The EE braggers thread!!!

[puredelite]

WildTrapper, On the subject of egg candling- I never have had a store-bought one. Any small box(shoe box?) will do. An old fashioned cylindrical oatmeal box( remember when oatmeal came in these pre- microwave era?) is ideal. Anyway, in one end cut a small hole and insert the end of a lamp. Reach into box and screw in a light bulb. On opposite end of box cut a quarter size hole, turn on light and with egg over the small hole it is easy to see how egg is developing. Be careful tho as the bulb will heat up cardboard rather quickly. This may do til your candler is delivered.

 

[ChicksterJo]

I am hoping to pick up some BCMs next week too!! I have a legit reason..they're going to replace a suspected roo.
He looks a little raggedy.

 

[redfeather]

A whole new batch of chickies to replace one suspected roo?

Yep, sounds like chicken math to me!

 

[Wild Trapper]

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puredelite, These eggs are sacrifice eggs, if I can't tell by trying to candle them, I will crack one open in a bowl, my pig will thank me for her treat.

Last fall I didn't even know what I was doing and had about a 60-65% hatch rate and if I had not opened the bator to remove chicks, I might have done better. As it was my wife sold off most of the ones we didn't eat. I kept the two that looked like EEs and two that looked like my old GLWs. Plus I managed to save two roos, so if this Araucana rooster is a dud, I'll put the young half EE mutts in with the hens and try again. Otherwise, I started saving the blue eggs from my EEs and will also save a few pink ones. The Araucana roo is supposed to have the blue egg gene, so if he is good, I'm hoping to have more blue egg laying EEs. One of the half EE mutt roos has a pea comb, so I'm thinking he might carry the blue egg gene. One of the pullets that looks like an EE is half GC and lays a blue/green egg, so I'm going to use her eggs too, if she gives me any, not real consistent laying yet, but nice sized for a pullet egg.

According to info I found on here, I should know within a few days if those eggs are fertile, especially if I crack them opened and find

growth starting.

The thing with this roo is, I have only seen him mount once, anytime I am watching them, he is usually watching me to see if I'm going to toss them some treats. I do catch him doing the song and dance moves once in a while, but mostly that's as far as he gets, while I'm watching. The lady that gave him to me, said he is two or three years old, so maybe he is a bit old and slow like me.

Thanks for the tip on improvising a candler and yeah, chicken math.

 

[emjay]

40 eggs in the bator.............. all EE's, hatch day.........March 31- April 1st, how fun, April Fools babies perhaps.

 

[BirdNut]

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Awesome news, I'm wishing you all the best with hatching!

 

[flower]

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Awesome news, I'm wishing you all the best with hatching!

Yea more blue/green eggs layers.............the best !

 

[emjay]

thanks for the good lucks. Can't wait to see the results. Hopefully the young roo is good and fertile.

I think I have half and half from the two roos, so I know at least half are fully fertile.

 

[Egg Rookie 2010]

ROO question....my first chicks are here. They are 5 weeks old. 5 of the 16 birds are EE. I THOUGHT they were all pullets but obviously one is a roo. Crows like mad half the day, neck feathers look longer and growing a comb much larger than the other 4. SO that gives me 3 boys. I really want to keep all of them and hope they are well behaved. The other males are Cochin and Welsummer. How do all of you like your EE roos? I have little kids and just and hoping he is a good boy so we will all feel safe. I dont want to send him to the freezer. Is there a typical temperament for them?

 

[ChicksterJo]

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LOL

He sounds different from the others. Almost like he's trying to crow, so I'm about 80% sure he's a he.