The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[pips&peeps]

I haven't had to trim the feathers on my english birds and I also bred the cockerel to an extremely fluffy breed that sometimes requires AI and had 100% natural fertility.

 

[fifelakelooper]

Thanks for the input. I guess sometimes you need to and sometimes you don't. My Brinsea only holds 24 eggs so most likely I will trim in the spring just to make sure they are fertile...(although I'd prefer not to since they won't just jump in my arms and let me trim away)

 

[mediazeal]

Quote:
I'll let you know in a week. I am putting about 10 eggs in the bator tonight from 50% birds. Prior to collecting, I was using the eggs and they were fertile. I have since trimmed the rooster a bit but not the hens. The eggs I'm about to incubate though are from totally untrimmed rooster and hens. The hens are very fluffy, rooster is still regaining his fluff from molting.

Carolyn

Ok, how do you trim? Can you point me to someplace to read up?

 

[lildinkem]

Quote:
I'll let you know in a week. I am putting about 10 eggs in the bator tonight from 50% birds. Prior to collecting, I was using the eggs and they were fertile. I have since trimmed the rooster a bit but not the hens. The eggs I'm about to incubate though are from totally untrimmed rooster and hens. The hens are very fluffy, rooster is still regaining his fluff from molting.

Carolyn

Ok, how do you trim? Can you point me to someplace to read up?

Doug Akers said to remove a feather at a time by plucking. You want to remove about the size of your fist right below the vent.
I too never remove feathers. I had some Roland Deorr Buff Cochins and it took about 2 weeks for them to figure it out. And after that point they never had an unfertile egg.

 

[justuschickens59]

Quote:
I'll let you know in a week. I am putting about 10 eggs in the bator tonight from 50% birds. Prior to collecting, I was using the eggs and they were fertile. I have since trimmed the rooster a bit but not the hens. The eggs I'm about to incubate though are from totally untrimmed rooster and hens. The hens are very fluffy, rooster is still regaining his fluff from molting.

Carolyn

Ok, how do you trim? Can you point me to someplace to read up?

My husband and I do the trimming together. I know some people trim/pluck differently, but this is what we do and it works great for us. I hold the bird, head under my arm, butt facing hubby. He trims the feathers around the vent with a small pair of scissors about the size of a baseball, both above and below the vent. Make sure to trim as closely as you can, but don't prick the skin. I know some people pluck, but I could never do that - I am afraid it will hurt them. I have no desire to hurt my birds, I just want fertile eggs.

When Clementine first started laying, I didn't even crack the eggs to check fertility - I just put them in the incubator. Her eggs were so precious I didn't want to waste one by cracking it. BIG MISTAKE !! None of those eggs were fertile, so I lost quite a few eggs. Then I trimmed, but only trimmed Clementine. Same thing - didn't crack the eggs - nothing fertile. I then trimmed Winston, and every egg after that was fertile. Since that lesson learned the hard way, I now just automatically trim all the hens and roosters. It's not a big deal and it's not hard, so I'm not taking a chance on infertile eggs.

 

[fifelakelooper]

oK...I hate to sound dumb.... but I didn't realize you could tell if a egg was fertile or unfertile just by cracking one open? I thought you couldn't tell until they had been in incubator for a few days. Please let me know what to look for.

 

[OSUman]

Quote:
He's nice. How old is he? Is he a bantum?

Yea he is a bantam, choc split.

As to plucking vs trimming, from what I understand plucking is good if you want to have the feathers grow back quick, for show or whatever, but if you cut them and never pluck them they will be that way until the next molt so it might be better for breeding purposes.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
A fertile egg has a "halo" around the germinal spot. Like a donut or a bulls eye.

 

[Shaffer]

Well I trim all my birds by plucking. The cost of feed as John Blehm stated is too costly to not to trim them. I trim Orpingtons, Ameraucanas(which may not really need to be trimmed) and Araucanas. Araucanas have the issue with dead in shell even on the fertile ones so to have infertility would be serious. I hatched well over 100 Aracuanas this year and had nearly 100% fertility but the hatches were not 100% because of the lethal genes. I use to raise very rare canaries and trimmed them because they only have a small window for a breeding season and could not afford to have infertility on them. Remember you generally only get 10% of the young as good as or greater than the stock you start with. Now there are prepotent strains that do better than 10% but they are the few and not the average flocks.

 

[fifelakelooper]

Thank you for the pictures of the fertile vs. infertile eggs. 7 yrs. of chickens and had no clue...this website is wonderful and I just keep on learning.