not the best... however after a bit on feed with the cat food added, fertility and hatches improved quite considerably.

The last two batches- roughly 60 and 80ish? are almost all pullets..

 

[draye]

Interesting. Early on in the year the hatches did seem not the best... however after a bit on feed with the cat food added, fertility and hatches improved quite considerably.

The last two batches- roughly 60 and 80ish? are almost all pullets..

This year I have been hatching out more cockerels than pullets. Im watchi8ng closely this time around. Tried something I heard about hatching eggs. I don't know how accurate it will be since I'll bee selling at least half of them.

 

[Kev]

This year I have been hatching out more cockerels than pullets. Im watchi8ng closely this time around. Tried something I heard about hatching eggs. I don't know how accurate it will be since I'll bee selling at least half of them.

What is it?

I forget the exact details... someone told me they think the first eggs of the season tend to throw cockerels, with mid/later season eggs throwing pullets. Kind of seemed that way this year..

The pullet skew in the batch I can sex pretty well is very strong- example, one cockerel out of 7 whites, not sure if any barred cockerel out of 10 barreds, maybe two cockerel out of 10 from a pen etc.