Windy hill chickens - first flock(s) of my own

[cavemanrich]

Not ordering more hatching eggs so I have a bigger group to integrate with the older chicks

Not ordering more hatching eggs so I have a bigger group to integrate with the older chicks

Not ordering more hatching eggs so I have a bigger group to integrate with the older chicks

Do you know that this is the MOST COMMON LIE,,,,,, here on BYC

 

[kattabelly]

Do you know that this is the MOST COMMON LIE,,,,,, here on BYC

The guy I was hatching them for has said he'll still take them even if there's only two, so I'm out of danger (for now)! Both eggs are hatching now but they're both malpositioned (pipped at the pointy end), so I'm monitoring in case I need to assist.

No egg from the pullet today.

 

[cavemanrich]

How are egg prices in your area???
Not long ago,, egg prices in my area were thru the roof. As result,, that caused everyone to panic, and get their own chickens. (silly)
That also cause a shortage of Chicks at hatcheries,, as well as spiked prices.
Has the Avian Flu been a factor in the UK?

Our egg prices are back to normal values in my area. Not speaking for All of the USA.

I just keep 5 Banties, as pets anyways. Only 2 of them lay eggs. and not every day.
We purchase store eggs regularly for our needs. Now that it is HOT,, I bake less, (or nor at all) so my egg needs are not all that much. For our normal egg consumption DW and I can be carried by the banties' eggs.

 

[kattabelly]

How are egg prices in your area???
Not long ago,, egg prices in my area were thru the roof. As result,, that caused everyone to panic, and get their own chickens. (silly)
That also cause a shortage of Chicks at hatcheries,, as well as spiked prices.
Has the Avian Flu been a factor in the UK?

Our egg prices are back to normal values in my area. Not speaking for All of the USA.

I just keep 5 Banties, as pets anyways. Only 2 of them lay eggs. and not every day.
We purchase store eggs regularly for our needs. Now that it is HOT,, I bake less, (or nor at all) so my egg needs are not all that much. For our normal egg consumption DW and I can be carried by the banties' eggs.

I have no idea what supermarket prices are like but I don't think the UK has been affected as much as the USA. I can't eat supermarket eggs these days - they taste disgusting to me more often than not - so I usually buy from people doing farm gate sales* unless I'm doing a load of baking for an event, and they're often selling more to avoid a buildup of surplus eggs than they are to make a profit.

*You have to be registered as an egg producer and often also as a packing centre here to sell e.g. through a local shop but you can do "farm gate" or local door-to-door sales without registration, or sell at a local market if you keep less than 50 birds.

 

[kattabelly]

First chick is out with assistance - don't think it could've hatched unaided from the position it was in - but looked like it was still going through the motions, making unzipping kinda head movements, so I've folded it back into the egg and left it in the inc until it works out that it's hatched. There was some blood but I think just from a minor bleed where it pipped through the wrong part of the membrane, and the yolk is fully absorbed and the navel closed.

Second one pipped later, so I'll leave that a while yet unless it starts sounding really distressed.

 

[kattabelly]

First is out

 

[kattabelly]

 

[Mother of Chaos]

View attachment 4178440

You must be exhausted! What time is it there? 2:12 am? 3:12 am?

 

[kattabelly]

You must be exhausted! What time is it there? 2:12 am? 3:12 am?

It's showing you posted that at 2:13am my time. Almost 7am here now.

First one out has had some water, still too weak and wobbly to really stand up yet but it's getting there with some encouragement. It's pecking a bit, so I'll offer dry crumb and wet mash in a minute once I've finished this coffee.

The second one was also clearly too squashed and tangled to hatch itself, so I've just peeled about half the egg away at the end it pipped and put it back in the inc where hopefully it'll be able to push the rest of the way out itself.

Now would probably be a good time to explain what I do with new chicks. They hate my incubator for some reason. I've never had one hatch and not immediately start lurching about in a blind panic - way more than the usual newly-hatched discombobulation, I mean highly distressed and doing that frantic peep they do when they're very cold or very lost or both - and keep going until they're so exhausted they face-plant hard enough I worry about injury, then start right up again once they've had a short rest. So I started taking chicks out as soon as they're out of the egg. They get wrapped up like a burrito in a cloth that's folded so there's only one thin layer of fabric underneath and most of it is above them, then the chick burrito goes in the neck of my top. They can feel my heartbeat and body heat, and burrow themselves under my chin if they need more warmth or contact. They don't go under a brooder heat plate until they're fluffed up and there's at least two of them to snuggle together. Chicks don't imprint quickly enough or to the extent that it causes issues but I do end up with chicks that seem calm and content right from the start, aren't terrified of being handled and pay attention when I try to copy a hen with my hand and show them that something is food.

(This is all for incubator hatching which is unnatural anyway. If chicks are hatching under a broody then I leave that up to her and only intervene when they do daft things like making secret nests in stupid places and lose half their new babies in the bottom of a ton dumpy bag full of fire wood. I wish that wasn't a real example )

 

[Perris]

How are egg prices in your area???

I have no idea what supermarket prices are like

as it happens this was published a few days ago
https://www.theguardian.com/thefilt...rmarket-free-range-eggs-tasted-rated-tom-hunt

It includes prices, which work out varying from 29 to 63 pence per (all free-range, some organic) egg in the supermarkets included.

Interestingly he said "This was one of the toughest taste tests I’ve done so far... freshness affects the albumen, and yolk colour is now largely engineered through beta carotene-rich feeds such as maize, paprika and marigold. Interestingly, the organic options all had classic sunshine-yellow yolks, in contrast to the vivid orange seen in several non-organic brands. A bold, marigold-orange yolk might be striking, but ultimately it doesn’t tell us all that much about the egg’s flavour. With freshness varying by the box, I boiled all the eggs and scored them instead on what truly counts: taste, provenance and welfare. If you want the best flavour and nutrition, choose eggs with the longest sell-by date in the store."