Showgirl thread- for posting pictures and discussing breed!

[Cynthia12]

Very nice!!

Thanks, looking forward to seeing what I get from yours..your pictures of your girls/boys..wow, they are beautiful.

 

[blessedchick]

SO MANY beautiful Showgirls! I just love this thread!!

Is there anything special about incubating SG eggs??? I have had the worst time trying to get mine to hatch. I ordered 12 off ebay last winter - 6 Silkies hatched and 0 SGs. Tried again with 8 eggs - 4 Silkies, 0 SGs. Now I have my own beautiful SG hen and roo and the hen is a laying fool. I must have tried 35 of her eggs so far and only one little darling has hatched...horribly disappointing! I don't seem to have a problem with Guinea or Silkie eggs, just these Showgirls. Thank heavens my hen went broody on 3 eggs so I will see what HER success rate is! Any suggestions???

 

[czcoulson]

I am having the same problem this year. I have only hatched 2 showgirls, while my silkies hatch pretty well. I recently opened all of my late deaths in the incubator and they were ALL showgirls. Another problem I am having is that my vaulted skull babies (of both silkies and showgirls) have had a high percentage of late egg death, or, if they did hatch, were neurologically off, and died in the first few days with swelling on the backs of their necks, and swollen heads (beyond the normal vault).

Ideas?

 

[Cynthia12]

Editing..I'm thinking that most folks don't like the idea of helping chicks out..so..maybe some of your read what I posted, and will think about it, but I can answer any questions if you want.
We will see how well this next batch goes. It should arrive on Thurs.

 

[RIRJen]

Is there anything special about incubating SG eggs??? I have had the worst time trying to get mine to hatch. I ordered 12 off ebay last winter - 6 Silkies hatched and 0 SGs. Tried again with 8 eggs - 4 Silkies, 0 SGs. Now I have my own beautiful SG hen and roo and the hen is a laying fool. I must have tried 35 of her eggs so far and only one little darling has hatched...horribly disappointing! I don't seem to have a problem with Guinea or Silkie eggs, just these Showgirls. Thank heavens my hen went broody on 3 eggs so I will see what HER success rate is! Any suggestions???

Are you buying these eggs from the same person? Might be that....if so I'd be worried you haven't been getting what your paying for.

I've been hatching Silkies, Showgirls and Speckled Sussex and majority of my chicks are showgirls! I'd do anything for more silkies then showgirls in a hatch! LOL

 

[ahartacres]

I ordered 12 off ebay last winter - 6 Silkies hatched and 0 SGs. Tried again with 8 eggs - 4 Silkies, 0 SGs. Now I have my own beautiful SG hen and roo and the hen is a laying fool. I must have tried 35 of her eggs so far and only one little darling has hatched...horribly disappointing! I don't seem to have a problem with Guinea or Silkie eggs, just these Showgirls. Thank heavens my hen went broody on 3 eggs so I will see what HER success rate is! Any suggestions???

I have ordered 3 batches of SG eggs off Ebay, from different sellers. Only 1 batch hatched at about 60% rate. 8 chicks, half SG half SIlkie. The batch that did hatch was shipped from a much closer location than the other 2, so I figured that was a big factor. PO is not kind to shipped eggs!

 

[blessedchick]

RIRJen and Ahartacres...I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one with goofy SG hatch rates from shipped eggs! Although I'm so sorry that you haven't had more success. I did order those 2 batches from 2 different sellers...then my own SG hen kicked into gear and started laying so I started incubating my own SG's eggs...with dismal results...

Once my hen is finished (hopefully) hatching out this group of chickies I'm going to try putting her with another roo - although all of the eggs that go into lockdown so far are viable...GRRR! I only have one hen that is old enough to be laying, and hopefully my odds will improve once more of my girls are laying.

And RIRJen...maybe we should meet halfway and do some tradin'!

 

[RIRJen]

RIRJen and Ahartacres...I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one with goofy SG hatch rates from shipped eggs! Although I'm so sorry that you haven't had more success. I did order those 2 batches from 2 different sellers...then my own SG hen kicked into gear and started laying so I started incubating my own SG's eggs...with dismal results...

Once my hen is finished (hopefully) hatching out this group of chickies I'm going to try putting her with another roo - although all of the eggs that go into lockdown so far are viable...GRRR! I only have one hen that is old enough to be laying, and hopefully my odds will improve once more of my girls are laying.

And RIRJen...maybe we should meet halfway and do some tradin'!

Ya, my shipped eggs were a bit of a let down but she's sending me more just to try again. My own home-grown eggs are bustin' out every tuesday lol.
Where abouts are you located?

 

[Debbi]

What kind of humidity setting are you guys using? I have found the dryer method works best for me. 22-30% flucuation for the first 18 days, then bump it up to 50-55% for lockdown. Granted this is for Silkies, but I did get one SG from shipped eggs. Can't really go by this batch though, as the eggs sat in the PO over the weekend, making their trip a total of 6 days! As for the percentage of SGs per hatch, try only getting eggs from someone who is breeding SG x SG. NN x BT (naked neck x bow tie) will give you 50% of each kind, depending on how many you hatch.

Just a warning note to anyone shipping eggs to Missouri, whether from the west or the east! The PO has closed two main hubs out here, and all mail now goes through Kansas City, KS to get to Missouri. I have had Priority parcels sit in this hub for FOUR DAYS! They make themselves look busy by scanning the parcel numerous times, but it never leaves their facility! When shipping to MO, it is best to ship on a Saturday or at the very latest, Monday. Otherwise, the eggs may very well get stuck in KC for the weekend. Shipping on Sat. still moves over the weekend, contrary to what some folks may say, I am an ex-postal carrier.

 

[Cynthia12]

What kind of humidity setting are you guys using? I have found the dryer method works best for me. 22-30% flucuation for the first 18 days, then bump it up to 50-55% for lockdown. Granted this is for Silkies, but I did get one SG from shipped eggs. Can't really go by this batch though, as the eggs sat in the PO over the weekend, making their trip a total of 6 days! As for the percentage of SGs per hatch, try only getting eggs from someone who is breeding SG x SG. NN x BT (naked neck x bow tie) will give you 50% of each kind, depending on how many you hatch.

Just a warning note to anyone shipping eggs to Missouri, whether from the west or the east! The PO has closed two main hubs out here, and all mail now goes through Kansas City, KS to get to Missouri. I have had Priority parcels sit in this hub for FOUR DAYS! They make themselves look busy by scanning the parcel numerous times, but it never leaves their facility! When shipping to MO, it is best to ship on a Saturday or at the very latest, Monday. Otherwise, the eggs may very well get stuck in KC for the weekend. Shipping on Sat. still moves over the weekend, contrary to what some folks may say, I am an ex-postal carrier.

I hatch the same way! With all my chickens. Much better than when I was doing old school.