October-hatch-along 2019

[Don 27]

I'm wondering if anyone in here can answer this for me...

These chicks that I'm hatching are probably going to be all black, so how do I mark the twins so I know that it's them and can separate them when they're old enough. I wanted all of the chicks to grow up together, but remove the twins when they get to be about 12 weeks.

I will put them in my dog kennel when they're 12 weeks with a small coop. The kennel is 30 ft by 40 ft all chain link, it's predator proof unless they go close to the edge but my dogs watch closely. Coop is 4 ft by 6ft. I want to do the see but not touch method with my flock for a few weeks until they all know each other. When they've been in the kennel area for about 8 weeks (adding them at 20 weeks so they'll be POL) I'll put them in the layers run that is 7000 sq ft with the big coop that 8 ft x 8 ft.

If any of this plan sounds stupid, please comment your input

Why would you want to separate them? Yes zip ties are a good idea just don't let them get to tight.

 

[Compost King]

I use 3 inch colored zip ties if I absolutely need to. However I try to avoid it because I saw there results of a bird whose zip tie was left on because it arrived that way. Same color as the leg and the Hatchery didn't tell me about it. Poor fellow lived his life with a mangled stunted foot.

Do you have small incubator cages to tell them apart after they hatch?

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on page 30 of this thread I have a picture of my hatch going into lockdown, I have 2 cages with a total of 4 compartments.

 

[FortCluck]

Why would you want to separate them? Yes zip ties are a good idea just don't let them get to tight.

Because they are not going to be meat chickens... They're going to be layers in my layer flock. I incubated eggs to get meat chickens and I want to keep only 1 or 2 pullets.

 

[FortCluck]

I use 3 inch colored zip ties if I absolutely need to. However I try to avoid it because I saw there results of a bird whose zip tie was left on because it arrived that way. Same color as the leg and the Hatchery didn't tell me about it. Poor fellow lived his life with a mangled stunted foot.

Do you have small incubator cages to tell them apart after they hatch?

Ok I'll get the chicken leg elastics on ebay or just mark them somehow. Husband thought food dye but if they're all black it won't work. I don't have an incubator cage! I wish I did

 

[Kat MacK]

Get colored zip toes, or spray pain't some white ones, and then use the same colored 2 on the twins legs, and different colored ones on the others. !make sure to get very small ones, and trim them after you get them on.

You could probably just zip tie the twins and leave the others bare, if you don't need to distinguish among the others. If it were me, I would put the zip tie on the opposite leg for each of the twins so you can tell them apart.

I just did tiny zip ties on mine from this hatch for the first time. I want to track which ones grow up to look like what.

Nearly final count: two of six LF EEs hatched last night at end of day 21. With the one of three from the earlier part of the staggered hatch, that's a 33 percent hatch rate. - and that was with all local eggs. We'll leave the other four in the bator over the weekend, but I'm not expecting anything given I tapped and listened to all four remaining eggs when removing the live chicks.

We had a lot of trouble getting the incubator to maintain a steady temp this time around, so - silver lining - I was able to convince the rest of the family to buy me an early Xmas present, a Brinsea Maxi EX. It will be here in good time for the Nov. 21 OD eggs I have coming. We learned a lot with this hatch and I am hopeful we'll have much better results next time around.

 

[FortCluck]

You could probably just zip tie the twins and leave the others bare, if you don't need to distinguish among the others. If it were me, I would put the zip tie on the opposite leg for each of the twins so you can tell them apart.

I just did tiny zip ties on mine from this hatch for the first time. I want to track which ones grow up to look like what.

Nearly final count: two of six LF EEs hatched last night at end of day 21. With the one of three from the earlier part of the staggered hatch, that's a 33 percent hatch rate. - and that was with all local eggs. We'll leave the other four in the bator over the weekend, but I'm not expecting anything given I tapped and listened to all four remaining eggs when removing the live chicks.

We had a lot of trouble getting the incubator to maintain a steady temp this time around, so - silver lining - I was able to convince the rest of the family to buy me an early Xmas present, a Brinsea Maxi EX. It will be here in good time for the Nov. 21 OD eggs I have coming. We learned a lot with this hatch and I am hopeful we'll have much better results next time around.

I just want to zip tie the twins, the others I don't really care about unless one looks nicer. I like to have different colors in my layer flocks for eye candy.

I'm sure you'll get better results next time!

 

[Compost King]

I had to make my Incubator cages from scrap hardware cloth left over from coop construction.

 

[FortCluck]

I had to make my Incubator cages from scrap hardware cloth left over from coop construction.

I only have chicken wire. I bet I can think of something

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Because they are not going to be meat chickens... They're going to be layers in my layer flock. I incubated eggs to get meat chickens and I want to keep only 1 or 2 pullets.

What will you do with them if they are Roosters? Will you keep one and eat one? Sorry I always like to think worse case scenario that everythings male

 

[FortCluck]

What will you do with them if they are Roosters? Will you keep one and eat one? Sorry I always like to think worse case scenario that everythings male

I'm not keeping roosters so if they're both roosters, they'll be meat chickens. I was planning on keeping 1 twin if ones a pullet and ones a cockerel. I'll grad a RSL/BJG pullet then unless the Delaware combo is irresistible... Highly doubt, they'll all be black