The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[uphilljill]

Woot! Can't wait to see baby pics

 

[speckledhen]

Woot! Can't wait to see baby pics

Will get those later when they're all in the brooder, but they're coming! Only one is not pipped, so 7 hatched now, 5 pipped. When the others have hatched, will check on that last egg.

Jill, my Stukel line is super hard to sex, more than the usual BR. The males have some black wash on the legs and some of the pullets have almost none, males with tiny head spots, pullets with larger ones. After having had hatchery stock I bred from for awhile, that was so frustrating, LOL. Those were super easy to sex. How do yours do on the sexing? Easy or confusing like mine? I've miss-sexed pullets as cockerels more than once with mine.

 

[1muttsfan]

Sounds like things are going excellently, especially for shipped eggs!

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds like things are going excellently, especially for shipped eggs!

Yup, very well, I think. Now, hopefully, we have more pullets than cockerels, which would be a bonus! I wish I had room to have multiple breeding groups. These will end up sharing a pen with the Brahmas that hatch in two weeks and I'll pick keepers from both groups and sell the rest. Wish I could keep more but I just can't. If DH was in better shape to help out, maybe, but I have to be smart about it all.

I do feel I would be better off making Atlas guardian over a laying flock. He produces nice progeny but he has obvious flaws that limit what I can get from him. I'm not breeding, per se, not like some of the super serious folks, but I still want to be able to produce some excellent-per-standard birds for others from the ones I keep. My Stukel hens are not young anymore, over 5 years now. Not sure of the longevity of these, generally, and I've already lost Dottie. Lizzie has a good body type, Tessa is a tad too small. Druscilla is almost as old as the orginal Stukel hens, having come from one of Dottie's pullet eggs and with every molt, she gets more and more solid black feathers.

 

[speckledhen]

Hatch Update:

9 hatched, 3 pipped, 1 unknown

Last one could be a goner, or could just be extra late. Still in the middle of Day 21 so it still has time. Day 22 doesn't start until after 4 p.m.

 

[Peanutsmomma]

Woot! Can't wait to see baby pics

x2

 

[uphilljill]

Black wash on legs are usually females in this line, but can tell for sure in a week when wing feathers start coming in. (Dark = female, lighter & obviously barred = male.) I've never had luck sexing with head spots.

 

[speckledhen]

Black wash on legs are usually females in this line, but can tell for sure in a week when wing feathers start coming in. (Dark = female, lighter & obviously barred = male.)

Sounds like it should be a tad easier than these Stukels, yea! I've seen some dark legs on some but don't have a count yet. Will do that better when they are running around like juvenile delinquents. Even in the ones a couple of weeks old with the original bunch, I was a little confused. It was obvious by 4 weeks, but until then, I was not 100% sure. Gotta go check to see if #10 is out yet.



ETA: #10 hatched just now. Two still at large pip stage. The last one still shows no pip unless it's on the underside.


ETA, again: #11 hatched. Still waiting in #12 to get to zipping. No idea about the last egg yet, still can't see a pip from its current position.

 

[1muttsfan]

 

[speckledhen]

12 have hatched, one still in the incubator drying off. The last egg has a chick that made it into the air cell but I can't tell if it's moving or not. Will leave it in the rest of the day, just in case.

Sneak peak for you of the first 11, already making a mess!











The hatch is officially complete! Twelve is the final total. Sixteen went in (after the two broken in transit), one did not develop and one had seeping pores, so out of the fourteen that went into the final three days, twelve came out.

The last one was not right, no idea why, but it expired very late in the game, probably Day 18-19.