Redinator's First Hatch-Along w Bonus Broody: And Everything Thereafter

[redinator]

This is what scares me about spending a ton of money on hatching eggs I would need to have shipped. What if I ended up with a low viability and hatch rate? I'd be sick. Is 11/26 about normal?

My pullets are still pretty young and Pot's eggs were never fertilized to begin with. There were 7 of hers; 26-7= 19 . . . 11/19 is more accurate. Now that I know that I should get better hatch rates in the future.

Once spring hits I'll be putting Pot w a few girls and one of the other males (not Kettle) and Kettle with a few other girls to figure out which of the two is infertile. If it's Pot I intend to keep her, but I won't attempt to hatch anymore eggs from her. If it's Kettle, he'll be culled.

 

[AnneGirlGG]

That's Biscotti

They're so sweet!

 

[AnneGirlGG]

My pullets are still pretty young and Pot's eggs were never fertilized to begin with. There were 7 of hers; 26-7= 19 . . . 11/19 is more accurate. Now that I know that I should get better hatch rates in the future.

Once spring hits I'll be putting Pot w a few girls and one of the other males (not Kettle) and Kettle with a few other girls to figure out which of the two is infertile. If it's Pot I intend to keep her, but I won't attempt to hatch anymore eggs from her. If it's Kettle, he'll be culled.

Hopefully you're able to get them figured out. That sounds like a solid plan to see which of the 2 it is. Is chicken infertility common?

 

[redinator]

They're so sweet!

Sweety's chicks are feral little devils now, lol.

 

[redinator]

Hopefully you're able to get them figured out. That sounds like a solid plan to see which of the 2 it is. Is chicken infertility common?

No clue

 

[AnneGirlGG]

No clue

I see a research rabbit hole in my future.

 

[kattabelly]

Once spring hits I'll be putting Pot w a few girls and one of the other males (not Kettle) and Kettle with a few other girls to figure out which of the two is infertile. If it's Pot I intend to keep her, but I won't attempt to hatch anymore eggs from her. If it's Kettle, he'll be culled.

Have you actually seen the two of them doing the deed? And ruled out the likelihood of any difficulties like (sorry, can't remember what breed either of them are) him not getting lined up properly / her having too much butt fluff in the way or not having been a willing participant?

 

[redinator]

Have you actually seen the two of them doing the deed? And ruled out the likelihood of any difficulties like (sorry, can't remember what breed either of them are) him not getting lined up properly / her having too much butt fluff in the way or not having been a willing participant?

I've seen Kettle breed her on several occasions, whether he was successful or not I can't say.

I did manage to hatch a few chicks from her in the last batch (3 of 15), but I had two males at the time, both BYMs, so I can only assume the second male managed to breed her once or twice.

The second male, Taz, was culled because he became too aggressive (drew blood) once Sweety started raising a batch of chicks.

From what I understand the girls can hold sperm from a male up to 6 weeks. That would mean somewhere around Thanksgiving (end of November) would be the earliest I could attempt to hatch again and know the chicks aren't from Taz.

Edit: In the last batch I also hatched chicks from another pullet, Sweety and I got 9 of 12 from her eggs, same males, so one of the males was fertile.

It would be my luck that the fertile male became evil and I culled him.

 

[redinator]

I do have 12 viable eggs in the incubator. The eggs are from pure bred BO and RIRs. The two breeding males that were in the yard when I collected the eggs were my two BYMs, Kettle is the black one Taz was the pale colored male.

I'm hoping the chicks that hatch will lend some clues. If the chicks hatch out black, or mostly black they're likely Kettle's; if they hatch out lighter they're likely Taz's.

I don't know if those assumptions are correct or not though.