Red Laced Cornish X and project talk (pics p. 8)

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Just checkin back in everyone... haven't been on much as I just got my Wisdom teeth out... ouch!

My Red Broilers are breeding now and should start laying anytime...

I have 6 little (big) babies from Katy...

And have 25 Freedom Rangers coming in a few weeks!!!

 

[Totalcolour]

Quote:
Welcome! If your WLRC males are hatchery sourced, they will most probably be breeding this year. My WLRCs from Schlecht's were laying, and the one male I kept was breeding, by 6 or 7 months. The breeder sourced DCs are still under a year; they attempt to breed but I've yet to hatch a chick. Tonight I candled most of a row of 7 in my bator from that pen that should hatch in a week if fertile. Seeing 6 clears, I discarded the row.............................. and found a live chick in the last egg as I broke them open.

Oh, is it common practice to "break open" discarded eggs? What's the reason for it? I'm sorry you lost that one though.

TC

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Ouch is right .... heal quick.

Are you breeding Red Broilers to red Broilers if not then to what?

Maybe Al can send you a bit of HULK AI to experiment with.

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

Quote:
I figure the eggs are going to break sooner or later. May as well be under controlled conditions rather than a bad moment. Also, I'm nosy and want to know what happened. Is the egg a dud? Or is it a quitter? Non-fertilized duds might mean the boys and girls need some fluff trimmed off their butts! Or maybe I need a better rooster in that pen. Quitters could mean I did something wrong with my incubator OR I need to rethink the diet program for the parents-to-be for a few weeks prior to egg collection.

I'm probably a few years off from my own meatie project, but I'm lurking and learning all I can in the meantime. Now if those eggs on Day 21 would decide to go ahead and hatch, I'd be overjoyed. Since I set fewer than two dozen eggs this time, I left all the probable quitters in a tray in the incubator. Somebody stinks and I hope they don't explode all over the good eggs. Just aggravating some hatches.

Good luck!

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

ok then

WMR - don't you dare say that without posting pics!!!

Steve - "The red cockeral from you looks like an improoved version of a red Freedom Ranger; still growing fast but looking less fat now that he's in the big pen with my adults................................ he rode my poor, old, big CX guy to death. The big guy injured himself trying to fight the white Ameraucana through the fence. The CX got about two feet in the air trying to spur through the fence, came down and broke the back toe on his left leg. He went down hill from there, and his last day wasn't walking at all. The red cockeral from you started mounting him that day." I have thought of a hundred responses to that . . . and yet NONE of them are appropriate

totalcolor - yes, most of us pratice eggtopsies on a regular basis. It's a very pratical way to further your personal knowledge of fertility/sterility and also incubation.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
Welcome! If your WLRC males are hatchery sourced, they will most probably be breeding this year. My WLRCs from Schlecht's were laying, and the one male I kept was breeding, by 6 or 7 months. The breeder sourced DCs are still under a year; they attempt to breed but I've yet to hatch a chick. Tonight I candled most of a row of 7 in my bator from that pen that should hatch in a week if fertile. Seeing 6 clears, I discarded the row.............................. and found a live chick in the last egg as I broke them open.

Oh, is it common practice to "break open" discarded eggs? What's the reason for it? I'm sorry you lost that one though.

TC

The others pretty much said it. I'm the world's worst candler, but was looking at these because the shells were light colored [except for the last, an EE] so was double checking my candling for one thing. I usually do not even try to candle untill lockdown. After the hatch, I often open nearly every egg that does not hatch, trying to learn what went wrong, because I want to know what to do different next time.

 

[Totalcolour]

Eggtopsies! Hmm, I understand now why you do it, but I'm not sure it would help me, since I wouldn't
know what I'm looking at. We are getting close to %100 hatch rate, so Sergeant Pepper is doing the right
thing, or the thing right.

I candled some eggs yesterday - my first time - and I saw all this spidery stuff inside, DH says they're all fertile.

I have opened some eggs to check for the bulls-eye thing - have seen them on all the eggs except the
banty. I don't think we have had any die in the shell, but we have lost a few at hatch - pipped wrong end,
drowned, that sort of thing. We just stick eggs in the Hatchrite, attach the hose from the water reservoir and
turn it on.

We hatch chickens, ducks and peafowl, all in the same temp and humidity - we don't change it when we
move the eggs to the bottom shelf place where they actually hatch out.

I think what we have been having is beginner's luck.

TC

(how long does beginner's luck last, anyway?!?!?)

 

[Totalcolour]

Off topic here, but interesting.

Yesterday I went out to collect eggs, and found some chicks missing from one of the hens. I thought a hawk had
got them; they were only a few days old. Finally found them.

Molly GOOSE had stolen them and was hiding them under her wings! This was not her first attempt at theft;
she had tried to take some ducklings a week earlier. So, I took the chicks and gave them back to mommy hen,
and gave Molly goose some ducklings from the brooder. It was a bit risky since they were already 5/6 days old,
but Molly and babies are doing fine

TC

 

[Totalcolour]

Ok, this is the RED LACED CORNISH thread. Is there something special about this particular variety of Cornish, other than the colour (that's why I chose it)? And I picked the Speckled Sussex because it's a tasty British bird without being crossed and lays well too.

Maybe I should look through this thread again - maybe the answer is there somewhere...