What’s the worst luck you’ve had?

[julskinka]

I generally consider myself to have pretty terrible luck in matters of chance (I will ALWAYS lose a dice-rolling game, for instance), so I generally avoid gambling. Knowing this, I weighted my chances heavily when we did a hatch back in April. 16 weeks later I’m marvelling at how terribly it all worked out! The hatch itself was ok for using shipped eggs, but the total number of pullets I currently have alive is ridiculous. I am curious whether anyone can make me feel better by telling me they had something work out this disappointingly? (Haha?)

The Goal: 3-4 pullets to keep for ourselves + one roo, and a few pullets + a roo each to give to a friend and a relative, if there were enough. Extra roos would be given away or be food.
I especially wanted at least just one pullet of the following:
- blue egg layer
- chocolate egg layer
- olive egger

The Plan:
Set 36 shipped eggs from two sources and 12 local eggs one one source, for 48 eggs total. Thinking was, assume a 50% hatch rate = 25 babies, and 50% of those being pullets = 12 pullets, means 4 for me, 4 for a friend, 4 for a relative. I understood it was unlikely to breakdown exactly like this, so I had both backup homes in case of extras, and relative/friend understanding they might not get anything.

To achieve my above goals, the eggs included:
Blue eggs
-5 Cream legbars (local)
-2 Ameraucanas
-3 Super blue egg layers
-4 Ameriflowers
-3 Green magnolias
-9 Easter eggers
Chocolate eggs
-3 Welsummers
-5 FBCM
-5 Blue/Black Copper marans (local)
-3 Super chocolate egg layers
Olive eggs
-2 olive eggers (local)
-3 olive eggers (shipped)
-1 Favaucana


The Hatch Result:
....To Be Continued

 

[julskinka]

The Hatch Result:
-26 went into lockdown. (22 were clears or early quitters.)
-17 hatched. (9 were dead in shell due to humidity issues and malpositions)
-15 survived the first few days (The two that died were the two Super blues that went into lockdown)

Of those, ALL the autosexing/sex-links (several of the EEs were sex-links) were male, with the lone exception of a single Welsummer. Kindly, the local person who sold me the CCL eggs traded out the two males I hatched for two pullets.

So I hatched/ended up with:
Blue egg layers
-2 CCL males (traded for females)
-2 EE sex-link males
-2 EE ??
Chocolate egg layers
-1 Welsummer female
-3 FBCM ??
-1 Super chocolate egg layer
Olive eggs
-3 Olive eggers ??
-1 Favaucana ??

At this point I’m frustrated and saddened by the losses, but feel like we could end up with a number of pullets that meets our goals, especially since the local guy was nice enough to trade out the male CCLs for females!
However.... my luck kept coming.

Final Result:
...To Be Continued

 

[BlackHackle]

I generally consider myself to have pretty terrible luck in matters of chance

The worst luck I've had was spending $600 on an import of Light Sussex and ending up with only three roosters surviving

 

[julskinka]

The worst luck I've had was spending $600 on an import of Light Sussex and ending up with only three roosters surviving

That stinks!!!!

 

[Harmony Fowl]

I spent only a fraction of what BlackHackle did, but similar results. 41 eggs, five hatched, one died, the remaining four were roosters.

Similarly, I just tried a dozen guinea eggs. Eight infertile, only one hatched, a snake ate it on day 2.

But there have been way more good ones than bad ones.

 

[julskinka]

Similarly, I just tried a dozen guinea eggs. Eight infertile, only one hatched, a snake ate it on day 2.

But there have been way more good ones than bad ones.

I'm not gonna lie - this made me laugh out loud. I'm sorry you had a rough batch too, but thanks for cheering me up! I hope someone finds humour in my situation as well.

 

[julskinka]

The Hatch Result:
-26 went into lockdown. (22 were clears or early quitters.)
-17 hatched. (9 were dead in shell due to humidity issues and malpositions)
-15 survived the first few days (The two that died were the two Super blues that went into lockdown)

Of those, ALL the autosexing/sex-links (several of the EEs were sex-links) were male, with the lone exception of a single Welsummer. Kindly, the local person who sold me the CCL eggs traded out the two males I hatched for two pullets.

So I hatched/ended up with:
Blue egg layers
-2 CCL males (traded for females)
-2 EE sex-link males
-2 EE ??
Chocolate egg layers
-1 Welsummer female
-3 FBCM ??
-1 Super chocolate egg layer
Olive eggs
-3 Olive eggers ??
-1 Favaucana ??

At this point I’m frustrated and saddened by the losses, but feel like we could end up with a number of pullets that meets our goals, especially since the local guy was nice enough to trade out the male CCLs for females!
However.... my luck kept coming.

Final Result:
...To Be Continued

The Final Result (as of 16 weeks):
Remember my list?

Blue egg layers
-2 CCL females (swapped out for the boys I hatched).
BOTH DEAD. (One from a pecking injury that lead to wry neck which led to an eye infection that went septic, the other from what I think was coccidiosis)
-2 EE sex-link males
STILL MALES.
-2 EEs ??
ALSO BOTH MALES
Chocolate egg layers
-1 Welsummer female.
SHE'S COOL. I NAMED HER JABBERWOCK.
-3 FBCM ??
TWO MALES. I did get one pullet (Baguette)!
-1 Super chocolate egg layer
MALE
Olive eggs
-3 Olive eggers ??
ONE IS MALE. Of the two remaining pullets, one seems to be dying of a weird skin infection on her wing.
-1 Favaucana ??
F%^#$^#$^$ MALE

TLDR
So, I hatched out 4 pullets from 48 eggs. Someone was kind enough to replace two of the cockerels with two pullets, but they were both sickly and ended up dying. One of the 4 pullets is probably going to die. None of the males have sustained any injuries or infections. ONLY THE PULLETS. I wanted a blue egg, a chocolate egg, and an olive egg, and I've got two chocolates (Welsummer and FBCM) and two olives (one if she really does die). No blue eggs at all, which is the thing I wanted most. I guess this is a lesson to be grateful that I got anything at all!

 

[Harmony Fowl]

I'm not gonna lie - this made me laugh out loud. I'm sorry you had a rough batch too, but thanks for cheering me up! I hope someone finds humour in my situation as well.

My bad guinea luck goes even further. I had four keets to start with I'd purchased after hatching. I killed two with spoiled food. I do still have the other two. Then came the bad dozen where none made it. My last batch was good: 14 eggs, 13 fertile, 13 hatched, lost two tiny ones that never thrived in the first week, the remaining 11 are great AND I got lots of nice color variation.

Keep trying for those blue eggs! Hatching is addictive!

 

[julskinka]

My bad guinea luck goes even further. I had four keets to start with I'd purchased after hatching. I killed two with spoiled food. I do still have the other two. Then came the bad dozen where none made it. My last batch was good: 14 eggs, 13 fertile, 13 hatched, lost two tiny ones that never thrived in the first week, the remaining 11 are great AND I got lots of nice color variation.

Keep trying for those blue eggs! Hatching is addictive!

I’m glad to hear you had a good hatch! It gives me hope. I would love to try again with just some CLs and Ameraucanas, but considering how much money went down the drain with the last batch I don’t know if I can justify it My daughter and I did it as an experiment and for her 4H, but I think I ended up having as much fun (and heartbreak) as her.

 

[TAM Farm]

My first time hatching I used an incubator I ordered 16 eggs. Olive eggers, marans, and cream legbars, they were shipped. Three eggs made it to lockdown. An olive egger and two CCL. The CCL hatched both pullets. They should start laying anytime.

The second time I drove an hour and a half and picked up 12 eggs. Only two hatched they were late and died within the next week.

I decided I was a poor incubator so again I drove the hour and a half to get hatching eggs and I gave them to my broody. The goats trampled through her nest and crushed one of the eggs. 4 hatched, one I never saw the chick because something got it. One additional chick half zipped but didn't make it out. So I got three, two are cockerels and one pullet. I found the pullet dead in the coop a few weeks ago.

Fortunately my source that I found that is an hour and a half away also sells chicks. I have had pretty good luck with them. She even had a CCL cockerel that I purchased for my girls.