Valentine's Day Hatch!!!

[k2chickens]

well i just ordered 35 black australorp day old pullets from meyer hatchery. what in the heck am i gonna do now??? lol. my dad liked the color of my one year old lorp hen's eggs so he gave me a 100 dollar bill and told me to order 30 or 40 chicks now so they would be laying age for summer time. we own a decent size fresh organic produce stand where we grow everything ouselves. the old man thought fresh brown eggs would bring in more customers, and while they were there, they would by other things as well...lol. said he would split the profits from the eggs 50/50 with me, and hes gonna buy their food too. all i gotta do is take care for them. so i was like ''heck yea i will get some chicks ordered for ya''

 

[Egg_newton]

Quote:
Hey you need a roo for all of those pullets? I have a 6 month old australorp cockerel from McMurray who is looking to be chicken dinner if her doesn't get a home. Only asking $5.

 

[k2chickens]

Quote:
Hey you need a roo for all of those pullets? I have a 6 month old australorp cockerel from McMurray who is looking to be chicken dinner if her doesn't get a home. Only asking $5.

i may be intrested. i would only want to spend gas money to come get him. i wanted 30 pullets exactly so keeping track of egg production would be easy, but i ordered an extra 5 to make up for any sexing mistakes meyer might make. actually now that i think about it, i hope the make at least one mistake so my baby girls have a flock protector im sure they would appreciate. got any pics of your boy?

 

[teddiliza]

Adonis
Loverboy
TeAdoro
Teddy
HoneyBear
Candy
Bemine
Kissy
Smooch
Hugsy
Rose
Flower
Chocolate

 

[schmmems]

Diamonds
Glitter
Bauble

How cool would it be to be able to answer the "What did you get for Valentine's Day?" question with "Diamonds!"

 

[Egg_newton]

Well I am on day 14 and candled. I think out of the 25 eggs I set only 7 or 8 are still viable.

A lot of the others look like quitters and only two or three looked like they weren't fertile. We did have some problems with the turner for the first four or five days and then had the bator open for a while on day eight to put in a new motor. I think that may have been the problem. Hopefully, the seven good ones will make it the rest of the way through.

 

[Illia]

Quote:
I'm on day 13, and only 2 of 14 are actually going to hatch.

The rest just look like quitters. . . Originally it was 18 before I culled 4 at about day 9, all but one ended up fertile but not developed at all.

Ohwell it is my first hatch afterall and from our own chickens, not bought eggs - whew for that.

 

[Egg_newton]

Yeah these are eggs from my flock too. So I just have to worry about wasted time not so muchabout wasted money. I had hoped it would go better tho so I could buy some hatching eggs. I think we are gonna try another batch of ours before we buy some. It really makes me sad cause none of my silkie eggs or EE eggs developed past the three day or so mark.

 

[Illia]

Yeah, most of mine didn't develop past day 3 or so. I don't entirely have time to test again, but I have read up on a lot of troubleshooting for low hatching rates. After the reading, I also bought a much better incubator for next time.

I just hope that these two and only two little'uns will make it all the way through, and survive for at least 2 years.

 

[k2chickens]

Quote:
aww,im sorry to hear about your rate newton. im sure it will be better next time. so what did u want to do with your australorp?