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TillyPeeps said:
Wow, that will be a huge number of chicks!

Will you link these chicken pictures on bottom of the page to the instructions on your old website? Those instructions have much more details and pictures. I started to know your birds from there. And of course, you know there is info about some birds (BF, Welbar, etc.) missing.

I cannot really see the link to weekly email registration when the Firefox window is not full screen.
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You are right about things not showing when not full screen. I think that's a problem with the "canned site" I can't (easily) fix. So I dropped the "about" page as redundant and add this to the contact page also.

I will bring back the additional details, probably in the form of printable PDF's like the care sheet. I am thinking of printing them and posting them at the store, then giving out a copy with the chicks.

Back on topic. I have 2 surviving Bielefelder pullets from the last hatch. The 2 cockerels hatched late and didn't make it. There are 6 BF eggs in lockdown now. The second hen just started laying, I set 10 eggs last week. I will not have that many BF chicks at any one time this year, but they will be a lot more available than they were last year and that makes me happy. I will have to decide how many to keep for next year's breeder flock.
 
dheltzel said:
You are right about things not showing when not full screen. I think that's a problem with the "canned site" I can't (easily) fix. So I dropped the "about" page as redundant and add this to the contact page also.

I will bring back the additional details, probably in the form of printable PDF's like the care sheet. I am thinking of printing them and posting them at the store, then giving out a copy with the chicks.

Back on topic. I have 2 surviving Bielefelder pullets from the last hatch. The 2 cockerels hatched late and didn't make it. There are 6 BF eggs in lockdown now. The second hen just started laying, I set 10 eggs last week. I will not have that many BF chicks at any one time this year, but they will be a lot more available than they were last year and that makes me happy. I will have to decide how many to keep for next year's breeder flock.
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It seems that the Bielefelder chick surviving rate is really low. I heard this could relate to in-breeding. Maybe you can exchange one of your roosters with another breeder to see if that will help? Or you think it is only bad luck or inappropriate incubator setting?
 
Humm, one of my Silkies is going broody, again, would love to get a hold of some SLW eggs for her. I have Red Comets and Marans, from what I have read the SLW's are excellent egg layers and mommas am I on the right track for a flock that will renew itself?
 
LittleMissPurdy said:
ahhhh, ya forgot WYandottes....those girls drove me crazy last spring...
barnie.gif
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LMP had broody Wyandotte hens, she hasn't posted for a while but may answer a PM or another member may have contact info to act as a go between.
 
TillyPeeps said:
It seems that the Bielefelder chick surviving rate is really low. I heard this could relate to in-breeding. Maybe you can exchange one of your roosters with another breeder to see if that will help? Or you think it is only bad luck or inappropriate incubator setting?
Click to expand...

I think my "sample set" is too small to draw conclusions yet. I did that last year and decided I didn't like BF's due to egg color and shape, but the eggs I've been getting are perfect and now have very high fertility. 4 out of 5 eggs hatching in the second batch is not bad. There could be a number of things involved here, so I'm taking a wait and see approach before the whole breed gets banished to the laying flock like the German New Hampshires.
 
I do have a question (again). I have 8 girls and 2 boys. Is that too low a girl/boy ratio? Should I rehome one of the boys? How do I choose which one to keep? They both seem, um, active. When Zippy is "active" though, Dupli will try to knock him off. I'm assuming this is normal for them to establish who is boss? They've only been....active....for a month - 6 weeks at the most. Crowing started well before that.
 
LadyBehir said:
I do have a question (again). I have 8 girls and 2 boys. Is that too low a girl/boy ratio? Should I rehome one of the boys? How do I choose which one to keep? They both seem, um, active. When Zippy is "active" though, Dupli will try to knock him off. I'm assuming this is normal for them to establish who is boss? They've only been....active....for a month - 6 weeks at the most. Crowing started well before that.
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You may get better fertility without the second roo interfering. I like to keep a spare roo of each breed as a bit of an insurance policy, but you can probably locate a replacement pretty easily should something happen to the one you keep.
 
well I am not exactly worried about fertility. I have a suburban yard. So unless I get really nuts, I doubt I'll do more chicks this year, anyway. I was more concerned with flock happiness. For the most part, the boys seem to get along fine.
 

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