The 8th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!!!!

[ronott1]

35, if I did my math right. I accidentally broke 1 a few days before that.

That is a nice number of eggs still developing!

 

[Faraday40]

Wow that's a lot of roosters! Lol and thanks, I'll start looking for one

and yeah, I guess it doesn't make sense to get one only to get rid of it lol I'm mostly concerned about the neighbors though and being woken up in the morning. Although my dog is probably louder

but are roosters loud in the morning?

We put ours inside our garage every night, so no one can hear them - including us! Crow collars also work to muffle the daytime crowing. Thankfully ours are pretty quiet. Only a few crows around 8am when I 1st put them out. If I hear any crowing at other times it's because there's something wrong like a predator or a neighbor's scary new power tool. They really don't like it when people do backyard home improvement projects. LOL

 

[Lozuufy]

The good news: so far I have only pulled 3 infertiles! That brings my total to 69 still going.

The bad news: I lost one of my color project birds last night

thankfully I have 7 eggs developing normally from that pen, but it still stinks to lose one.

That's a bummer.

Is there a thread on BYC to ask what a hen/roo cross might look like? My favorite egg in the bator is Blue Andalusian crossed with a Black Copper Marans roo. The egg is white and so easy to see through when I candle it. I love the little chick inside already! I'd love to see what he or she may look like.

Also, the humidity dropped into the 20's with no water in the reservoir, so I added a bit. I'll just have to keep an eye on it. Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback this morning!

The color-genetics-thread, hasn't had too much activity recently tho. If your hen is blue then the babies will have a 50% chance of being blue, if she is splash then all the babies will be blue. Should have some gold leakage in their feathers also.

I have several roosters...but I don't have any that age yet.

On second though...I have two in my original package that were old when I got them. They must be 3.5 + years old. The white one has offspring I believe...the other guy I haven't bred this year yet.

Depending on the rooster, they can crow at any time of the day or night. It's 2am...and it's not uncommon to hear a few of mine crowing. I think having more than one causes more crowing because they have competition. I have some that don't crow much. It's a good thing our closest neighbor is 1.5 miles away.

We've had roosters in the past that had "crowing competitions" all night long with coyotes

I think they thought they were other roosters

 

[BantyChooks]

We've had roosters in the past that had "crowing competitions" all night long with coyotes

I think they thought they were other roosters

Oh my...

 

[I Love Layers]

That's a bummer.

The color-genetics-thread, hasn't had too much activity recently tho. If your hen is blue then the babies will have a 50% chance of being blue, if she is splash then all the babies will be blue. Should have some gold leakage in their feathers also.


We've had roosters in the past that had "crowing competitions" all night long with coyotes  I think they thought they were other roosters  

Ours do that but in the morning. Pretty fun I'm waiting for them to call one in so I can shoot It! Lol

 

[Mylied]

Wow that's a lot of roosters! Lol and thanks, I'll start looking for one and yeah, I guess it doesn't make sense to get one only to get rid of it lol I'm mostly concerned about the neighbors though and being woken up in the morning. Although my dog is probably louder but are roosters loud in the morning?

There are 6 roosters around my house (4 are mine, then 2 are the neighbors that come in my yard). I've never been woken by crowing. They crow randomly and have competitions but I don't hear it when I'm in bed and I don't usually hear it in the house either.

 

[Chickens4lifee]

Quote:
I think it was just because of how im running the bator for the shipped eggs they mean much more to me then the others most of them died due to how im keeping the temp and humidity in that bator

 

[brucifer]

Many of my neighbors have livestock, including roosters, so listening to crowing comes with the territory. I actually like listening to the roosters compete in their own version of The Voice.

 

[lilwildrabbit]

I have gotten used to the crowing of my roosters all but one and it's so odd a crow I can't get used to it

 

[Karen523]

fertility drops after two years old. They will still be fertile until they die though. Sadly, many die early because of getting too much calcium. Consider getting a new breeding rooster after three years.

Okay, that explains why the eggs from my free range flock aren't fertile. That means most of my HAL eggs won't be hatching. Out of the 26 eggs that I set for the HAL, 16 of them are from my free range flock, 3 of them are from my young Silver Laced Orpington pen and 7 are from my young Lemon/Buff Orpington pen. The lemon rooster will be the replacement for my older rooster. I tried letting the lemon rooster out to free range for a couple of weeks, but he likes to pick fights with my older rooster. All of my chickens get layer feed and kitchen scraps. What can I do for the older rooster to make sure he doesn't get too much calcium? Maybe I need to set up a Senior pen for my older chickens? Do the older girls need less calcium too?