The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[Miami Leghorn]

Moonshiner I'm a little curious as to your set up and pairings...
You have different color chicks in the brooder... are they from different breeding pens?

Do you have one rooster in the same breeding pen with different color hens and all those eggs go in the same incubator that way when they hatch you know who the mother and father is?
Or how do you do it.
Please explain your setup with your breeding stock ;fours,threes,or couples?
Do you label the eggs to keep track?
I'm not sure if I'm articulating my question properly.
How do you keep track of what you have on the ground?
What is your process?

 

[The Moonshiner]

I mark all eggs when I collect them. Ive made up 2 letter codes for everything and I write it on the big end of the eggs. That way I know whats from what and when they hatch the end comes off usually intact so I can make sure I'm matching chicks with the eggs they came from.
I use two hovabators for hatchers and I have them each divided into 5 sections. Some sections I can put more then one group in if it's easy to tell chicks apart. Like say buffs, isabellas and cuckoo's in the same section.
I take them out of incubator in sections match chicks with hatched eggs just to make sure everything matches. I then toe punch everyone as permanent ID.
My pens are mostly seperate by colors/patterns or projects.
Some project pens are mixed patterns and produce different outcomes. The eggs and chicks get marked the same and I have to know the possibilities and figure out what's what.
If I can use one rooster for different hens I do but that doesn't happen a lot.. I can use a single barred male to breed barred and non barred hens and produce barred and non barred chicks. Or I can use a golden duckwing rooster in a pen to produce silver or gold duckwing pullets.
I just have to know what I can mix and what I can't to get the results I want and be able to identify the chicks.
Hope that all makes sense. If not ask and I'll try to clarify.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

I follow you.
Easy to understand.
How many breeding pens are you running right now?

 

[The Moonshiner]

Oh and I forgot to mention the fun part is keeping everything straight in my head. The only thing I write down is I have a piece of paper with the toe punch possibilities and which ones match which pens.
For the life of me I can't keep who gets what punches in my brain so I had to write it down and use it every hatch.

 

[The Moonshiner]

14.
I have more going on then that but I run some all season but many I run half the season then I switch to others for the rest of the season.
Right now I'm in the process of switching some around.
A couple years ago I had 22 pens so life was easier. I'm actually really trying to limit how many I hatch this year.
Did I mention I'm starting back up on a project ive had on the back burner for quite a while?
I have a little Pepsi cooler destined to be an incubator.
It should hold about the same as a sportsman.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

I mark all eggs when I collect them. Ive made up 2 letter codes for everything and I write it on the big end of the eggs. That way I know whats from what and when they hatch the end comes off usually intact so I can make sure I'm matching chicks with the eggs they came from.
I use two hovabators for hatchers and I have them each divided into 5 sections. Some sections I can put more then one group in if it's easy to tell chicks apart. Like say buffs, isabellas and cuckoo's in the same section.
I take them out of incubator in sections match chicks with hatched eggs just to make sure everything matches. I then toe punch everyone as permanent ID.
My pens are mostly seperate by colors/patterns or projects.
Some project pens are mixed patterns and produce different outcomes. The eggs and chicks get marked the same and I have to know the possibilities and figure out what's what.
If I can use one rooster for different hens I do but that doesn't happen a lot.. I can use a single barred male to breed barred and non barred hens and produce barred and non barred chicks. Or I can use a golden duckwing rooster in a pen to produce silver or gold duckwing pullets.
I just have to know what I can mix and what I can't to get the results I want and be able to identify the chicks.
Hope that all makes sense. If not ask and I'll try to clarify.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

Have you considered or used color coded leg bands to identify the progeny of your breeding stock?
So when you have say, a grow out pen filled with different young chickens, you'll know which "family" they came from by the color of the band?

Could you further explain the toe punching system how does it work and how do you use it?

Also what size are your pens?

I hope ya'll are taking notes 'cause class is in session my friends.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I used leg bands way way back in the day. When I got into breeding leghorns and doing what I am now I used colored zip ties.
Zip ties work well but are more work. Every week or every hatch I clean brooders and bump chicks to the next brooder. Thats when I checked and repoaced zip ties so they didn't get too tight.
Back then I sometimes raised 1,000 chicks a year and hatched year around.
Thats a lot of replacing zip ties. And sometimes they would lose them.
I still use them some. Like with duckwing that are split for lavender or something carrying a recessive. Its just for quickly seeing.
Toe punch is a little deal that looks and works like toenail Clippers except it's a tiny hole punch. You punch hole or holes in the webs of their feet when day old. You keep track by which web or webs have the holes.
Counting no punch as one theres 16 combinations.
I just happened to pic buffs as no punches. Everything else gets punched and some obviously different one share the same punches. Like my BT reds have the same punch as blues and blue cuckoo.
Only problem with toe punching over bands is I have to pick them up to see whats punched.
Ive been punching for a couple years.
My smallest pens are the pallet pens I built this year. They're 42" x 60" and I keep one or two hens and add rooster for a day or two per week. Thats working out well. Especially because i have a few different hens I want to use the same rooster with but can let the hens lay together.
Like if I cross a cuckoo rooster with a lavender hen and an exchequer hen. Both hens would produce cuckoo looking offspring but they would be split for different recessive and I could tell which.
I sometimes have to test breed to see if something carries a certain gene and it will be nice for those breedings too.
I have 6 pens that are 6' x 12' and some that are in between like 6' x 8'.
I also have some pens for grow outs that I use for breeders sometimes. I think the smallest is 5 x 8 up to 10 x 12 and then two large ones I use for spare birds, grow outs, breeders I'm not using. Really just whatever that are probably 40 x 80 or so. IDK theyre 6' chain link with a lean to attached.
I also have odd balls running loose on 3 1/2 acres.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I used leg bands way way back in the day. When I got into breeding leghorns and doing what I am now I used colored zip ties.
Zip ties work well but are more work. Every week or every hatch I clean brooders and bump chicks to the next brooder. Thats when I checked and repoaced zip ties so they didn't get too tight.
Back then I sometimes raised 1,000 chicks a year and hatched year around.
Thats a lot of replacing zip ties. And sometimes they would lose them.
I still use them some. Like with duckwing that are split for lavender or something carrying a recessive. Its just for quickly seeing.
Toe punch is a little deal that looks and works like toenail Clippers except it's a tiny hole punch. You punch hole or holes in the webs of their feet when day old. You keep track by which web or webs have the holes.
Counting no punch as one theres 16 combinations.
I just happened to pic buffs as no punches. Everything else gets punched and some obviously different one share the same punches. Like my BT reds have the same punch as blues and blue cuckoo.
Only problem with toe punching over bands is I have to pick them up to see whats punched.
Ive been punching for a couple years.
My smallest pens are the pallet pens I built this year. They're 42" x 60" and I keep one or two hens and add rooster for a day or two per week. Thats working out well. Especially because i have a few different hens I want to use the same rooster with but can let the hens lay together.
Like if I cross a cuckoo rooster with a lavender hen and an exchequer hen. Both hens would produce cuckoo looking offspring but they would be split for different recessive and I could tell which.
I sometimes have to test breed to see if something carries a certain gene and it will be nice for those breedings too.
I have 6 pens that are 6' x 12' and some that are in between like 6' x 8'.
I also have some pens for grow outs that I use for breeders sometimes. I think the smallest is 5 x 8 up to 10 x 12 and then two large ones I use for spare birds, grow outs, breeders I'm not using. Really just whatever that are probably 40 x 80 or so. IDK theyre 6' chain link with a lean to attached.
I also have odd balls running loose on 3 1/2 acres.

I know the obvious answer here, but does the punchingseem to hurt them? Or is it like getting a piercing where it might be sore for a bit but not painful?

 

[The Moonshiner]

Oh and since you forgot to ask I have 12 brooder boxes. Two are 70 gallon horse troughs. Then 32" x 64" up to 48" x 96"