Setting 41 on 6-15, 7-8, 7-31, and 8-23 feel free to join in at any time

[BYC910]

They have not been that dark, apart from the odd one or two. This is the first time I have gotten an egg that might actually do reasonably well on the Maran egg chart.


That's great to hear @BYC910 , reassuring to say the least. I added a bit of water to the Janoel and it quickly went up to 50% (from 22%), so I am going to leave it there and add a bit more when it goes back down to, say, 30%. I need to find something in my kitchen drawers that more easily allows me to add small amounts of water...hmm...


My bator area is well ventilated, there has just been so much humidity in the ambient air lately. Today's a bit of a respite, tg, I may try a fan directly on the bators should the humidity get back up there, thanks for the suggestion.

20 cc syringe with a don't laugh a straw out of a cheap hand pump spray bottle should get there add water in cc's two or three at a time the straw might be a tight fit

 

[NTBugtraq]

20 cc syringe with a don't laugh a straw out of a cheap hand pump spray bottle should get there add water in cc's two or three at a time the straw might be a tight fit

I had it in my head that I needed to add a lot more water than that...but you're right, great suggestion, thanks!

So in my boredom on this very hot day, I've been playing with my data...who doesn't do that when they're bored on a Sunday afternoon

??

Gathered all the data I had on my 6 settings (251 eggs) so far...and remember, this is with my lousy eggs:

Fertility

76.49%​

192 eggs
Bator mortality

39.58%​

76 eggs
Brooder mortality

19.27%​

37 chicks (all 1st week deaths)
Run mortality

5.21%​

10 birds (all but 1 sudden death)
Survivors

35.94%​

69 birds​

Hatch Rate (excluding bator and brooder deaths): 41.15%

 

[WalnutHill]

I'd suggest keeping a "last 5 sets" stat too so that you can map changes in each statistic. Along with incubation notes, this can go a long way toward improving performance.

I'd be playing with data too if I wasn't building out virtual servers for a phone system for a hands-on prospect demo.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Chick flicks...

 

[WalnutHill]

The one with the single side tuft is really cute. They all are.

I want to be hatching...

 

[BYC910]

Chick flicks...

 

[NTBugtraq]

I'd suggest keeping a "last 5 sets" stat too so that you can map changes in each statistic. Along with incubation notes, this can go a long way toward improving performance.

To be honest, the first data set ends with the birds I have in my brooder right now...they are all from the "lousy egg" group. 68.5% of my negative egg observations could easily be just the one issue...and these latest eggs are from hatch days with 15+ eggs, compared to 5-6 egg days.

Well, ok, you're right, I should just keep adding sets and watch the numbers rise, but I'm sure not going to be touting any 200%+ rises...

I'd be playing with data too if I wasn't building out virtual servers for a phone system for a hands-on prospect demo.

oooo...that sounds like so much fun...VMware? Sure not Hyper-V...bleh...

 

[NTBugtraq]

My next, and last setting for this year, won't be till my bday on 9/7, and unfortunately if all goes well, the cockerels from that setting will only be just over 12 weeks-old on the last day I can get birds provincially processed...but I so want pullets from that hatch that I'm going to do it no matter how small those cockerels end up being processed to (they can be dog food if nobody wants to buy them). If this works, I can have enough laying pullets to replace my existing flock by 1/11/16.

Interestingly, to have birds ready to be processed on the first day in 2016 (5/30) they will, I have to start that setting on 1/22/16. Despite having > 100 pullets in the coop at that time, only 20+ will be laying age (hmm, sounds like major expenses). Now then it becomes interesting. Each hatch gives me new pullets, but until they are laying, I can't cull the 1st year project birds. They won't start laying till the 2nd week of August, but by June 22nd I will have another 100 pullets in the main flock...lolz.

Will people pay for pullets as meat birds?

 

[BYC910]

I had it in my head that I needed to add a lot more water than that...but you're right, great suggestion, thanks!

So in my boredom on this very hot day, I've been playing with my data...who doesn't do that when they're bored on a Sunday afternoon

??

Gathered all the data I had on my 6 settings (251 eggs) so far...and remember, this is with my lousy eggs:

Fertility

76.49%​

192 eggs
Bator mortality

39.58%​

76 eggs
Brooder mortality

19.27%​

37 chicks (all 1st week deaths)
Run mortality

5.21%​

10 birds (all but 1 sudden death)
Survivors

35.94%​

69 birds​

Hatch Rate (excluding bator and brooder deaths): 41.15%

not by any means bored I'm looking over your stats fertility is about the same as mine a little lower guessing you still have 1 roo to 25 hens . so that's not bad bator mortality could be lower brooder mortality is way to high looking at your chick brooder it seams to be about the same size as mine . my mortality rate is less than 2% almost all of those are chicks That I have assisted . so I have a question at what level are you monitoring the temperature in your brooder in relation to the chicks. wk. 1 should 95 degrees at top of chick this is very important .A heat spike in a brooder is just as deadly as in bator much more so in very high humidity . run mortality conflicted here . I would get lab work done on one of those sudden deaths. I've already done that worried while I waited . thinking the worst. thinking flock disposal being a real possibility also just had to know . they thought worms were the problem. I would like to see the out come of you RSL to BCM cross egg production wise color and size. thing of doing BSL to BCM soon .

WE'll get it done

 

[NTBugtraq]

I'm looking over your stats fertility is about the same as mine a little lower guessing you still have 1 roo to 25 hens . so that's not bad

1:21, but close enough. I have 2 new "good" BCMs that are just past 12 weeks-old who will go in when I figure they can fend Fred off. Maybe 18, maybe 20 weeks??

bator mortality could be lower brooder mortality is way to high looking at your chick brooder it seams to be about the same size as mine . my mortality rate is less than 2% almost all of those are chicks That I have assisted . so I have a question at what level are you monitoring the temperature in your brooder in relation to the chicks. wk. 1 should 95 degrees at top of chick this is very important .A heat spike in a brooder is just as deadly as in bator much more so in very high humidity.

I know you read back to catch up, but perhaps you missed a point I think is key...I let myself be convinced to feed my laying flock, including the roo, scratch instead of layer feed. Granted, it was fermented, and I augmented with fermented whole outs and black oil sunflower seeds...but I did nothing to make up for the nutritional loss. I started this feed regiment several weeks before my first setting, and the eggs in this last setting were from birds being fed that poorly.

So, now I point fingers at myself, not my bators or brooder. I've only had humidity issues during the last week, so my brooder deaths were really more about chicks not thriving after being taken out of the bator (I believe). I do use a heat lamp for the first week and do keep a thermo in there to tell me temps. The house temp does not fluctuate that much, so it hasn't been that. I lost 19 of 22 in the brooder after one hatch, but I had kept them in the bator for 3 days...lolz.

I would get lab work done on one of those sudden deaths. I've already done that worried while I waited . thinking the worst. thinking flock disposal being a real possibility also just had to know . they thought worms were the problem. I would like to see the out come of you RSL to BCM cross egg production wise color and size. thing of doing BSL to BCM soon .

WE'll get it done

I am unaware of how I can get that done up here in Ontario, Canada. Folks in the U.S. have very good access to these types of services, but we don't. Our Government doesn't see me as a farmer, they see me as a nuisance, and any "real" farm has people employed to do that sort of analysis. I called my local vet once to ask what he could do for chickens...he laughed. We have cattle, and there are a few vets who deal with them, but otherwise...we're pretty much left to our own, unfortunately.

Now that I have my birds on much more nutritionally viable feeds, I am looking forward to recording much better numbers.