Pea Eggs Scheduled to Hatch?

[Yoda]

My last 2 charcoal eggs are fertile seeing veins everywhere and one other one so far. 4 were removed cause they been in there for 10 days and no growth. I have 1 IB w/e hen who is still laying but the only male with a train is the white one. I am going to open the charcoal door and let them out of thier pen. He still has train so let him breed with her til he loses his train LOL.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

My last 2 Opal B/S chicks are due today,,1 is out,the second 1 is pipped. Candled the remaining eggs in the bator and think only 2 BSSP are left that is dark.I think late next week hatching here is fnally over.

 

[AugeredIn]

We need to start a thread along the lines of your record keeping thread that discusses our approaches to managing, breeding, incubating and hatching and compare notes just for this year only.

 

[Yoda]

I have one egg to hatch next week 11-12 and the 2 charcoals are due around the 26-27. The rest went in on the 4th so I have to see if any are fertile or not. The only one with a train is my charcoal.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

The last OpalB/S of the 2012 hatch season is now out and getting dried off.I took this picture of whats inside the brooder box,,kinda bland looking with all white-yellow chicks that are all B/S,theres 4 Midnight B/S,,5 BSSP,and 1 of the new OpalB/S inside

 

[frenchblackcopper]

AugeredIN,, my records started back in April when the first egg was laid,,and I have records up to today for recording what is hatching today.I got another charcoal egg today and if I don't put it into the bator to just see what happens,,I can be done hatching about next weekend,,but if the charcoal is good,tack on another 26 days until hatchtime.I don't know if you can upload a spreadsheet here,?? And how many would benefit from it? Or better yet,get a good laugh? For my first season it was better than I thought but not stellar as breeders who have been at this for decades already.The day in-day out 100 degree temps we had here for over 3 weeks straight and 3 power outages really hurt my hatchrate.And many eggs lost was developing when we lost power,,not my fault,nor the hens or Peacocks but still hurts the bottom line.
I know some of my pens with young 2 year old Peacocks had too many hens with them,,(My Purple B/S SP had 5 hens with him) but thru recordkeeping I know 1 hen in that pen never was getting bred,or she isn't fertile herself.And I know pretty sure which hen she is.This was proven by collecting and recording the number of eggs collected each day from each pen,then correlating that number with hatching 26 days later.Some colors I had such as my BSSP went thru a stage,as well as my Opal B/S where the eggs developed but kept quitting,,I made a notation and upped the protein level in their feed 5% and can almost count back 29 days from feeding this new ration,to start seeing many more BSSP chicks hatch.I know I am doing that right now because of the two Opal B/S chicks that hatched today and my Opal B/S male Opie started losing his train close to 40 days ago,,so he was still breeding for 2 weeks while his tail was falling apart,,or the hens was still carrying fertile embryo's.
It will be interesting to see which pen had the highest hatchrate.Some of my pens only had 2 hens with 1 male,some had 5. Six out of the 10 breeding Peacocks I have was only 2 years old this year.My Charcoal pen was the worst,,hands down and anyone seeing the stats for that pen would wonder what was going on.Everything in that pen was just 2 yr olds and the actual date of hatch plays a big role in when and the number of eggs laid per hen her first year.Hens hatched very early in the season actually do lay maybe a dozen eggs their first season,,where late hatched July-August hens maybe only laid 3-4 eggs.I've heard Charcoals mature much later than other colors so next year things better pick up in that pen or I'll wave the pressure cooker at them a few times.
Looking at stats don't interest everybody as many people just has a few birds for a hobby,I still look at this as a hobby just with more numbers and colors of Peas than some and a very high start up-investment cost for all new pens,and a building still not ready to be used.Jan1st I'm going to keep track of every dime spent on them.that should give me an actual cost per egg laid,,cost per peachick hatched,ect.It kinda scares me but it's something I want to know.

 

[Yoda]

The last OpalB/S of the 2012 hatch season is now out and getting dried off.I took this picture of whats inside the brooder box,,kinda bland looking with all white-yellow chicks that are all B/S,theres 4 Midnight B/S,,5 BSSP,and 1 of the new OpalB/S inside

What happened to the first one that hatched? Is that the one that was pipped? I have til wait til morning!

 

[AugeredIn]

AugeredIN,, my records started back in April when the first egg was laid,,and I have records up to today for recording what is hatching today.I got another charcoal egg today and if I don't put it into the bator to just see what happens,,I can be done hatching about next weekend,,but if the charcoal is good,tack on another 26 days until hatchtime.I don't know if you can upload a spreadsheet here,?? And how many would benefit from it? Or better yet,get a good laugh? For my first season it was better than I thought but not stellar as breeders who have been at this for decades already.The day in-day out 100 degree temps we had here for over 3 weeks straight and 3 power outages really hurt my hatchrate.And many eggs lost was developing when we lost power,,not my fault,nor the hens or Peacocks but still hurts the bottom line.
I know some of my pens with young 2 year old Peacocks had too many hens with them,,(My Purple B/S SP had 5 hens with him) but thru recordkeeping I know 1 hen in that pen never was getting bred,or she isn't fertile herself.And I know pretty sure which hen she is.This was proven by collecting and recording the number of eggs collected each day from each pen,then correlating that number with hatching 26 days later.Some colors I had such as my BSSP went thru a stage,as well as my Opal B/S where the eggs developed but kept quitting,,I made a notation and upped the protein level in their feed 5% and can almost count back 29 days from feeding this new ration,to start seeing many more BSSP chicks hatch.I know I am doing that right now because of the two Opal B/S chicks that hatched today and my Opal B/S male Opie started losing his train close to 40 days ago,,so he was still breeding for 2 weeks while his tail was falling apart,,or the hens was still carrying fertile embryo's.
It will be interesting to see which pen had the highest hatchrate.Some of my pens only had 2 hens with 1 male,some had 5. Six out of the 10 breeding Peacocks I have was only 2 years old this year.My Charcoal pen was the worst,,hands down and anyone seeing the stats for that pen would wonder what was going on.Everything in that pen was just 2 yr olds and the actual date of hatch plays a big role in when and the number of eggs laid per hen her first year.Hens hatched very early in the season actually do lay maybe a dozen eggs their first season,,where late hatched July-August hens maybe only laid 3-4 eggs.I've heard Charcoals mature much later than other colors so next year things better pick up in that pen or I'll wave the pressure cooker at them a few times.
Looking at stats don't interest everybody as many people just has a few birds for a hobby,I still look at this as a hobby just with more numbers and colors of Peas than some and a very high start up-investment cost for all new pens,and a building still not ready to be used.Jan1st I'm going to keep track of every dime spent on them.that should give me an actual cost per egg laid,,cost per peachick hatched,ect.It kinda scares me but it's something I want to know.

Yeah, I don't know exactly how many people will be interested, but I think looking at actual data for the year from multiple sources helps us learn what works and what does not. It also allows us to actually understand real data. I know you have read tons of information like me and talked to a number of larger breeders but actual data is telling. There are questions that always pop up in my mind when people post information to the web. I will give you one example. I have always really wondered how many eggs a hen will lay in a year. Is the number truly based upon age? Is it based upon type/breed? Is it based upon feeding? Is it based upon geography? I have gotten wildly different answers from various sources. I can tell you that I got exactly 27 eggs from two Midnight BS hens that were two years old. Unfortunately I only hatched 7 of those eggs. I lost 12 of them to a malfunctioning incubator. I had three that appeared infertile. The remaining 5 developed but did not hatch. Two of them I helped, but they did not live. That is about as disappointing as it gets. Since you have similar birds that gives us another data point. I think incubating data also helps. I changed my incubation methods up a little bit this year. This is also the first year I have really hatched a large number of eggs.

I would expect that neither of us is going to get rich on peafowl. It is just a hobby that might pay for itself. That does not mean that I don't want to improve how I manage my flock.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Yoda,,get a glass of red vino,,second Opal was still fluffing in the bator,,,I would have taken a pic of both but they look like all other B/S yellow chicks and the pic taken inside of my brooder box full of them.
AugeredIN,,too bad BYC don't have a database-as such for posting stats,ect? I see the benefits of actual numbers assimilated across a larger baseline,,broader scope-if you will.There is sooo much that plays into hatching a chick and it's survival starting with your breeding stock,feed,health,incubation and finally chick care.Everyone does things diffrently,,and we all know what works for 1 doesn't always work for another.I've spoken to some breeders who put peachicks on the ground at 3 mos. of age,,,mine don't see any dirt until we get a first frost,and the past 2 years none have been on dirt until the next spring.I have the pens and space here.Some people don't and get along great letting the peahen hatch and rear them freerange style.Many fanciers don't care about raising chicks or breeding them true to color or pen them up seperatly,,and they probably have higher rates on fertile eggs and such than we do.But for the value and expense I have already set forth,,,I like predictability and control,,my choice,thus my extra expense in building pens,ect.
Which brings up another point on selling price.As with everything else the more you put into it,the more you should re-coup back out of it.I see very wild prices for peachicks all over the internet. From $10 for an IB from an individual to upwards to $35 from some hatcheries.I've seen purples advertised for over $50 each,and some for $30 each.In my opinion there is always a "premium" oppurtunity in everything.Selling purebred dogs with traceable genetics is one perfect example which we have been doing over 25 years now.But does my extra effort afford me higher selling prices on peachicks? Is my same IB peachick an equal to a hatchery IB peachick? Why would anyone pay me MORE for an identical chick from a cheeper seller? I can't "brand" a peachick I raised,nor supply a pedigree on them.
Lets try this,,,we could start a seperate thread for just stats,,set up a spreadsheet that could work for all those who do keep records,,,just on eggs laid,eggs hatched out,we would have to include egg sales during the season to show where eggs went? We could do it by color of bird,,but we would need to know how many could or would supply information before the spreadsheet was drawn up.Or we could set up the spreadsheet and anyone could copy-paste and add their info to the sheet?

 

[frenchblackcopper]

For you Yoda,,since your worried here they both are.I had to tape the one on the rights toes but I'm sure they're straight now and will take the tape off at their midnite feeding.I don't zip tie the Opals for identification,,every other color does get zip tied tho.Here they are,,maybe you should reach out to Mmmaddie13,,,she has a trio of Opal B/S from the Palace here,,,they was the first 3 Opals,and the first peafowl eggs I hatched this season,,and they were pretty good sized when they was shipped.Here these two are,,,Zinfadel and Pinot,,Pinot has the taped toe,first one to hatch between the two.