Hello all from Nevada. I know a strange state to be in.
I found this site after looking at chicks and eggs from Mcmurray Hatchery and got my curiosity up. I am not new to breeding in general but do not have a lot of experience with chickens specifically. Most of my experience with Birds is in the $300 to $2000 per bird range of Exotic birds like Ring Neck Parakeets and Macaws. Lets just say you get it right the first time or you don't play with them very long.
I will say that two days and I realize I have not even started putting a dint in the information here. I do have to primary avenues of interest.
1. Fly tying breeds. I am not real thrilled with the idea of breeding birds for them to die and have an idea or two to avoid that. mainly breeding highly select types with rare valuable feathers. The Grey Jungle Fowl being at the top of that list. The value of the feathers could make the bird more valuable alive than dead and maybe make harvesting the feathers as they are molted worthwhile. from what I have read the Male makes this idea a bit more likely since it ellipsis. Anyway so far just thought but any comments in this regard would be welcome. also any suggestions on possible tracking down any offspring from Ron Taylors strain of birds would be much appreciated. from what I understand these birds produce the Game Cock eyes of all Eyes for fly tying. I fully realize I am most likely not only asking for information on a rare bird, But a specific breeding line of a rare bird. well toss that one around a bit and you will get some idea of who I am. Do the impossible in an impossible fashion.
2. Incubating in general. I have read every file in the home made incubators. I have tried to incubate chicken eggs twice. one as a classroom project in the 6th grade with my teacher supervising. we achieved 16 of 20 eggs hatched. three of the other 4 where sacrificed in the name of science and one was a dud. next was many years later in my thrown together home made Incubator and feed store purchased eggs. 12 out of 12 failed.
I have other incubation experience and results that are much more encouraging. At one time is was heavily involved with tropical fish. that may seem at first unrelated until you realize that there are many fish that actually build a nest and brood their eggs. very much like birds only the parent fishes primary duty is to protect the eggs not keep them warm. Bacteria (which is also of some concern with bird eggs) is the primary threat to fish eggs. second would be the parents themselves eating them. to make a long story short I was involved in a group much like this that considered a hatch of 20- 30 out of 600 eggs as an average success. in three months I developed an artificial (Incubation) regiment that yielded consistently 570 out of 600 eggs hatched. I share that little story in order to mention that Incubation of eggs and higher success rates has peaked my curiosity. I can easily see myself trying to hone the incubation of eggs until you either get a chick or it was not fertilized.
one issue I never see mentioned except in the dry incubation method, is the need for an egg to breath. Is this true or have I just not read enough yet. One thought that just kept coming back to me over and over is. there is not way that egg holds enough air to keep a chick alive for 21 days, no way. the egg simply has to be able to respirate. I have an idea or two on just how but would like to put the question out there for anyone that cares to share what they know. For now I will just say I think keeping a Bator at a constant 100 degrees for 21 days could very well be suffocating a lot of chicks. I am thinking the egg needs a cool down cycle every 24 hours or so
this cooling allows it to draw in air and fresh oxygen with it. it is this sort of ideas I would love to experiment with. But personally I am in a position that I can do Incubators and I can do experiments, but I cannot do a bunch of birds running around and I don't have a source for a lot of eggs. I also tend to have knowledge that leads me in directions that others do not think to head. For example do you know that watering plants does not benefit them simply because they needed water? the water pushes out old air from the soil and draws in new fresh air. the plant gets oxygen and it is this breath that causes it to grow. One way I think that the eggs may breath is when the hen leaves the nest for even short periods of time. or they move to the outside edge of the pile and are in a cooler spot than they where before. A daily dip in temp for a half hour or hour may go along way to bringing more chicks out of their shells. just some thought that might be worth playing around with.
On a final note. One of my hobbies in making writing pens. for the most part people start out making pens from wood, then will graduate to things like plastics, horn, antler, and even bone. Actually the ideas for materials that a pen can be made out of is being added to every day on another group much like this one that I am very active in. one of the things that was thought up and has been developed in the last few years is the ability to cast items in acrylic and then make a pen from them. Snake skin has become a very popular item along this line. even more recently has been to cast feathers in acrylic. once i figure out how to do it I will post some pictures of some pens made with feathers. they are actually very nice looking. but I though that with all the time and dedication you all have in your flocks, it might be an idea you woudl like to check out someday. If you read this and want more info on how you might be able to get a pen made with feathers from your birds. feel free to e-mail me I will be happy to get you hooked up. and just for the record I do not personally make feather pens, I just have a lot of friends that do and thought the idea woudl fit pretty well in this setting.
anyway if anyone can help with the search for Grey Jungle Fowl I would much appreciate that. it was the reason I decided to register here.
I found this site after looking at chicks and eggs from Mcmurray Hatchery and got my curiosity up. I am not new to breeding in general but do not have a lot of experience with chickens specifically. Most of my experience with Birds is in the $300 to $2000 per bird range of Exotic birds like Ring Neck Parakeets and Macaws. Lets just say you get it right the first time or you don't play with them very long.
I will say that two days and I realize I have not even started putting a dint in the information here. I do have to primary avenues of interest.
1. Fly tying breeds. I am not real thrilled with the idea of breeding birds for them to die and have an idea or two to avoid that. mainly breeding highly select types with rare valuable feathers. The Grey Jungle Fowl being at the top of that list. The value of the feathers could make the bird more valuable alive than dead and maybe make harvesting the feathers as they are molted worthwhile. from what I have read the Male makes this idea a bit more likely since it ellipsis. Anyway so far just thought but any comments in this regard would be welcome. also any suggestions on possible tracking down any offspring from Ron Taylors strain of birds would be much appreciated. from what I understand these birds produce the Game Cock eyes of all Eyes for fly tying. I fully realize I am most likely not only asking for information on a rare bird, But a specific breeding line of a rare bird. well toss that one around a bit and you will get some idea of who I am. Do the impossible in an impossible fashion.
2. Incubating in general. I have read every file in the home made incubators. I have tried to incubate chicken eggs twice. one as a classroom project in the 6th grade with my teacher supervising. we achieved 16 of 20 eggs hatched. three of the other 4 where sacrificed in the name of science and one was a dud. next was many years later in my thrown together home made Incubator and feed store purchased eggs. 12 out of 12 failed.
I have other incubation experience and results that are much more encouraging. At one time is was heavily involved with tropical fish. that may seem at first unrelated until you realize that there are many fish that actually build a nest and brood their eggs. very much like birds only the parent fishes primary duty is to protect the eggs not keep them warm. Bacteria (which is also of some concern with bird eggs) is the primary threat to fish eggs. second would be the parents themselves eating them. to make a long story short I was involved in a group much like this that considered a hatch of 20- 30 out of 600 eggs as an average success. in three months I developed an artificial (Incubation) regiment that yielded consistently 570 out of 600 eggs hatched. I share that little story in order to mention that Incubation of eggs and higher success rates has peaked my curiosity. I can easily see myself trying to hone the incubation of eggs until you either get a chick or it was not fertilized.
one issue I never see mentioned except in the dry incubation method, is the need for an egg to breath. Is this true or have I just not read enough yet. One thought that just kept coming back to me over and over is. there is not way that egg holds enough air to keep a chick alive for 21 days, no way. the egg simply has to be able to respirate. I have an idea or two on just how but would like to put the question out there for anyone that cares to share what they know. For now I will just say I think keeping a Bator at a constant 100 degrees for 21 days could very well be suffocating a lot of chicks. I am thinking the egg needs a cool down cycle every 24 hours or so
this cooling allows it to draw in air and fresh oxygen with it. it is this sort of ideas I would love to experiment with. But personally I am in a position that I can do Incubators and I can do experiments, but I cannot do a bunch of birds running around and I don't have a source for a lot of eggs. I also tend to have knowledge that leads me in directions that others do not think to head. For example do you know that watering plants does not benefit them simply because they needed water? the water pushes out old air from the soil and draws in new fresh air. the plant gets oxygen and it is this breath that causes it to grow. One way I think that the eggs may breath is when the hen leaves the nest for even short periods of time. or they move to the outside edge of the pile and are in a cooler spot than they where before. A daily dip in temp for a half hour or hour may go along way to bringing more chicks out of their shells. just some thought that might be worth playing around with.
On a final note. One of my hobbies in making writing pens. for the most part people start out making pens from wood, then will graduate to things like plastics, horn, antler, and even bone. Actually the ideas for materials that a pen can be made out of is being added to every day on another group much like this one that I am very active in. one of the things that was thought up and has been developed in the last few years is the ability to cast items in acrylic and then make a pen from them. Snake skin has become a very popular item along this line. even more recently has been to cast feathers in acrylic. once i figure out how to do it I will post some pictures of some pens made with feathers. they are actually very nice looking. but I though that with all the time and dedication you all have in your flocks, it might be an idea you woudl like to check out someday. If you read this and want more info on how you might be able to get a pen made with feathers from your birds. feel free to e-mail me I will be happy to get you hooked up. and just for the record I do not personally make feather pens, I just have a lot of friends that do and thought the idea woudl fit pretty well in this setting.
anyway if anyone can help with the search for Grey Jungle Fowl I would much appreciate that. it was the reason I decided to register here.
