What's wrong with their feathers?

[LBKS]

Still no new pips. I'm worried that the early hatch of the other chicks might indicate there were some temperature spikes durring incubation.

Upper left is the second chick, hanging out with his new non-project buddies. I'll get a picture of the first chick - it's noticably lighter silver colored.

 

[CatKai]

I don't baby them, no special diets or coops. I also don't have trouble with respiratory stuff with any of my birds. I think the dry incubation is why my hatches go so well. I sent you a pm awhile back. If you want silkied boys let me know. They are going to freezer camp if no one wants them. I have a couple black & several blue silkied chicks I don't need.

Kim you kill me! How on earth do you do it? Get this 11 babies hatched out...two got help...three have already died...8 more under a broody and 4 more under another broody. Btw deb is gonna be coming to Corsicana I lost one very nice splash fluffy....maybe time for a trade....sigh huh two black babies of course one died....no reason not even made it out of the brooder yet....no idea....

 

[ChooksChick]

i have been following this project from about page 3 and now we are on page 239... i think it is really cool and really want some of them... but i have 2 many projects going as it is... i have learned not to over extend my self as bad any more lol... it is the birds/breeds that suffer when u do... give this another year or so and i would love to get some and join in the breeding project... just wanted y'all to know that i am cheering you on and to keep up the good work!!!

Thanks for popping in and letting us know...sometimes it feels like an echo chamber in here!!

Still no new pips. I'm worried that the early hatch of the other chicks might indicate there were some temperature spikes durring incubation.

Upper left is the second chick, hanging out with his new non-project buddies. I'll get a picture of the first chick - it's noticably lighter silver colored.

Good heavens! I hope there are more to hatch!

I don't baby them, no special diets or coops. I also don't have trouble with respiratory stuff with any of my birds. I think the dry incubation is why my hatches go so well. I sent you a pm awhile back. If you want silkied boys let me know. They are going to freezer camp if no one wants them. I have a couple black & several blue silkied chicks I don't need.
Quote:
I wonder if the humidity of your region isn't part of the puzzle...Julie was down there in TX, too...It's humid as can possibly be here in NE Kansas.

 

[CatKai]

I am about 5 hours north of Cyndy so we don't have near as much humidity but we do have it enough to complain about.

 

[LBKS]

I don't baby them, no special diets or coops. I also don't have trouble with respiratory stuff with any of my birds. I think the dry incubation is why my hatches go so well. I sent you a pm awhile back. If you want silkied boys let me know. They are going to freezer camp if no one wants them. I have a couple black & several blue silkied chicks I don't need.

On your roosters, were they pick-up only?

 

[CatKai]

Yes pick up or meet in the area. Unless Cyndy wants to get them from me and ship to you. I don't want to mess with shipping birds. They have not gone anywhere yet but need to soon. PM me if there is interest, would have to run it by Cyndy, she may not want to mess with it...

 

[chick-among-us]

Yes pick up or meet in the area. Unless Cyndy wants to get them from me and ship to you. I don't want to mess with shipping birds. They have not gone anywhere yet but need to soon. PM me if there is interest, would have to run it by Cyndy, she may not want to mess with it...

Yes I do, yes I do,yes I do!!!! We can meet you in Corsicana or where ever....tell me when!! Tell me where....I think my last fluffy hen is dying....she has a very high fever and even if she doesn't die we think she is defiantly blind. Which on a bird that has had sight will interrupt her laying cycle. I have one splash fluffy for you Kim sure more on the way....12 eggs under broodies...as I am desperately trying to keep my project going. I'll take everything you don't want and any fluffy girls I can afford IF you have ones you don't need...I can trade ya my splash for something...dunno what it is yet....but it is a nice splash.seems there may be another in the little baby brooder....I think...oh got some pics too...


Gotta figure how to post them on my iPad grrrrr


https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/i/5728654/splash-fluffy/sort/display_order/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/i/5728653/sort/display_order

https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/i/5728651/sort/display_order

 

[CatKai]

Silkied girls I am not going to be letting go of. I don't need anymore in a trade, I have a bunch of silkied growing out. So many that I stopped hatching them... Cyndy are you interested in shipping? Jon can bring them to Corsicana probably as soon as the 18th, need to check with him.

Yes I do, yes I do,yes I do!!!! We can meet you in Corsicana or where ever....tell me when!! Tell me where....I think my last fluffy hen is dying....she has a very high fever and even if she doesn't die we think she is defiantly blind. Which on a bird that has had sight will interrupt her laying cycle. I have one splash fluffy for you Kim sure more on the way....12 eggs under broodies...as I am desperately trying to keep my project going. I'll take everything you don't want and any fluffy girls I can afford IF you have ones you don't need...I can trade ya my splash for something...dunno what it is yet....but it is a nice splash.seems there may be another in the little baby brooder....I think...oh got some pics too...


Gotta figure how to post them on my iPad grrrrr

 

[LBKS]

Glad the roosters found homes instead of going to freezer camp! It would have been a long drive for me anyhow, just didn't want them to go to waste.

I'm giving the eggs until end of next Wednesday to hatch just to be extra sure, but it's not looking good - I candled while adding more water to the hatcher and saw no movement. I'm pretty sure the cause of this poor hatch rate lies in my incubation/hatch conditions as there were a lot of rockers going into the lock-down. I won't know for sure until eggtopsies are done, but I am willing to bet it was most likely a temperature spike or an air cell size problem that was the root cause of the disaster. (I think it was a temperature issue, but air cell size issues would also kill at that stage too so I'm not ruling it out.)

I've dropped the incubators for the out-cross groups to the lower end of the hatching temperature range until I can figure out what caused the poor hatch rates. We'll see if that improves things; I hate that my lack of skill may well have doomed a lot of chicks

If I can get the air quality and humidity issues fixed in the basement, it'd be a far better location to hatch given it's stable temperature.


For those of you on to the breeding program side of things, do you just follow a breeding pattern or do you factor in the relationship coefficient when trying to keep the level of inbreeding low? (For the formula for the coefficient, here's one source I think does a good job of explaining it: http://www.genetic-genealogy.co.uk/Toc115570144.html) I'd like to track this just to see how much it correlates to other measures of health/vigor, plus it's nice to have a metric to benchmark against so I can aim to get that value low and keep it low.

 

[CatKai]

Cyndy can ship to you if you want one. All my extras last year went to freezer camp. I don't plan to keep many silkied boys.