?'s about my Breeding Trio's first eggs

[goldnoak]

I have a trio of Buff Brahmas that are about 6-8 months old. The hens have been laying for about 3-4 weeks. We have seen the roo breeding the hens, and started keeping the eggs to incubate. I have had 7 in the bator for about 2wks when I candled them last night there was nothing. My question is does it take some time for everything to fall into place with breeding young poultry. I have about 12 more that I would like to put in the incubator but was disappointed with last nights discovery. This is my first attempt at raising my own. Thanks for any help with this. I am trying to get starter flocks of different breed to start raising my own.

 

[chicmom]

Hello-

Someone once told me that you should wait until the following spring to try and breed chickens. Gives them time to mature. Often, a rooster needs some practice before he gets it right. Now, I'm not sure how accurate that is, but all you really can do is try and incubate the next batch and see what happens.

I know it takes (I'm thinking you have large fowl brahmas) a bit longer to mature than other breeds because of their size. I have Buff Brahmas myself and the hens are HUGE!

I mean, I guess it can't hurt to try, but you might be discouraged for a while......

 

[goldnoak]

I didn't think about that until after my discovery last night. I guess that makes since. I don't want to waste the eggs. They are all very young. Thanks for the info.

The other thing I noticed about my rooster is his tail feathers were droupy until he started crowing and starting paying more attention to his hens. I am thinking that must be a dominate thing since we had an older rooster with him,. Has anyone ever noticed this. He is now holding tail feathers high and crowing quite often.

 

[goldnoak]

And Yes they are the large fowl Brahmas. I fell in love with them when I saw a very large trio at a sale. They were very big. My three have not gotten that big yet but I think they have some more growing to do.

 

[chicmom]

I love them too! They're such heavy, and they have such nice, fluffy feathering. And something else I forgot to mention is that the eggs will be pretty small at first and then they do get a little bigger with time. So you don't want to incubate a smallish egg. I forgot that.....Only go with the nicely sized eggs. Never choose smaller ones or super large ones. Rule of thumb.