Straub’s search for colored eggs

[Tstraub]

I have a broody here as well. Smoky has decided she wants more chicks but she hasn’t settled down into just one nesting box so I don’t trust that she will sit on the eggs I want her to hatch.

 

[wrathsfarm]

I have a broody here as well. Smoky has decided she wants more chicks but she hasn’t settled down into just one nesting box so I don’t trust that she will sit on the eggs I want her to hatch.

Has she sat before?

 

[Tstraub]

Has she sat before?

She sat on golf balls in March but didn’t always return to the same box. Then she happily accepted and raised chicks after sitting for 3 weeks

 

[LaFleche]

The incubator is loaded. 12 White Bresse from a local guy I found on Craigslist. The rest are from my flock. I’m hoping to get start a Bresse line to keep separate from my egg layers. If this hatch goes well I’ll have to thin down on some of my older birds this fall.

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Fingers crossed!

 

[Tstraub]

I removed 2 eggs from the incubator because the automatic egg turner had two broken egg cups and when they tipped to the side the eggs fell out. The eggs were just a couple from my flock. They didn’t break so no mess to clean up. I just felt the best solution was removing the eggs and not bothering to try making any repairs to the egg turner. 39 eggs remain 12 White Bresse and 27 I am calling barn yard mixes since 8 cockerels have been in the flock this summer I can’t be sure who might be the sire of any of these eggs.

 

[Tstraub]

The chickens are all doing well except for some missing feathers that I’m pretty sure is just normal rooster damage. I still have 3 extra cockerels that are in a tractor with electric net fencing grazing. My hatching eggs have been going for 7 days temperature seems stable and humidity has been averaging around 30% with no added water.

I’m trying to make decisions on how many birds I want keep over winter. I some of these girls are getting older and will
Likely be past their prime next season. I knew I would eventually have to thin the flock if I kept hatching eggs but that seemed like a future problem. Oh how time flies.

 

[Tstraub]

I just finished the first candling of the eggs. I removed 7 total eggs 4 clears and one blood ring from my flock. I also removed one clear and one blood ring from the Bresse eggs.

32 eggs look viable 10 white Bresse and 22 BYM.

 

[Tstraub]

This is Mocha, she is an OE back cross to BCM. She was hatched on March 12 so she is 18 weeks and 2 days old. She was the only female from that hatch. Today she was starting to show some nesting behavior so hopefully I’ll get to see what color eggs she lays sometime in the next week or two.

 

[wrathsfarm]

This is Mocha, she is an OE back cross to BCM. She was hatched on March 12 so she is 18 weeks and 2 days old. She was the only female from that hatch. Today she was starting to show some nesting behavior so hopefully I’ll get to see what color eggs she lays sometime in the next week or two.

She's pretty. Who's her mom?

 

[Tstraub]

She's pretty. Who's her mom?

I’m not totally sure because I have a couple OE hens that look similar and lay very similar eggs but I suspect it her mom is Cocoa. Storm would be my next guess but Storm has beard feathers and a lot less copper in her heckles. Mocha just looks more like Cocoa to me