Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[PeepsCA]

LOL...Well... Ummmm Tar... (gawd I hate admitting this, lol...) I hatched 782 keets last year

At one point I think I had 100 gorgeous birds saved for keepers that I raised, but I weeded thru them as they matured and I was able to sex them, figure out which to keep and managed to get the number down to something under what most people would consider hoarding, lol. I kept a new flock of 28 pretty colors for breeders (they are who/what is laying for me now already), also kept 3 handsome males to replace the 4 worthless males in one of my other breeding flocks from last yr, and I also kept a flock of 16 striking Pied Pearl Greys to mostly free range my lower pasture (mostly males so I'm not egg/nest hunting all the time)... and I still have somewhere around 24-26 or so birds from last season's hatches left to sell, (but they may be gone by this weekend if all works out

). Oh and I had 6 bully males butchered sometime during the summer by a mobile butcher (they were tasty good, but I just can't do the guts and goo thing myself yet). So not counting what I have left to sell (or maybe butcher)... my flock count is a hefty 85 Guineas, (plus 4 Peafowl and a Turkey Hen). Been a busy year for me, and it's bleeding over to this yr's hatching season already, lol. But yah, I moved a lot of birds out of here in the last 8-9 months!


I have no goal or goals set in stone for this season (yet)... EXCEPT to stop hatching when I am burned out, instead of continual hatching and hatching and hatching.. and hatching. I had a hatch going on every 4 days last season, and I over did it, got burned out. This year... only 1 hatch per week is my self-set limit, lol, and NO double layered/over loaded incubators!!! No more hand turning eggs 5 times a day. Once my fertility rates are 80% or higher from my 2 main breeding flocks I plan on selling hatching eggs and/or eggs for consumption and NOT incubating every egg I collect. And I've already sworn to myself that I WILL NOT LISTEN TO ANY OF THE ENABLERS HERE ON BYC, lol (I completely blame them for last yr).

I feel your pain about the noisy flock... once one of my flocks gets set off, the rest have to chime in too

Oh and the Hen in my Avatar is a pure White from one of last yr's hatches that has some dark feathers down the back of her neck and a few random dark feathers scattered on her back. I'm hoping she'll hatch some Pinto keets for me eventually (really really Pied, with just a strip of color down their back).

Good to talk to you again too, post some pics of your flock!

 

[PeepsCA]

nice keets peeps
ive got 5 now
3 males and 2 females
2 hatched in late september so a prety late hatch for me
the girls havent started yet this year
older female is still raisin the 2 babies and the 1 baby is to young yet
so no hatches till much later

goodluck on the rest of your hatches
im sure you'll get plenty more keets

Hi lcw, Thanks! I just saw your post, it was a page behind and I missed it!
Congrats on your 5... your 2 Hens will lay lots of eggs for you as soon as the laying season kicks in, in your area. Your youngest Hen only needs to be 15-16 wks old to start laying, and I bet she starts laying first before the older girl does!

Good luck with your flock, post some pics!

 

[PeepsCA]

Wow these are beautiful! Soo preeettyy!!!

You are making me keet-hungry for ours to hatch. We have a few (five that looked viable) due to hatch in a little over a week, and I can't wait!

Got a question for you, though...The female who started laying early was (we think) our pied, and we are guessing the sire is a pearl grey, since he was the only truly mature male. This year we had only planned on keeping keets that were rare colors and selling all the pearl greys, and we already have a buyer waiting on these. BUT we are now wondering if maybe we should keep some in hopes that this female's daughters would grow up to be early layers, too. What do you think? Or is my logic all skewed?

Thaaanks!!! I am loving your pics and flock!!!

Ohhh sorry I was late to see/reply to your post! I missed this one too (I've been pretty distracted lately!)

My young Hens, (first timers), always seem to start laying early, way before my older Hens do... and so your early laying Hen from this year may lay later next year (but she will continue to lay all the way thru Fall for you this year unless she's brooding and raising a batch of keets). So yes, I'd keep a Hen or 2 if you like the early eggs (can't sex them until they start buck-wheating at 5-6 wks old tho)...
But I'm a Guinea hoarder, so you probably shouldn't listen to me about keeping Guineas,

Thanks for the complements on my pics/flocks!

 

[PeepsCA]

Had to post this batch of cuteness! (very similar to the last batch, lots of Brown lol)
There's 14 in this pic, 4 more wet keets in the hatcher with 3 more pipped eggs, 1 more egg that's definitely alive but has not pipped it's shell yet, and one last egg that looks like it was a late stage quitter.




AND check this out... I think I hatched a BLONDE keet (on the left, closest to the mirror), Woohoo!
It's considerably darker than any of the Buff keets that I hatched last year, and way lighter than any of my Chocolates that I hatched last year.
Hoping hoping hoping for a Blonde! I don't have this color in my flocks yet

 

[TarheelBirdy]

PeepsCA, I covet all your various colors in your Guineas. I would love to bring some more along, although we are doing quail this year. We are also "incubating" a foal, which we hope to meet in the next 10-15 days. Cross your fingers all goes well with that, I'm a nervous mama. I'll get some pics up of my Guineas soon.

 

[blessedchick]

Since they wouldn't have NPIP paperwork you'd have to stuff them in your pockets or bra, keep them quiet and smuggle them home, lol

I sure wouldn't be above that! My dad smuggled my pet red-eared slider turtles out of CA to Wisconsin when we moved when I was 10. He kept them in a cigarrette carton with holes poked in it in his shirt pocket during the entire plane ride. I wonder if I should be concerned about putting this in writing...

I can't believe you all are having (beautiful, darling, cute, gorgeous) keets this early! I'm starting to watch my girls carefully to see if I see any strange behavior. Will they come into their house at night when they have eggs or will they be more inclined to stay with the nest? They love my lavendar garden (of course! They're lavendar guineas!) so I'm hoping they may end up laying there...I'm SO EXCITED!!

 

[Country Chickens]

Ohhh sorry I was late to see/reply to your post! I missed this one too (I've been pretty distracted lately!)

My young Hens, (first timers), always seem to start laying early, way before my older Hens do... and so your early laying Hen from this year may lay later next year (but she will continue to lay all the way thru Fall for you this year unless she's brooding and raising a batch of keets). So yes, I'd keep a Hen or 2 if you like the early eggs (can't sex them until they start buck-wheating at 5-6 wks old tho)...
But I'm a Guinea hoarder, so you probably shouldn't listen to me about keeping Guineas,

Thanks for the complements on my pics/flocks!

No worries! I am patient in all things except chicks hatching.

I think I will just save from this girl if we luck into some interesting colors. We've got a couple pearls plus the pied in our flock, and we'll also get pearl from our lavenders and one white depending on who they mate, so I really shouldn't indulge in more pearls while I'm still building up other colors. We've ordered chocolate eggs later this spring, and already have royal purple, blonde and ivory (those last two both boys--woohoo!) so I'm trying to play the genetics game despite having a free range flock!

 

[PeepsCA]

No worries! I am patient in all things except chicks hatching.

I think I will just save from this girl if we luck into some interesting colors. We've got a couple pearls plus the pied in our flock, and we'll also get pearl from our lavenders and one white depending on who they mate, so I really shouldn't indulge in more pearls while I'm still building up other colors. We've ordered chocolate eggs later this spring, and already have royal purple, blonde and ivory (those last two both boys--woohoo!) so I'm trying to play the genetics game despite having a free range flock!

I'd definitely save any new colors you hatch this year, to add to your flock Sounds like you have some nice colors. Keep us posted!

 

[PeepsCA]

Batch # 2 turned out great with 23 more cute keets

 

[Country Chickens]

Beautiful! I love all the different shades of brown--even though I can't tell what all of them are. What does cinnamon look like? I know you said the last batch of keets had some, but I'm not familiar with that color.

I will definitely let you know what we get from this flock--I'm really hoping our blonde boy hooks up with the purple and lavender females, instead of the pearls. He seems like he's eyeing them, but they free range during the day and all roost together at night, so I can only hope!

Congrats on your successful hatches! Keep posting the pics!