- Thread starter
- #61
CajunFeatherz
Chirping
- Mar 13, 2018
- 70
- 134
- 86
I appreciate that. By far I think this was a terrible first hatch BUT I am grateful for the stress because I look forward to more uneventful hatches with my own eggs and eggs from my two more trusted sources in the future!
I assisted the two that are alive and healthy as well, so I think it was just a tough call. It may just boil down to: assisting the live ones was the right choice and assisting the dead ones was not. There's no doubt I made mistakes.
I did learn to ask a lot of questions prior to buying hatching eggs: What are they fed? How often do you collect eggs? What is your hatch rate and fertility rate? How clean is your coop, run, or pen?
I had a bad experience buying an adult Phoenix roo a few months back (as mentioned in an earlier post, people will sell you *anything* around here, including a dying rooster infested with worms) so my husband and I had decided to avoid buying birds in the future when possible. We thought hatching eggs would be simpler! Geez am I feeling naïve.
I'm more excited now for the hatch coming after this one. I've been fermenting my birds' feed for about a month now WOW the egg difference. Almost 20% more eggs daily, firm shells, beautiful yolks - and they are DELICIOUS
but they should also make very healthy babies!
I'd love to have one of my hens go broody, alas my hens are way more interested in playing in the ditches and ponds. They trudge in to set their eggs and then RUN back to their friends to dig and scratch. I've had two abandon nests halfway through and I swear I can see the boredom on their faces when they're nesting. Maybe our place is just too fun, lol.
I read in another thread that most breeds of chickens have had the brooding genes culled out as commercial breeders/farms find it undesirable, so many backyard breeders attempt to purposely reintroduce the genetics to their flocks. GENETICS ARE FASCINATING and even though this hatch was kind of a train wreck, I still think I've found my poultry passion in breeding and hatching.
Now to just get A LOT better at it!
I assisted the two that are alive and healthy as well, so I think it was just a tough call. It may just boil down to: assisting the live ones was the right choice and assisting the dead ones was not. There's no doubt I made mistakes.
I did learn to ask a lot of questions prior to buying hatching eggs: What are they fed? How often do you collect eggs? What is your hatch rate and fertility rate? How clean is your coop, run, or pen?
I had a bad experience buying an adult Phoenix roo a few months back (as mentioned in an earlier post, people will sell you *anything* around here, including a dying rooster infested with worms) so my husband and I had decided to avoid buying birds in the future when possible. We thought hatching eggs would be simpler! Geez am I feeling naïve.
I'm more excited now for the hatch coming after this one. I've been fermenting my birds' feed for about a month now WOW the egg difference. Almost 20% more eggs daily, firm shells, beautiful yolks - and they are DELICIOUS
but they should also make very healthy babies!I'd love to have one of my hens go broody, alas my hens are way more interested in playing in the ditches and ponds. They trudge in to set their eggs and then RUN back to their friends to dig and scratch. I've had two abandon nests halfway through and I swear I can see the boredom on their faces when they're nesting. Maybe our place is just too fun, lol.
I read in another thread that most breeds of chickens have had the brooding genes culled out as commercial breeders/farms find it undesirable, so many backyard breeders attempt to purposely reintroduce the genetics to their flocks. GENETICS ARE FASCINATING and even though this hatch was kind of a train wreck, I still think I've found my poultry passion in breeding and hatching.
Now to just get A LOT better at it!
