Ready Set Hatch! Set 3/17 Hatch 4/7 - ready now! Hatch-Along

[Dylon]

BEN, I HAVE A LOT OF SEASONAL LAYERS MIXED IN. BUT LET ME BREAK IT DOWN...

- 7 white leghorn hens
- 12 Rhode island reds
- 3 crevecor hens
- 2 Cochins hens
- 12 polish hens
- 6 Sebright hens (1 buff, 5 gold)

- 2 polish roosters
- 1 Cochin rooster
- 1 buff Sebright rooster
-1 leghorn rooster

Plus the 8 I just hatched!!

I stopped counting the eggs.. sorry. I don't have an exact number. I use a lot of eggs at home, sell as many as I can, give away many to family, and donate the rest to soup kitchens and stuff.

 

[Dylon]

I think that's just shy of 50, but I just gave away 4 Phoenixs

 

[Bens-Hens]

BEN, I HAVE A LOT OF SEASONAL LAYERS MIXED IN. BUT LET ME BREAK IT DOWN...

- 7 white leghorn hens
- 12 Rhode island reds
- 3 crevecor hens
- 2 Cochins hens
- 12 polish hens
- 6 Sebright hens (1 buff, 5 gold)

- 2 polish roosters
- 1 Cochin rooster
- 1 buff Sebright rooster
-1 leghorn rooster

Plus the 8 I just hatched!!

I stopped counting the eggs.. sorry. I don't have an exact number. I use a lot of eggs at home, sell as many as I can, give away many to family, and donate the rest to soup kitchens and stuff.

Wow, you have a few birds lol. I can't wait to have enough space for more. We are supposed to only have 6 and no roo's in our suburban backyard. We will kinda be over that a little bit, will bride neighbors!

 

[DURR]

Ugh. My D'uccles all passes none of the$ could walk properly even with treatment for curly toe. Topsys twin turvey could never sit up right just scooted and rolled every where and the other died too and he was up and about like all my game babies they hatched with. :/ I had these guys in a diffrent chick coop so the bigger babies wouldn't smoosh them and they still didn't make it. I'm not sure if it was some incubation mistake or poor parent health from the other lady but I'm extremely disappointed. :/

But in other news all my game babies are doing well and being feisty little things

 

[Wrightsx4]

Ugh. My D'uccles all passes none of the$ could walk properly even with treatment for curly toe. Topsys twin turvey could never sit up right just scooted and rolled every where and the other died too and he was up and about like all my game babies they hatched with. :/ I had these guys in a diffrent chick coop so the bigger babies wouldn't smoosh them and they still didn't make it. I'm not sure if it was some incubation mistake or poor parent health from the other lady but I'm extremely disappointed. :/

But in other news all my game babies are doing well and being feisty little things

So sorry It sounds suspicious of poor parent health rather than bad incubation technique since the others are fine. Glad the game babies are doing so well!

 

[Wrightsx4]

Ben - at this time I have 12 laying hens and every day I get 10-12 eggs. In the winter it was less, like 6-7 per day but several were just starting to lay too. Those girls are mostly heritage breeds - BR, RIR, BO, BA, SLW.

 

[Bens-Hens]

We are going to be getting a few eggs then in a few months!

DURR, very sorry to hear about your purchased eggs.Were they picked up or shipped? I read a thread on here about what the breeding pair should be eating (particularly the hen) and it was greater than I thought regards to intake requirements. Layer pellets just won't cut it for healthy breeders.

 

[DURR]

We are going to be getting a few eggs then in a few months!

DURR, very sorry to hear about your purchased eggs.Were they picked up or shipped? I read a thread on here about what the breeding pair should be eating (particularly the hen) and it was greater than I thought regards to intake requirements. Layer pellets just won't cut it for healthy breeders.

They were picked up from a local breeder. I've been told if you breed siblings then it could cause deformities and other health issues with the babies but I'm not sure if that works with chickens. I'm at a loss I told the woman and she just said to let her know when I wanted her to start saving eggs but I'm not sure if she's wanting me to pay for them or not and honestly I'm scared to try them again. :/

 

[Bens-Hens]

I will try find the info I was reading for you. Was well written. That way, when you are talking to someone selling eggs you can ask them some questions about feed to get an idea how the chicks will go.

In short, the eggs need a good stock of protein to grow, if you're into the gym this is not new news. Eggs are the same. The write up talks about where and how chickens get this protein. If they are just on layer pellets, there is simply not enough fuel in the egg to get the chick through development. Some may hatch but run out of steam before they are strong enough to fuel up themselves.

As far as the 'parenting' question, I think this is key, as the egg can be clean, non porous and candle with a perfect air cell, but enough protein was not in the diet there could be issues down the track.

I will see if I can track it down for you.

EDIT: Very sorry, but I can't find the break down for you.

I did find this article though. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatchability-problem-analysis

Basically, it said to ask what the parents are eating, if they say a high protein feed like grower or 22% or something then the feed should be fine. If they say "just plain old layer pellets" (16%) then it may not be enough. The caveat to that is if they free range, the bugs, herbs and what ever else they scratch up supplements this. There is much more to it (and that article is very good) but that's the short end. If they are in a bare dirt pen with only low cost basic layer feed there is potential to have a poor success rate. Fine for eating, can have on flow effects for hatching.

Certainly happy to be corrected by the more experienced folk out there on the diet requirements.

Ben

 

[Dylon]

U think my next hatching adventure shall be quail. Anyone hatch quail eggs?