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separate breeds hatching together--how to keep them straight

This may not be the answer you are looking for but I have hatched several breeds together and have a simple solution to keeping breeds apart. I count.

All the eggs are marked on top of the egg and side. BC for Buttercup, Por for Porcelain Wel - Welsummer etc ... I call it Count and Color.

Say Ive set 24 Wellies, 11 Porcelain, 10 - Sil Sebrites and 9 Buttercup... Once the eggs hatch I then count empty shells. 20 Wellie shells, 8 Porcelain, 7Sil Sebrites and 6 Buttercup etc.

Now this works fine if you have diff numbers hatch. so what do I do if there are 8 - Porcelain, 8 - Sil. Sebrites 8 - White Japanese? I do the color match. Feet, Feather and Beak. I can honeslty say that there have been only a very few times that I have had a problem telling which bird was which breed. Now that I have had years of hatching, I dont even have to do the color process.

Some years ago I bought, "Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds" on Amazon for about $10. It was in excellent condition and had wonderful information and pictures concerning each breeds attributes.

It gives a full descrition of the bird, Crevecoeur - "Beak - Black shading to horn at the tip ... eyes are reddish bay, shanks and toes are dark laden blue. Plumage is standard black."

I know this sounds crazy but when you have all these different types you can also see how many toes the chicks have ... 3, 4 or 5. Yes The Salmon Faverolle have 5 toes so that makes it simple since they are the only chicken I know of with five.

So when you add all the little hints and tricks together no extra work needs to be done to detect what hatched. I have found that chicks need some room in a hatcher; putting 2-3 or even 4 dividers in one crowds them.

Some hatcheries also have pictures of mature birds and chicks and don't forget www.feathersite.com and other sites for added pictures.

Thats how I do it and again it works for me.


I remain, an eggoholic
Gate
 
I know even if they say don't open the bator til the hatch is over, many people quickly remove the hatched chicks as soon as they start to fluff up. Will you be able to watch the whole hatch?

They should all hatch at different times, maybe if you could watch when they hatch, write down EE or EExBO beside #1 (and so on) and then as soon as its fluffed remove it and either twistie tie its little leg or put it in a separate brooder from future EExBO chicks (depending on if you want to keep the breeds separate).

The other option is to get that piece of cardboard another BYCer mentioned. And put all your EE eggs on one side and the EExBO on the other, making a wall between them. Just do it really quickly.

Hope this made sense, my coffee hasn't sunk in yet
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Good luck with your hatch!
 
Wow, you guys are awesome! Great suggestions. I'll probably get that book for future hatching ventures. I've got 4 hatched out so far, and I elected to get them out of the bator, as it was getting pretty crowded.I followed another members suggestion and poured hot water in after to try and get the humidity back up (without making boiled chick).
I marked the EEXBO with a marker on its head. I work later today, so unfortunately won't be able to watch and mark subsequent chicks, but at least I know 4 of them, and the counting method will greatly help.
Thanks!
 
We do crosses to improve our chickens color and shape and we have to keep good records becasue some of the crosses don't really look like crosses (they look full stock) and we have to know what works and what doesn't and who to breed to who.....gets confusing without records.
 
we use hatching boxes. I made them out of 1/2 inch hardware cloth. Take the hardware cloth and bend it into the shape of a shoe box and use zip ties to hold the corners together. Ours are about an inch taller than the eggs are laying on the sides. Leave the bottom open, just put the box upside down over the group of eggs you want to keep seperate, when they are done hatching they will all be together and seperate from the others.

Steve in NC
 

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