She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[AmyLynn2374]

This is going to feel so good!

I actually have a minimum of 62 good reasons, and since I need to justify myself to you,

, I will explain
Pen 1: Cuckoo marans
1 rooster over 7 hens

Pen 2: White crested black polish
1 rooster over 6 hens + six broody chicks

Pen 3: Booted bantam/ d'uccle (not SQ, but bearded, so they are d'uccle)
1 rooster over 8 hens

Pen 4: White silkies
1 rooster over 7 hens + 8 broody chicks

Pen 5: Black copper marans
1 rooster over 7 hens

Pen 6: Easter Eggers
1 rooster over 6 hens

Pen 7: Girls only (The retirement home for my original flock of layers only)
2 barred rock
2 speckled sussex
4 Easter eggers
3 Production reds
4 black sex links

I leave for work at 7:30AM and get home between 7:00-8:00PM. All 7 of these pens have to be fed and watered, coops have to be built, fences have to be mended, grass has to be cut, garden has to be tended, etc... I have about 1.5 hours of daylight in the summertime, and do most of it in the dark in the winter. Broody chicks are bonus chicks. I incubate what I want to sell, and if a broody happens to sit, I let her. My cuckoo marans, silkies, and d'uccle will all go broody from time to time. I collect all LF eggs every day. I mix the fertile eggs with the girls-only eggs and sell them as eating eggs. I collect the bantams every Sunday. If one is setting, I leave them, and they hatch at 85+ percent every time. Silkies are like dominoes, once one sits, a couple more will follow, and more often than not I will end up with 2 in the same nest. Usually one hen will jump out with the first hatchers, and the second will stay until the hatch is complete. I've never been left with more than 2 unhatched eggs. The d'uccle do the exact same thing. I had the first silkie come off a nest Saturday with 6 chicks. The second stayed on, and as of last night had 4 chicks and 2 remaining eggs under her. If they hatch, good, if they don't, no loss. I also have a d'uccle that has been sitting for somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks. One day she will surprise me with her new babies. I call these bonus chicks, because I have absolutely zero time invested in them. Mommy did all the work, she gets the reward of having babies to play with, and I get the enjoyment of watching a mama with her babies. I don't have time to keep up with every hen that is sitting, and every egg that is laid.

You don't have to "justify" yourself. I was honestly curious and since this is a thread about doing things different ways and why amd how we do things, I thought it was as relevant as anything else.

 

[scflock]

Wow, you make it sound like such a chore! I mean, I know it is, but I hope you still enjoy it too!
Busy man... go kiss your wife and tell her she's beautiful.

I absolutely love it, and my wife does too. We wouldn't do it if we didn't. I didn't mean it to sound like it was a burden, but I needed to justify to Queenie why I don't mark my eggs

 

[scflock]

You don't have to "justify" yourself. I was honestly curious and since this is a thread about doing things different ways and why amd how we do things, I thought it was as relevant as anything else.

I know I didn't, but I was nice all day yesterday, and honestly I'm just drained

I'm glad the other Amy brought this up, because it makes for a very interesting conversation. I'm not exaggerating, I do NOTHING with broody eggs. I let them sit, if they hatch that's great, if they don't no loss. I have never had less than a 75% hatch and have never had a rotten egg. The only thing I have ever had to do is break a silkie or two that had been sitting for too long. I do worry about the health of my flock, but I don't worry about broody eggs

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I absolutely love it, and my wife does too. We wouldn't do it if we didn't. I didn't mean it to sound like it was a burden, but I needed to justify to Queenie why I don't mark my eggs

I wasn't asking why you didn't mark your eggs, I was asking why you collect certain ones daily and not the others. But I will refrain from looking into the world of sc if it burdens you that much.

 

[WVduckchick]

I absolutely love it, and my wife does too. We wouldn't do it if we didn't. I didn't mean it to sound like it was a burden, but I needed to justify to Queenie why I don't mark my eggs

Awesome. Sounds like a sweet set-up actually. Do you have any issues with over-breeding of your hens? Any difference in the different breeds? I was wondering how hard 1 rooster would be on 6-8 hens.

 

[scflock]

I wasn't asking why you didn't mark your eggs, I was asking why you collect certain ones daily and not the others. But I will refrain from looking into the world of sc if it burdens you that much.

Don't get defensive, I had a pent up

that just needed to be let out. It may have gotten lost in my long post, so I will summaraize the egg collection. All LF eggs are collected daily. Bantam eggs are collected once a week so that there are never eggs older than 7 days. All of my bantams are very broody, so I leave the eggs to tempt them to sit

 

[AmyLynn2374]

So, wv, I was looking for a chart for duck eggs air cells sor someone, because I can't find the one that I had saved and I did a google search for "air cell duck eggs" and like normal when I do a google search I get intrigued with looking at all the irrelevant pics as well. Almost to the bottom of the page I see a photo I recognize. I'm like that's WV's pic she added last night, so I click to expand it and sure enough, there's the title to our thread and byc...lol I thought it was cool...lol

 

[RubyNala97]

SC, you know that HAL that came up on here? With the "lockdown" fellow? ( Lol.) Well he's been AWOL on every single thread I talk to him on, since I made that comment. I really hope I didn't offend him by saying anything! My only other thought is that he did look up this thread and it's taking him over a week to read it all!

 

[scflock]

Awesome. Sounds like a sweet set-up actually. Do you have any issues with over-breeding of your hens? Any difference in the different breeds? I was wondering how hard 1 rooster would be on 6-8 hens.

I would prefer to have 10-15 hens of each breed, and that is what I am breeding towards, but I started with smaller straight run batches, so I kept the best roosters and the hens. The only rooster that overbreeds is the Polish. He is very amorous, and rough. 3 of the hens are getting to the point that I may need to buy jackets. I still have 19 left from the last batch, so I will probably be giving him several more to "spread the love". My BCM rooster also seems like he is going to be a loverboy, so the plan with him is to hatch 20 or 30 to grow out over the winter and keep the best 12 or so. The pullets should start laying any day now

 

[scflock]

SC, you know that HAL that came up on here? With the "lockdown" fellow? ( Lol.) Well he's been AWOL on every single thread I talk to him on, since I made that comment. I really hope I didn't offend him by saying anything! My only other thought is that he did look up this thread and it's taking him over a week to read it all!

No big loss. He sounded like an arrogant troll to me. He was beating up on newbies, and when people with more experience confronted him with facts he tucked tail and ran

I have been going back to see if he replied myself. Good riddance