Yet another question for hatching season

[TinyRaptorDodos]

What does everyone look for in chicks? I keep logs of all my girls and my boy but I’m not sure what details I’m missing/aren’t necessary. These are my logs, thoughts?

They would be printed and laminated then have normal copies incase anyone wants to take them home. I plan to section off the eggs in the incubator and use some chalk or non-toxic paint to add a little color dot on their back to tell them apart. I’m starting off very small and unprofessional but this is hopefully the start to a professional chicken breeding side career.

The egg log is to help me tell them apart but I plan to add all those details so the buyers know at least a little of what they’re getting. I would have the chicks labeled as “barnyard mixes, good genetic temperaments, colored layer variety” if that doesn’t sound too long?

I forgot to add the details of the rooster but I’ll be adding those, basically just saying he’s the first rooster I’ve had that is this friendly but is kind of loud

 

[Debbie292d]

Keeping logs is important! Too many times I've forgotten what an age of a chicken is, and I can go look up their hatch dates. I didn't do that at first, so here we are 7 years later with a couple of chickens I know are old, but that's all I know. It's good to keep track too if you're into selling so you mix up the genes every so often to avoid causing a weak strain of chicks.

People I've seen use acronyms for a lot of things so BYM might be for barnyard mix or make up your own codes and have a key for it.

You can also use watercolor markers to mark them.

If you want a place to post this info and pictures, I just recently started a thread here, to help me keep track.

Good luck!

 

[SourRoses]

Logs are great!

Personally, especially since the number of chickens in a line will increase over time, I like to capture the details in as few words as possible.
So like:
"Kit-Kat - Chocolate. F2 English Orpington / Leghorn. Jumbo, cream eggs, 5 per week. Calm but aloof. Tail too narrow. Straight comb. White skin."

Then if I want to add a story about a particular chicken I write it separate and link back to the cliff notes version.

I once made a thread here asking about software for keeping breeding notes, because my notebooks are such a mess. There were some good ideas, but I ended up using a writing software I already had - Scrivener. It's perfect because of the organization offered. I can do a separate little page for each chicken (with pictures), and put them all in a "chapter" renamed "Hens" and one for "Roosters". Then, in what would have been the other chapters, I have a outline for the project, pages for the relevant Genetics, and so on. It's easy to drag and drop pages out of chapters and chapters separate from the whole "book" like I did with the genetics notes. Hope that makes sense.