Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[pennyJo1960]

Only two of the dozen eggs I bought off Craigslist hatched. The four big ones that look like double yolks never started developing but they are cloudy, not clear, so my daughter left them in with the others. Four look like quitters but since my candler bulbs are both burned out I can only see the air cells and not much detail. There are two that look like they should have hatched with one possibly have pipped internally but there is no movement so I assume they are dead too. They are back in the incubator just in case they are still alive.

Out of the two that hatched neither one looks like an Ameraucana chick. The first one has all white down and white skin while the second one at least has chipmunk markings but white skin. I never would have spent money on these chicks and the eggs cost me $10 so I got scammed. If I had been able to pick up the eggs myself I never would have bought them but I trusted the information in the listing and my husband did not look at the eggs when he picked them up for me. There is no way I will ever get my money out of these chicks because they are worthless. After another day I will open the two developed eggs if they don't hatch to see what colors they are but I doubt they are what I expected either.

I am so sorry to hear it went bad on you

 

[Manningjw]

I should have worded that better - all experiences/opinions are welcome! I am just done with having to watch out for an aggressive rooster for me and my family. Our BCM regularly attacks my husband and I walk around with a rake! He will be replaced soon enough - in the last month he has sounded the alarm on attacks from a bald eagle, neighborhood dog and a huge coyote (standing not 5 feet from the flock) - all unsuccessful thank God! He is serving a purpose.

I have been fortunate, all the roosters I have had have been friendlier than my meanest hens

. I have had a few hens that peck my pants and try to their best to tear them but I haven't had that problem with a rooster yet.

If you ever want a rooster I have several chicks that are going to be barred/bearded blue egg layers.

 

[Gatewayto]

Sorry to hear about that @Duck Drover have you try to contact the person you got them from again? Maybe they can provide another set.. or a better set of eggs?

<-- Haven't try incubating since i'm not sure what to do with all the male - guess I can keep naming them stew 1.2.3.4.... or drumstick 1.2.3.4...

For those that hatches chicks.. do you try to sex the chicks right away (like the hatchery does)? If you do not, does that means you raise the chicks up until they are old enough to tell if male or female?
Once a chick is determines to be a male... give away, sale, or feed it up to 8 months then stew it?

 

[beccaWA]

In Spokane Valley with my chickens (Australorps, one gold laced Wyandotte and this Old English Game random rooster that wandered into my yard). Where's everyone? Anyone near me? If so, I have half dozen Khaki or possibly 1/4 cayuga/khaki ducklings just hatched 4 days ago.

P.S. If you want to hatch eggs, bring them to my broody Australorps. I have two that go broody regularly. (one right now) Last year this broody hen hatched 5 ducklings and raised them.

 

[Duck Drover]

Sorry to hear about that @Duck Drover
 have you try to contact the person you got them from again?  Maybe they can provide another set.. or a better set of eggs?

<-- Haven't try incubating since i'm not sure what to do with all the male - guess I can keep naming them stew 1.2.3.4.... or drumstick 1.2.3.4...

For those that hatches chicks.. do you try to sex the chicks right away (like the hatchery does)?  If you do not, does that means you raise the chicks up until they are old enough to tell if male or female? 
Once a chick is determines to be a male... give away, sale, or feed it up to 8 months then stew it? 

I did not contact the person to tell her how the hatch went. She does not seem to know enough about hatching eggs that she has probably given up on scamming more people for fertile eggs that are not worth hatching. I think most people are like me in that if they have something worth hatching they hatch the eggs themselves.

I will probably raise these two with my Silkie chicks that they are with now since I have two splash I want to keep and a third blue I will keep with them since it is the same age. We will keep getting a staggered hatch with our Silkie hens hatching out the Silkie eggs in the coop and I only sell chicks in groups of four or more. I prefer to raise the Silkies anyway because they are so hard to sex and that way I can keep pullets and sell off the roosters as they show themselves. It is easy to sell Silkie pullets because they are in high demand. Everytime I list chicks people ask me for pullets.

I have thought about doing DNA testing on my Silkie chicks because they are hard to tell what they are until they crow or lay an egg. With all my chicks I hatch I either sell them as a straight run when they are hatchlings or I raise them until they are old enough to sex. With rooster bans in so many areas and people not wanting to set up a brooder for chicks, there seems to be more demand for pullets than straight run chicks. People come out for chicks and then expect me to be able to sell them only pullet chicks but I can't vent sex chickens, only ducks. I charge more for pullets while roosters stay at the chick price so they get a better deal on pullets if they raise them themselves but I don't mind getting them off to a good start. You would not believe how many people lose birds to predators and have to replace them all.

I would eat our roosters but my daughter won't eat anything she helps raise. I used to raise all my own meat but that was when I had 40 acres and could be more self-sufficient. I will probably return to living off the land one day in order to get away from urban living. I miss my former rural lifestyle.

 

[Duck Drover]

I am so sorry to hear it went bad on you

When I saw the eggs I knew it was not going to go well so I hatched them in the incubator instead of putting them under my hens. Not many diseases are carried on egg shells but I did worry about that possibility with these eggs. I need to make sure I look at the eggs and the flock before I buy hatching eggs again. The pictures of her chickens were pretty bad so at least I knew they were hers and not pictures she took off the internet! I don't know what caused the eggs to be so malformed but I suspect she sold them as hatching eggs because they were too ugly to eat, lol.

 

[Rod-T]

Sorry to hear about that @Duck Drover
 have you try to contact the person you got them from again?  Maybe they can provide another set.. or a better set of eggs?

<-- Haven't try incubating since i'm not sure what to do with all the male - guess I can keep naming them stew 1.2.3.4.... or drumstick 1.2.3.4...

For those that hatches chicks.. do you try to sex the chicks right away (like the hatchery does)?  If you do not, does that means you raise the chicks up until they are old enough to tell if male or female? 
Once a chick is determines to be a male... give away, sale, or feed it up to 8 months then stew it? 

I offer a,rooster buyback. .I just give them another chick per rooster brought back

 

[JulesChicks]

Only two of the dozen eggs I bought off Craigslist hatched. The four big ones that look like double yolks never started developing but they are cloudy, not clear, so my daughter left them in with the others. Four look like quitters but since my candler bulbs are both burned out I can only see the air cells and not much detail. There are two that look like they should have hatched with one possibly have pipped internally but there is no movement so I assume they are dead too. They are back in the incubator just in case they are still alive.

Out of the two that hatched neither one looks like an Ameraucana chick. The first one has all white down and white skin while the second one at least has chipmunk markings but white skin. I never would have spent money on these chicks and the eggs cost me $10 so I got scammed. If I had been able to pick up the eggs myself I never would have bought them but I trusted the information in the listing and my husband did not look at the eggs when he picked them up for me. There is no way I will ever get my money out of these chicks because they are worthless. After another day I will open the two developed eggs if they don't hatch to see what colors they are but I doubt they are what I expected either.

That sucks all around. Geez people! If I were to sell eggs they would be my cleanest, best formed eggs. I'm not looking to make a buck though.

I have eggs in the bator going in to their 3rd week - this is my second hatch. First hatch was 3rd week of April - I set 32, pulled 8 infertile (from 2 of my own hens), had 2 early quitters from purchased eggs and wound up hatching out 19 chicks - 5 of the 8 I bought, the rest mine. This time, I bought 21 eggs and I've had to pull 8. Looks like of the 12 Dominique eggs, 4 were either clears or very early quitters. From a different seller, I bought 6 sizzle eggs and she gave me 3 showgirl eggs for free. Wouldn't you know, of the Sizzles I just pulled 4 early quitters and all 3 showgirls (that I didn't really want) are doing fine!

You just never know with hatching what's going to happen - unless you're working with your own flock over time and know mostly what to expect. Well, this may give me room to try another breed, if I want to hatch and brood another round this year. We'll see.

To answer someone's question about what do we do with extra cockerels - well, this is my first year hatching but I'll tell you our plan. Other than the silkies/sizzles who I bought for my son, I raise mostly dual purpose heritage large fowl chickens - so the extra cockerels who do not make the cut for future breeding and have good temperaments, etc, will be raised up to between 16-20 weeks and then processed. Heritage birds take longer to raise than meat birds (8 weeks usually for those if they are cornish cross) but, not usually 8 months unless you get a slower to mature breed.

 

[ochochicas]

Quote: Sorry to both of you that your birds were sick. In my opinion, the birds could have coccidia but are also the perfect age to start showing signs of Marek's disease. Not all Marek's birds have limb paralysis or go blind. Many of them will have internal tumors (or Vagus nerve involvement) which will cause them to start losing weight, not wanting to eat, etc. The only way to know what you are dealing with is to send the birds in for testing.

 

[Chickielady]

I'm going to go on a boat trip with you. I like people who are prepared.

We have a fantastic lunch !