Too Early for Feb Hatch-A-Long Thread??

[FortCluck]

I finally inquired on the table eggs I'm hatching. The seller has an Ayam Cemani and Barnvelder roosters. Hens are Buff, Jubilee, Blue, and Lavender Orpingtons, Jersey giants, Ayam cemani, cream Legbar, Easter Egger,
Ameracauna and Welsummer. I have 18 of these eggs set to hatch 2/12. Can't wait to see what this grab bag of genetics brings. Should gets some really cool looking birds/egg colors.

I love mixed chicks!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I love mixed chicks!

I would enjoy them a lot more if I could keep roosters. It's too difficult to re-home mutt roosters here.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I would enjoy them a lot more if I could keep roosters. It's too difficult to re-home mutt roosters here.

Ours get rehomed into the stock pot That said hoping to retain 1-2 keepers.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Ours get rehomed into the stock pot That said hoping to retain 1-2 keepers.

Now if I weren't such a sissy, I would probably do the same thing. I need a local friend willing to help me butcher for a few free meat roos in exchange, lol.
Aren't they usually crowing by the time they have enough meat to butcher though?

 

[aliciaplus3]

Don’t think i could handle losing so many. You build cute little relationships with your birds. Has to be tough, sorry you had to deal with something like that.

I think having low expectations help when hatching shipped eggs. If the low end is around 45% to 50%, plan on that. Makes it so much better when you get more, but acceptable when you get half to hatch. Just the way I looked at it this go around.

I have had zero out of shipped eggs
Couple things to look at when incubating shipped eggs , how far did they travel and how were they handled? Oh and elevation change. I am just under 6000 feet above sea level and eggs coming up here from much lower will struggle to hatch.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Now if I weren't such a sissy, I would probably do the same thing. I need a local friend willing to help me butcher for a few free meat roos in exchange, lol.
Aren't they usually crowing by the time they have enough meat to butcher though?

I just processed 6 Marans roosters in January. They were about 5 1/2 months old and started crowing about month before that (4 1/2 months). I had planned on doing them the week before Thanksgiving but something came up. If we had done them at that time they would not have been crowing yet.

This was one I almost kept. Changed my mind at the last minute. He was just too loud.

 

[aliciaplus3]

Now if I weren't such a sissy, I would probably do the same thing. I need a local friend willing to help me butcher for a few free meat roos in exchange, lol.
Aren't they usually crowing by the time they have enough meat to butcher though?

We like ours at 16 to 20 weeks and yes most roosters at that age are crowing
We are not afraid to butcher extras, sometimes the hardest part is deciding who to keep. I wish I could keep more till they were full grown but there is only so much room.
If they do not have anything to offer my breeding program going forward then they can not stay.

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

Can’t believe lockdown is tomorrow afternoon. How did these past 18 days go so quickly?!

I’m a little unsure what to do about the Marans eggs and dark olives. How do I know if I should pull them or leave them? There are 2 that I could see maybe too much glowing (clear) space in at day 14. If I can still see clear space, should I take them out? The chick should be taking up pretty much all the space in there at this point, correct? If they don’t smell, should I just leave them?

Time for me to get a brooder together and clean my heat plates.

 

[aliciaplus3]

Can’t believe lockdown is tomorrow afternoon. How did these past 18 days go so quickly?!

I’m a little unsure what to do about the Marans eggs and dark olives. How do I know if I should pull them or leave them? There are 2 that I could see maybe too much glowing (clear) space in at day 14. If I can still see clear space, should I take them out? The chick should be taking up pretty much all the space in there at this point, correct? If they don’t smell, should I just leave them?

Time for me to get a brooder together and clean my heat plates.

When I cant see in and they dont smell I leave em in. But that's just me

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I just double checked my math. We intend to process them at 22 weeks (5 months) on 11/23. We actually did them at 29 weeks (almost 7 months) on 1/11. If we'd have done them at 5 months they would barely have started to crow. By that I mean 1-2 rooster would have been crowing for a week or so.