The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

ooh, thats awfully tempting! my incubator is empty right now.. but i have no time, thank goodness.

Notinoz - I know you have your upcoming trip, so chicks would be out of the question until then, but post here when you get back. If you are interested in raising another batch this spring. Since my May hatching plans have been derailed. Bonus . . . certainly don't need to keep them in the house, that time of year, LOL. They can go straight outside. Maybe a heat lamp late at night/early AM for the first two weeks and that's about it. Will be plenty warm for babies outside during the day, come May. (But not TOO tough on them, like July will be!)

 

[notinoz2007]

alohachickens: when i get back i am loaning my incubator to a kindergarten teacher to hatch eggs for her class, how cool is that? i wish she wanted to fill it up but she only wants a dozen eggs for her first attempt. then it will be going to the 3rd grade classroom for the same thing. i may not get my incubator back til summer time! but if i do i would love to hatch more chicks.

 

[VI KING RANCH]

That's what I mean...you shouldn't need to hide anything while crossing the border. Put the eggs in a cooler under some sandwiches and don't mention them.

Ya I'll try that. I will also put some in my luggage so if they take some they shouldn't find them all.

 

[alohachickens]

But it's a big hassle and a huge expense! I looked at getting 6 KO shamo eggs from a breeder in the states and shipping and border fees would have been ove $300! Way easier to drive eggs across. I have a friend who does it once or twice a year to keep his stock "fresh"

EGADS. That's crazy! $300+?

Price on the foam inserts shipped to me - according to their shopping cart, to order two sets of foam would be $17.12 total.

Goes down if you order more sets, because you save so much on shipping.

Got my calculator here . . . that's 8.56 if you buy two, 7.66 for three, 7.21 if you buy four, 6.93 if you get five sets, and down from there depending on how many sets I order.

They recommended the Chicken/Duck size, by the way. That would be 36 eggs per box.

They said these will go in the Large Priority box size. The Large "flat rate" box costs $15.45 to ship anywhere in the US. Add $7.50 (give or take) for the foam, and that's $22.95 per box for 36 eggs, just for shipping and materials. So roughly $23-$26 per box of 36 eggs, shipped in foam? Depending on how many foam sets I order at once.

(Not including ANY cost for the eggs themselves. Donations for feed are greatly appreciated! The girls are going through about a bag of feed per week.)

I don't know how many "free" eggs I can spare, in general? Before, I was shipping out free eggs to try and get folks started on this, but the results were so dismal (in terms of hatching, on the other end) that it wasted eggs, my time, and my gas . . . we never even got ONE single new breeder started that way. So I kind of gave up . . . .

Instead, I started to hatch out chicks and sell them on Craigslist. At least chick sales covered my feed costs last spring. They sell like crazy, locally. (Though that didn't set up any new breeders, which is really the goal here.)

If I have extra eggs here, like I do now, I'm willing to give it another shot for a few people. Maybe if we try these foam things? My packing skills leave a lot to be desired, LOL!

Feel free to PM me (anyone in general) if interested in the extra eggs. I'll see if we can get anywhere with these shipped ones . . . give it another shot. Wasn't that feasible before, though. Which is why I'm trying the shipped CHICKS now. Got a new batch of babies going to Runswithscissors this coming Tuesday!!!

 

[alohachickens]

Wow, the girls gave me a full dozen per day two days in a row now! They are liking the balmy spring temps here in Phoenix!

Karen S. in Kansas is going to get a LOT of eggs delivered if she can find the 'bator room . . . I'm swimming in eggs here!

This is usually when I call Derek . . . he lives across town and has a Sportsman. He's trying to build a flock up of his own. I give him my extras when they are on the verge of going stale on me and I can't fit them in mine! Oooh to have a 'bator with 300 spaces, hee hee.

 

[Bernie56]

The eggs sound so tempting!! I have a full incubator at the moment but they should hatch out on March 12th. I love the look of the Alohas. Is anyone breeding Alohas in the Southeast?

 

[draye]

I'd really love to get some of those eggs, but I don't really have the space to set up for breeding them, so until I can get the space I guess I'll have to pass. I'd really like to help get these going.

 

[alohachickens]

The eggs sound so tempting!! I have a full incubator at the moment but they should hatch out on March 12th. I love the look of the Alohas. Is anyone breeding Alohas in the Southeast?

Nope, no breeders out there yet. Let me know if you want to try.

I'd highly suggest buying some "live" Buff Rock, Sussex, and NHR pullet chicks to go with these, though. I've often had hatch rates of just two or three chicks out of 24 eggs shipped to me!

So, the odds of hatching out ONE colorful Aloha rooster aren't bad . . . you could mix him with the "outside" breed hens and add the color that way.

But, it's going to be really hard for anyone working on this to get a lot of good hens using ONLY shipped eggs. I usually have to hatch out 10 chicks to get one decent hen. Half or more of the chicks are roos, then you get several "plain" hens for every really colorful nice one! Considering how awful shipped eggs tend to hatch . . . you can see the problem. Not to mention, these are going to need size improvement anyway!

However, if you're willing to buy a few good "outside" breed hens, all you would need is ONE good Aloha rooster to get started. THAT could work using only shipped eggs!

 

[alohachickens]

Derek is a guy here in town (not on BYC) who has been trying to build a flock up. He sent me these pics yesterday.

I call Derek when I have too many eggs and they are going to go bad if they don't get hatched. Looks like he has about 30 chicks growing out, but I cropped the photos he sent me to show you guys the coolest ones:






Of course most of them have too much white, or are solid, or plain. But these two really popped out at me!

Here's the group photo of Derek's chicks. This is what I start with, and then I crop down to save the best. Out of this size group I may only pick out maybe six of the best:






Note that some of the hens can be "late bloomers" and get pretty at the last minute. I have given away some "ugly" hens by accident, only to see them later and they're beautiful. Just takes a while longer for the hens to look nice, sometimes. I've had a couple hens born with little or no color, then they are covered with spots at six months. Other times, they never get spots at all?

If anyone gets eggs or chicks from me this spring, you can expect to see something kind of like this when they hatch . . . .

 

[ruriksson]

alohachickens: The foam inserts look interesting, I would check on the height of the foam insert. Large USPS Priority flat rate is 12x12x5.5. That box is also $15.45 to ship. Also, if an egg does break, it probably won't be cleanable/disinfectable since it looks like an open cell foam. You could probably make it yourself with some "plank" foam and a hot biscuit cutter. I think circular holes rather than oval holes would be better and let the eggs stand so you can keep the air cells up (with lots of labels on the outside showing what direction is up). I think the main problems with shipping is damage to the air cells. They either rupture entirely or become loose. But people on the board have successfully hatched eggs with bad air cells so long as the eggs remain upright.

The spikey "acoustic" foam looking packing material might also work well. It's usually used to shipped delicate scientific equipment (more spikey than the foam in a gun case, for example). I've was able to find a few small pieces at work to use as egg racks in my old wine refrigerator. The spikey foam will actually nestle together.

This whole shipping eggs thing reminds me of Jr High science class making egg holders to toss off the roof.

Resting the urge to candle the eggs. I did open them up this weekend to randomly check shell temps with an IR thermometer. The incubator has been incredibly stable (high of 100 and low of 99). Thanks Los Angeles weather.