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

[FridayYet]

Every year I say no more. Every single year...
I started this year with 45. Now I'm somewhere between 130 and 140, with plans to hatch at least 40 more. A lot of these will be sold, and the cull marans pullets can be sold, boys go in the freezer, so I actually do have a plan

I'm pretty good with my chicken budget. (so far).

I like to go on vacations and run up to Denver for long weekends with the kids/grandkids. Therefore, the chickens need to be fairly self-sufficient. If any of the OE eggs hatch, the Legbars will be the first to go into the crockpot in the fall with one of the Orloff roosters and any OE cockerels.

 

[scflock]

I'm pretty good with my chicken budget. (so far).

I like to go on vacations and run up to Denver for long weekends with the kids/grandkids. Therefore, the chickens need to be fairly self-sufficient. If any of the OE eggs hatch, the Legbars will be the first to go into the crockpot in the fall with one of the Orloff roosters and any OE cockerels.

5 gallon gravity fed waterers will let me leave for 4 days at a time, more if the neighbor happens to like me that week

 

[sideWing]

That's probably where I read to hatch 100 and keep the best 10... Hatching 300?

Wow. My plan with the Orloffs is to hatch a couple dozen each year by single mating, see what they throw, and keep the best ones for the next year. Obviously I'm a hobbyist, not a "real" breeder.

I promised DH we'd only have about a dozen chickens, so I'm only counting the winter chickens......

What do you mean by single mating? I read an old Wyandotte APA book and they talked about single and double matings. Single meant taking the best of the cock and hen and hoping the chicks grow to SOP, but that most show winners came from double matings. That is they have a cock line and a hen line and one of the other parents is out of SOP for type or color. Is that what your talking or do you have single sets of cocks and hens? 1 to 1 matings?

 

[FridayYet]

5 gallon gravity fed waterers will let me leave for 4 days at a time, more if the neighbor happens to like me that week

I've got 1 5-gallon, one 3-gallon and two 1-gallon waterers, plus two feeding stations. They do fine for 4-5 days.

I can't really leave now because one section is 2x4 welded wire and I haven't lined the bottom of all of it with chicken wire. Need to get that done by the end of next month.

 

[FridayYet]

What do you mean by single mating? I read an old Wyandotte APA book and they talked about single and double matings. Single meant taking the best of the cock and hen and hoping the chicks grow to SOP, but that most show winners came from double matings. That is they have a cock line and a hen line and one of the other parents is out of SOP for type or color. Is that what your talking or do you have single sets of cocks and hens? 1 to 1 matings?

For me, I mean the 1:1 matings so I know exactly who the parents are each hatch. Maybe take the best back to their parent the following year. I have to do it that way since my numbers are so small.

I'm going to make a breeding coop & pen to keep pairs in for a couple of months every year, then it can be a grow-out pen. Everyone else can run together and if I set any eggs they will be EEs or other mixes.

 

[sideWing]

For me, I mean the 1:1 matings so I know exactly who the parents are each hatch. Maybe take the best back to their parent the following year. I have to do it that way since my numbers are so small.

I'm going to make a breeding coop & pen to keep pairs in for a couple of months every year, then it can be a grow-out pen. Everyone else can run together and if I set any eggs they will be EEs or other mixes.

Similar here. I keep my EEs and RSLs in with the Marans roo since I can pick out the Marans pullet eggs for hatching Marans and EE eggs for hatching OEs.

 

[scflock]

Similar here. I keep my EEs and RSLs in with the Marans roo since I can pick out the Marans pullet eggs for hatching Marans and EE eggs for hatching OEs.

I am seriously thinking about selling off some of my breeds so I will have room to do this without building more coops and pens, but all of my chickens have been pets for years. The marans and Ameraucanas I am seeing more as a business, so I will have to make some changes next year. If I only kept the BCM, cuckoo marans, and Ams, I would have room with the pens I have to start a true breed of EEs or OEs that come from better stock than hatcheries with a couple of pens left over for the mating

 

[FridayYet]

Similar here. I keep my EEs and RSLs in with the Marans roo since I can pick out the Marans pullet eggs for hatching Marans and EE eggs for hatching OEs.

Yup, that's also why I'm trying to keep birds that are visually different and have different colored eggs so I know what I'm going to set. Had a chance to get some nice Svart Hona eggs, but I declined since they may look to similar to my Orloff eggs. Would be fun to have though.

I am seriously thinking about selling off some of my breeds so I will have room to do this without building more coops and pens, but all of my chickens have been pets for years. The marans and Ameraucanas I am seeing more as a business, so I will have to make some changes next year. If I only kept the BCM, cuckoo marans, and Ams, I would have room with the pens I have to start a true breed of EEs or OEs that come from better stock than hatcheries with a couple of pens left over for the mating

I'm hoping that my little Wheaten Ameraucana cockerel will stay, so he can cover the Marans (dark brown eggs) for OEs , the WA (true blue eggs) for true Ameraucanas , and the OEs (green eggs) for OE/EE/blue-green eggers. That way I can keep them all together and sell eggs/chicks at the swap for a little feed money.

 

[WVduckchick]

WV, when are you wanting to set more eggs before summer ends?

All this talk of incubating for other people and charging per egg is giving me the itch. I've convinced myself that at least half my chicks will be Roos and have to go. And if I wait any longer they will be to young to get through winter. And the longer I wait to hatch, then the longer I have to wait for them to lay. I mean all these reasons point to me needing to purchase some hatching eggs. Totally logical!

I'm looking for some eggs. Do you have some already lined up?

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

Well, we got our Incutherm Plus today. Yay.

We have had two thermometers going since the 18th when we set(one acurite digi and one on the incukit itself). Both of those have read similarly to each other and bounced somewhere between 99.5 and 100.5 °F. I haven't been able to do the ice water test on the incukit thermometer b/c it's attached to the circuit board, yada yada. I tested the digi a few days before we started incubation and it was true to temp.

When I installed the incutherm today, I was getting readings of 102 °F. I freaked and did another ice water test on the acurite and it is reading about a degree lower than it should(31 °F). I don't think I can run this test on the Incutherm Plus and won't know for sure until I get an answer back from customer service.

My question is: If it's been at 102 this whole time, are the embryos done for? I candled them and the air cells look pretty big to this newb, but what do I know?

Our humidity has been between 25-30%. Someone decided to put rice in there for some reason. . .

I have it up to 55% now. Amidoinitrite? Am I doing ANY of this right? Did I just fry 18 eggs?!